Hip Flexors. OUCH

We had a foot of snow in the Tug Hill region of NY last weekend, and I
managed to get out for about 2 hours of easy classic skiing. The snow
has since melted, but my hip flexors are still VERY sore. This happens
every year after my first classic adventure, and in fact it seems to
get a little worse every year as I get older. Is there any kind of
exercise other than skiing (or roller skiing) that works the hip
flexors, so that one can ease into the ski season without all the pain?
The classic stride seems to be the only exercise I do that works those
weird muscles.

Thanks,
Onno Oerlemans

Uh, stretching? Everyday and after exercise. I've found the latter
really helps minimize injuries and soreness. A google search on "hip
flexors stretch" will give some good ideas, including listed as for
skiing (one I do on my back).

Gene

"Onno61" wrote:

We had a foot of snow in the Tug Hill region of NY last weekend, and I
managed to get out for about 2 hours of easy classic skiing. The snow
has since melted, but my hip flexors are still VERY sore. This happens
every year after my first classic adventure, and in fact it seems to
get a little worse every year as I get older. Is there any kind of
exercise other than skiing (or roller skiing) that works the hip
flexors, so that one can ease into the ski season without all the
pain? The classic stride seems to be the only exercise I do that
works those weird muscles.

Thanks,
Onno Oerlemans

I'm not a great skiier, but I am a great massage therapist. Stretching is
one of the best things you can do after to prevent soreness, warming up
properly before the the other best thing. Stretch all year, not just during
ski season. It's getting worse every year because you aren't doing anything
to improve it. 10-15 minutes a day should show improvement fairly quickly.
If you don't have 10-15 minutes, do your stretches during the commercials of
whatever TV shows you watch, a half hour show will give enough commercial
time to work your hips, quads and hamstrings. An hour show will give you
enough time to stretch your whole body. There are plenty of good internet
sites that can clue you into good stretching routines.

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
et...
Uh, stretching? Everyday and after exercise. I've found the latter
really helps minimize injuries and soreness. A google search on "hip
flexors stretch" will give some good ideas, including listed as for
skiing (one I do on my back).

Gene

"Onno61" wrote:

We had a foot of snow in the Tug Hill region of NY last weekend, and I
managed to get out for about 2 hours of easy classic skiing. The snow
has since melted, but my hip flexors are still VERY sore. This happens
every year after my first classic adventure, and in fact it seems to
get a little worse every year as I get older. Is there any kind of
exercise other than skiing (or roller skiing) that works the hip
flexors, so that one can ease into the ski season without all the
pain? The classic stride seems to be the only exercise I do that
works those weird muscles.

Thanks,
Onno Oerlemans

My problem has always been the groin muscles after the first classic ski
outing - and I do stretch all year. Just haven't found a stretch that seems
to hit the right muscles. And yes, I do the one where you sit on the floor,
put the soles of your feet together, lean forward and press your knees down.
Anyone else found something that actually works?

Kathy

"Jessica Chadwick" wrote in message
. net...
I'm not a great skiier, but I am a great massage therapist. Stretching is
one of the best things you can do after to prevent soreness, warming up
properly before the the other best thing. Stretch all year, not just
during ski season. It's getting worse every year because you aren't doing
anything to improve it. 10-15 minutes a day should show improvement
fairly quickly. If you don't have 10-15 minutes, do your stretches during
the commercials of whatever TV shows you watch, a half hour show will give
enough commercial time to work your hips, quads and hamstrings. An hour
show will give you enough time to stretch your whole body. There are
plenty of good internet sites that can clue you into good stretching
routines.

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
et...
Uh, stretching? Everyday and after exercise. I've found the latter
really helps minimize injuries and soreness. A google search on "hip
flexors stretch" will give some good ideas, including listed as for
skiing (one I do on my back).

Gene

"Onno61" wrote:

We had a foot of snow in the Tug Hill region of NY last weekend, and I
managed to get out for about 2 hours of easy classic skiing. The snow
has since melted, but my hip flexors are still VERY sore. This happens
every year after my first classic adventure, and in fact it seems to
get a little worse every year as I get older. Is there any kind of
exercise other than skiing (or roller skiing) that works the hip
flexors, so that one can ease into the ski season without all the
pain? The classic stride seems to be the only exercise I do that
works those weird muscles.

