Even the most athletic of us in today’s age are bound to spend a considerable amount of time sitting down. If you’re someone with a desk job, you’re likely to be sitting down for more than three-quarters of the day. When you are sitting down quite a lot, it can cause a great deal of stress to the shoulders, spine and even the hips! Why? Well, the human body wasn’t designed to spend so much time idle, and on their backsides, instead, it was designed for heavy movement and gruelling physical activity. As a result of the sedentary pace of our lives, most of our hip flexors have degenerated and aren’t as strong as they should be.
Have you ever felt a pinching sensation of sorts near the front of your hips during situps with your feet all hooked up? Well, that’s a direct result of your hip flexors having little to no engagement in your daily life. The hip flexors are made of a muscle group that includes around twelve muscles. These muscles come together to help you raise up your thighs, and even your chest when you’re raising it to your thighs. When they’re not given enough movement or when they’re left unused, the hip flexors shorten and become weak. Compared to other muscle groups, the hip flexors are smaller and less well-known. However, right from running and jumping, to dancing and even lighting weights, this muscle group is essential for movement and range of motion.
There are many well-known exercises for your abs, belly fat, core muscles, and even buttocks – but
you must have rarely heard of an exercise regime that focuses on opening up the hip flexors. This is why the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ program by Rick Kaselj and Mike Westerdal has caught our eye.
According to the creators, this program has been designed in such a way that it serves to strengthen this otherwise-ignored muscle group. They also state that using this product will help in the elimination of back and joint pain while contributing to an overall improvement of posture. Apart from these, the product is supposed to help with many other things such as your immunity and overall energy levels.
Sounds like too much of a stretch? Could it possibly be a scam?
We thought so too! That’s why we set out to review this product and check out if its claims rang true. In this review of Unlock Your Hip Flexors, we’ll take a look at this product in-depth to help you assert if it is worth investing in a copy for yourself.
What Do Hip Flexors Do?
Your hip flexors are a group of several muscles that cause a flexion movement to bring together your trunk and legs. These muscles permit you to move your knee or legs up towards the torso. They also help you bend your torso forward from your hips. While these muscles are integral to so many different activities, they are often ignored purely because enough people don’t know about them.
Most importantly, when these muscles lie ignored, they are more likely to experience tears or heavy strain when you make any sudden movements. Even falls are dangerous for these muscles and may cause lasting damage and strain.
As far as it goes to the actual job of the hip flexors, they are for the flexion. Flexion refers to ‘pulling together’. When flexor muscles contract, they tend to draw together two bones helping in the bending of joints, When it comes to your hip flexors, these muscles draw the leg bones and the bones of the hip together. If your hip has already been flexed, these muscles aren’t being worked. Usually, this happens when you’re sitting down.
This is why a sedentary lifestyle is the fastest way of ending up with tightened or weak hip flexors. The primary reason or this is that such a lifestyle keeps the flexors in a shortened position, not harnessing their true potential. With weakened or tightened hip flexors, you will experience problems such as back pain, limited range of motion, hip pain, poor posture, and it will even make you prone to more injuries. The best way to combat these risks is to give the hip flexor muscles a good workout with basic movements like climbing stairs, leg raises, running, jogging, or even riding a stationary bicycle.
Which Muscles Make Up The Hip Flexors?
The following muscles in your body come together to make up the hip flexors.
Rectus Femoris Muscle: This muscle is an integral part of the four key quadriceps muscles that attach your pelvis to your knees by way of the patellar tendon. The best way to engage this muscle is with lunges and squats.
Iliacus Muscle: This is a triangular and flat muscle which lies in the deeper ends of your pelvis. It is attached from the thighbone to your pelvis, and its primary function is to allow rotation and flexing in your thighs.
Psoas Major Muscle: This is a deep muscle that acts as the connector between the leg and the spine, and it is the only muscle that performs this integral function. Psoas Major muscle runs through the pelvis from the lower back, and it passes to the front of the hips where it will meet the thighbone known as the femur.
Pectineus Muscle: This is a quadrangular muscle which lies flat on the top of the inner thigh. It is usually known among the public as your groin muscle. The flat pectineus muscle is primarily responsible for hip flexion as well as rotating your adducts and thighs. Basically, it pulls together your legs when your muscles contract, enabling movement.
Sartorius Muscle: The long and thin sartorius muscle runs down from the pelvis to the knee, all through the length of the thigh. Additionally, it also helps in flexing the leg and knee during movement. Many people don’t know that it is also the longest muscle in our body.
While you use these muscle for a wide variety of activities, they are usually ignored as they aren’t among the most talked-about muscles. Many people don’t know just how important they are when it comes to bending, walking, running, twisting, or even stepping. This is why it is important to keep your hip flexors well-exercised at all times.
Why Should I Worry About Tight Hip Flexors?
By now, you must have understood that your hip flexor muscles are an important muscle group in more ways than one. It is obvious that tight hip flexors will hinder every activity you undertake right from simply walking or jogging to more complex movements like weight lifting and dancing. Apart from this, weak or tight hip flexors will also cause a wide variety of problems to your health such as:
- Digestive trouble and discomfort.
