Figure skating coach and certified strength and conditioning expert Kristina Anderson continues her discussion of hip mobility. In the previous videos (Part 1 and Part 2) she covered warm up, testing, and activation exercises for the hips. Many skaters, however, have very tight hip flexors (or psoas muscle tightness) which require stretching. This is particularly true of skaters who do other sports or those that spend a lot of time sitting at a desk (i.e. adult skaters).
Kristina covers the basic hip flexor stretch in detail. She also explains common errors and offers tips to make the stretch as effective as possible. As she notes right at the beginning, this is a flexibility stretch and not a warm-up stretch. As such it should be done at the end of a skating session or skill workout rather than before. Tucking the hips underneath as Kristina describes and demonstrates is necessary to create the desired tension on the psoas muscle. Performing the weighted version of the exercise is great for both hip stability training as well as dynamic stretching of the hip flexor.
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