Thanks,
Onno Oerlemans

There is an excellent groin stretch in Michael Alter's sports stretch
book.I can't really describe other than to say you are on your knees
with the lower legs flat to the ground. You push your hips to the
ground, and you can really feel it.
Also, though I can't tolerate too much yoga because I get bored... the
standing series for Ashtanga pretty much hits all the major areas for
skiing, including the hip and groin.

This year I did lots more ski-walking and dryland training,
concentrating on simulating a good kick, and was able to make the
transition without any soreness.

Chris

Seems to me that ski-simulation-walking / bounding and running are obvious
summer-season exercises to train the hip-flexors. But I don't like those
because of the impact stress on my knees and ankles. So . . .

For building endurance and lactate-threshold in hip-flexor muscles, an
exercise I do is bicycling using only one leg. When seated on a bicycle, the
hip-flexion motion raises the knee-joint, and with it much of the weight of
the leg, which is real work.

The problem with two-legged bicycle pedaling is that most of us naturally do
not use our hip-flexors much, and instead use the downward-push by the
left leg on the other pedal to lift up the mass of the right leg. So the
right leg gets a "free ride", instead of getting trained to lift its own
weight. (which means that some of my main downward leg-push is going into
lifting my other leg, instead of driving me and my bicycle forward faster.)

Once you learn the feel of using the right hip-flexor muscles to lift the
weight of their own right leg, you can also train the hip-flexors in
two-legged pedaling. (though I usually find my legs getting lazy about
taking the "free ride" upward).

Here's some other exercises for hip flexors, perhaps focused more on
building strength:
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/Hip...#anchor1938598
Though I'm not sure why strength in the hip-flexors should be of much
importance for XC skiing.

Ken

P.S. Another muscle move that can be trained in single-leg bicycling is
ankle dorsi-flexion: pulling my toe up toward my knee, which is how it feels
in bicycling. The other way to look at this is that I'm driving my knee down
toward my toe, which sounds like what some coaches have been talking about
as the "secret key" for leg-power in ski-skating in the last year or two.

I do that stretch on my back, so it becomes dual purpose. There's also
the standing adductor stretch, and a little strengthening on machines
in the gym. Do you rollerski? Even if you do, I think a little
soreness is inevitable after the first ski because the intensity of
muscle use on snow is greater.

Gene

"Kathy" wrote:

My problem has always been the groin muscles after the first classic
ski outing - and I do stretch all year. Just haven't found a stretch
that seems to hit the right muscles. And yes, I do the one where you
sit on the floor, put the soles of your feet together, lean forward
and press your knees down. Anyone else found something that actually
works?

Ken Roberts wrote:

For building endurance and lactate-threshold in hip-flexor muscles, an
exercise I do is bicycling using only one leg. When seated on a bicycle, the
hip-flexion motion raises the knee-joint, and with it much of the weight of
the leg, which is real work.


Great idea. I'll try that. Since I start to ride inside on the trainer
in late fall just before ski season, this is a great time and place to
do some one-legged riding.

Though I'm not sure why strength in the hip-flexors should be of much
importance for XC skiing.

I'm not sure why either. I never feel tired in that muscle--just feel a
lot of pain in the days after the first real classic ski. Skating
doesn't have the same effect. I imagine it's from pushing the ski
forward after the kick, and in a sense lifting the ski.

Onno

On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 08:36:53 -0500, "Kathy"
wrote:

My problem has always been the groin muscles after the first classic ski
outing - and I do stretch all year. Just haven't found a stretch that seems
to hit the right muscles. And yes, I do the one where you sit on the floor,
put the soles of your feet together, lean forward and press your knees down.
Anyone else found something that actually works?

If the skiing you (or Onno) is doing is not taking you beyond your
easy range of motion, then more stretching can't be the answer. It
has to be to strengthen the muscles that get sore.

JFT

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Onno wrote
I imagine it's from pushing the ski forward after
the kick, and in a sense lifting the ski.

Yes I think that's the move in classic diagonal stride that's using the hip
flexors.

When I say that I don't see why strength is important for that, I mean
"strength" in the narrow sense of the maximum force those muscles can exert
in a single repetition (or small number of repetitions, say not more than
five). The weight of the ski and the leg is what it is -- there's no benefit
in having hip flexors so strong they could move ten times that weight.

Seems to me the key attribute to train for the hip flexor muscles in classic
striding is rather "endurance": being able to move that limited weight
thousands of times in a performance.

Ken