Six Mobilization Exercises for Active Range of Hip Flexion

Abstract

Active hip flexion is considered to be important for many physical activities. Six popular mobility exercises were compared in this study to see if active flexibility exercises would give superior results in improving daily or more permanent gain of active hip flexion. Out of 119 women university students completing the study, all but the control group took part in five one-minute bouts of mobility work three days a week for three weeks. A day of testing before and after the nine exercise days comprised the 11 sessions of the four-week experiment. Significant gains of 15 or more degrees were accomplished by all methods including the control group, as measured by the Leighton Flexometer. A two factor design with repeated measures determined that active and passive stretching methods were not significantly different in their contribution to active range improvement. Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation techniques were not superior to more conventional stretching methods. Rigorous mobilization on the five test days along with physical education activity may explain the significant progress of the control group. Daily gains in active mobility were minimal, particularly with active stretching exercises. Standardization of time for flexibility exercise regimens apparently equalizes the results, and thus, given equal opportunity, all mobility work has parallel merit in promoting active range of hip flexion.