- Problems in balancing the body.
- Pain in your joints and the back.
- Difficulty in movements such as running and jogging.
- Insomnia and poor sleep patterns.
- Painful discomfort in the hip area.
- Weakened Immune System.
- A loss of sexual desire and sex drive.
- Cardio-vascular issues and heart-related problems.
- Locked hips and the resulting hip pain.
- Increased likelihood of injury while exercising or playing sports.
As you must have noticed by now, these symptoms are in the broad range, and millions of people across the globe suffer from these symptoms. However, not many of them are likely to realize that these are as a result of tight hip flexors. In fact, many people don’t realize that tight hip flexors can impact health overall, and not just in the hip-pelvis area.
How To Look Out For Tight Hip Flexors?
By now, you must have realized that tight hip flexors are the devil and that they can impact the quality of your life severely. However, in order to combat the problem of tight hip flexors, all you need to do are some stretches that will help open up and unlock the potential of these muscles. That’s how easy it is!
But how will you know whether your hip flexors are locked or weakened? Here are some tell-tale signs of tight hip flexors:
- You have stiff or tight hips and feel the strain constantly.
- You have trouble moving your hips freely during exercises like lunging, stretching, running or even cycling.
- Your posture has a forward-side lean, or you sway back due to a tilted pelvis. Bad posture, in general, is a tell-tale sign.
- The muscles that are in the front of the hips tend to be sore all the time, or they feel tender to touch.
If you have trouble with any of these, you may be suffering from tight hip flexors. However, no need to worry! In this review, we will be looking at how ‘Unlock your Hip Flexors’ trick can help in more ways than one.
Why Do I Need ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ If I Can Just Google Stretches That Will Help Me?
This is surely a question that may have crossed your mind. But we’re strictly against doing any exercises or stretches you simply picked up off the internet. The main reason for this is that ree information available online may be written by just about anybody and may not take into account the various differences of your unique physiology.
Additionally, the information on stretches that you get online may give you the theory and logic behind the movements, but actually teaching you to do them correctly is a little outside its scope. With the case of any exercise, the proper form is the most important thing in ensuring that you get the best benefits. Simply performing a movement, and doing that movement with the supervision and guidance of an expert is completely different. By choosing just to follow along blindly, you risk injuries and worsening your condition. Instead, for the best results, following along to a certified professional’s advice is your best bet.
Who Are Rick Kaselj and Mike Westerdal?
Rick Kaselj is a specialist and certified in dealing with sports injuries. This US-based trainer and Kinesiologist is well-versed in this field and has extensive knowledge in dealing with bodies that suffer from some or the other ailment that hamper movement. He is known among sports circles as someone who works hard to keep his clientele fit and healthy with reliable and well-researched tips. Moreover, as someone who deals with athletes and sportspeople, he has seen all kinds of injuries and also become an expert at dealing with the rehabilitation of the same.
Kaselj has given 300+ live presentation to over 8000 health care professionals in the USA and even neighbouring Canada. This goes to show his expertise in the field of fitness and athletic rehabilitation.
The co-creator of this product, Mike Westerdal, is another health fanatic who has spent years researching how the body works and how it is possible to remain fit through the right balance of food and exercise. He is a certified health fanatic who regularly collaborates with the biggest YouTube Fitness channels to give out useful information for achieving your health goals.
Kaselj had actually helped Mike Westerdal’s wife with discomfort and chronic pain that riddled her hips. It had taken no more than a mere fifteen minutes for the kinesiologist to unlock her hips, and that left Mike completely impressed about the techniques used by Kaselj. They then teamed up together to create the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ program to help others in the same situation make the most of these techniques.
What Exactly Is The Unlock Your Hip Flexors Program?
As the name itself suggests ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ is a program that focuses on teaching you exercises and stretches that will help in opening up weak or tight hip flexors. This program will teach you how you can open up the hip flexor muscles for pain relief, improved flexibility, enhanced mobility and an overall improvement in your health and well-being. Since the makers of this program have designed it in such a way, it is a simple enough regime that you can follow along successfully.
Here is what you will receive with the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ Program.
- A DVD that includes around ten speciality exercise to help you activate the muscles of your hip flexors. They are packed with information on proper form, and with the right coaching.
- The program also includes a manual that is equipped with highly-targeted stretches for the hip flexor group of muscles. Along with this section, you’ll receive content that talks about the effects of muscle shortening on your overall wellbeing and health.
- The 63-page manual also comes with detailed descriptions and relevant pictures to help you stretch without the risk of injury or worsening your condition.
- Bonus One: Unlock Your Hamstrings – We’ve told you that tight psoas muscles are susceptible to tears and injuries. The same is the case with your hamstrings. Hamstrings, which are responsible for all the movements of your legs, may be extremely painful in cases of tears and will definitely hamper your ability to move. With this bonus, you can prevent this pain by practising the right stretches and exercises.
- Bonus Two: Seven Day Anti-Inflammatory Diet – This customized nutrition program is an excellent addition to your regime. It comes equipped with meal plans, dietary recommendations, sample grocery shopping lists, and supplement tips to equip your body to heal itself from the inside-out.
