We’re here at Body Works Sports Physiotherapy with Holly, who’s a high level Field Hockey player. She’s got some tightness in her hip flexors, so we’re going to do some pressure point release with a ball in the front of her hip. This is the Psoas, or hip flexor muscle.

To do this at home:

Bring the ball down just in front of your hip bone area. It will feel like when you put your hands onto your hip bone, and you’ll find it pretty tender and tight in there.
In this position you want to be careful not to over arch the back, so rest your forehead on your hands to take some stress off the lower back. This way you can just use pressure at the front of the hip to try to help it release.
You might need to move around a little bit to find the right spot. Usually where it’s tight, it’s tender.
Move away from any pulse feeling that you have there, to be sure you’re not putting any pressure on an artery. It’s pretty rare to do that, but just to be safe
Once you’ve found that the pressure is releasing things, do a bit of movement. In this position it’s a little awkward to do too much rolling on the ball, but even a bit of movement forward and back helps the muscle release.

You would do this for 1-2 minutes, depending on how long it takes for that hip flexor muscle let go and relax. Usually that would mean it’s less tender when you’re rolling on it.

If you have any other questions just give us a call at Body Works Sports Physiotherapy.