“Do tight hip flexors cause lower back pain?”

Tight hip flexors can be the cause of lower back pain. Ask your chiropractor if they are the root cause of the problem or just a result.

Tight hip flexors can absolutely be a major part of lower back pain. Sometimes when the iliopsoas muscle gets too tight or becomes shortened, the increased tension on the lower back can irritate the joints of the lumbar spine, lower thoracic spine, or even the SI joints. Often times, tight hip flexor muscles are not the only reason for pain. If there is some degeneration in the spine from a pre-existing injury, disc herniation, or congenital abnormality, tightness in the hip flexors can compress and irritate these existing issues causing pain that would not otherwise occur. Fortunately, most of the time it is a pretty simple issue to fix with some simple stretches and exercises. Ask your musculoskeletal practitioner about testing hip flexor tension and if appropriate a manual release. There should always be home exercises to do for this also.

Yes. They can be part of the problem.

They, esp. Psoas, certainly can be important. Ice, cat and camel, deep tissue massage into Iliopsoas will all help.

Yes, tight hip flexors can contribute to low back pain as they wrap around the back. Stretching these muscles and seeking out chiropractic care can be of great benefit to those who have low back pain.

Thank you for your question. When there is biomechanical dysfunction there can be an imbalance in muscle tightness and structure in the spine. So, there can definitely be a correlation, but the cause usually comes from the spinal issues. In order to determine if there is spinal damage, xrays are necessary.

It can be one of the causes of low back pain over time. Due to where the hip flexors attach onto the pelvis, when they are tight we can get pulling on the hips creating something called a pelvic tilt. Studies show that this can create tension in the low back over time. Chiropractic can help with this.