The best part about the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ program is that the information in it is well-researched, and consequently, it is reliable. The quality of the information in this product is undoubtedly excellent, and many users – across all ages and activity levels – are bound to find it useful.
Moreover, the creators have ensured that they stress on the ‘how’ of hip flexors and their impact on your health. They have dedicated an entire section on describing how this muscle group can virtually make or break the overall quality of your life and aid you in having a healthy and fit body. With basics of the biomechanics of the hip flexors and a little background on anatomy, even a novice will be able to accurately understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the stretches and exercises in this program.
Pros of the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ Program
Let’s take a look at the best benefits of the program developed by Rick Kaselj and Mike Westerdal.
Comprehensive Manual
When you undertake any exercise or aerobic activity, it is necessary to do it properly to prevent injuries. So, the fact that this program comes equipped with a comprehensive manual detailing the right form and posture is a great plus. Not only are there detailed pictures, but text and video format content ensure that you don’t bungle up as easily. If you’re someone trying to do a stretch or movement, the two formats will help you perfect it and gain the best benefit from the movement. In our opinion, the video is the best way to take care of preventing unwanted strain or injury.
Some important information includes the ‘structural balance’ section of the book that will guide you on improving posture and movement so as to prevent degeneration of your structure with age.
Low Time Commitment
We know that there is no lack of the right products out there in the market. However, in most cases, these programs demand a longer time commitment from you to be as effective as their claims. With the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ program, even the busiest among us can enjoy the benefits of exercise without having to dedicate ungodly hours to perfecting a routine. Even if you find between 10 to fifteen minutes each day, it will suffice to get the desired results and enjoy better mobility.
Cost Effective and Economical
Usually, a simple and effective home workout video crafted by industry experts will set you back a few hundred dollars, if not more. However, what we like about this program is its low price. With a cost f less than 30 dollars, this product won’t require you to wait till the end of the month to purchase. Additionally, given how much theoretical information the creators have included, it isn’t a lot to just cough up the tens and place your order.
Versatile Program Content
If you’re a novice, or even if you’ve been a gym rat since forever, this product will certainly have something for you. Unlike some other products that are specific to a particular fitness level, ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ is versatile and will cater to people of all fitness levels. If you look online, you’ll find that people across the spectrum have enjoyed the benefits of this program with regular practice.
Delivers on Promises
As we specified before, this program promises to help you in more ways than one. While some claims like reduced back pain and less stiffness are believable, we were a bit sceptical about others. However, upon researching other people’s experiences, we found that this product has lived to its claims and actually improved the overall quality of life for many people. People with severe neck pain, joint stiffness, lower back pain, improper posture, and poor core strength have found this product to be quite effective in changing this.
Reliable Creators
Given the fact that Kaselj and Westerdal are both credible professionals and not some quack looking to make a quick buck, we find that it’s a safe investment. The chances of causing damage to your body are fairly lower as the creators have put in a fair deal of thought and expertise into creating the routines. Basically, rest easy and follow along with the program as the creators do know what they’re talking about.
Money Back Guarantee
We always back products that have a money-back guarantee since it goes to show how reliable and trustworthy the manufacturers are. This product comes with a nice 60-day money back guarantee. So, if you feel that you’re not getting your money’s worth from this product, you can easily ask for a refund.
Cons of the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ Program
Let’s take a look at the main disadvantages of the program developed by Rick Kaselj and Mike Westerdal.
Digital Product
We did say that the videos in this program were a benefit, and they are. However, the fact of the matter is that since ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors’ is a digital program, you’ll need a computer or a similar device to access the content. If you wish to access the information in their online centre while practising, it may be a little difficult. However, to ensure that you don’t skip steps or make mistakes, just print it out! Most programs these days are online anyway.
Unnecessary Add-Ons
We’re usually opposed to products that as for you to buy too many add ons. After all, we did pay for the program, so why not just include all the important things in it? In the case of this program, you will get besieged by too many add-on promotions. This may just be a sale tactic, but that still doesn’t make it any less annoying.
Generic Information
Even if you decide to go for the add-ons, you may be disappointed to find that the information included is generic at best. The diet tips and eating recommendations aren’t anything you haven’t hard and implemented before. We’d recommend giving the upsells a pass altogether.
Is This Product Right For Me?
As we said before, this program surely has something in it for everybody. However, if you’re already in perfect shape and don’t have much trouble with the hip flexors, you don’t need this product. With that being said, the stretches and movements in this product are such that they will aid in improving mobility and flexibility in whoever chooses to train with it. If you enjoy pushing yourself and working for results, this program may seem a little slow-paced for you.
However, if you want to unlock tight hip flexors and improve your posture, mobility, soreness and stiffness levels, this may be the right choice for you. With a small time investment, you’ll notice changes in a few weeks and enjoy a healthier and more mobile body.
Those who spend the day sitting or lead sedentary lives will see that this product greatly enhances their back, neck, shoulders and spine health. We tend to usually forget how important stretching is for our overall health. However, with this product, it is easy to slip in the trusty old stretch into your routine without breaking much of a sweat. As is the case with many other things, determination and regular practice are integral to getting the best results from this program.