In this video I wanted to go through the Best stretch for the Sartorius muscle.
The sartorius muscle is kind of the forgotten hip flexor muscle. It’s important to target that muscle because it affects the knee and the hip.
Primary Functions of the Sartorius muscle:
- Hip flexion – bringing the knee up
- Knee flexion – bending the knee
Secondary Functions of the Sartorius muscle:
- Hip External Rotation – moving that thigh out
- Hip Abduction – bringing the thigh out to the side
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I am going to get Orsy to go through a stretch that is targeting that sartorius muscle.
You lie down on your stomach. I would recommend that you separate the feet a bit so you have a little bit of more movement to go through. You are going to bend the knee then you are going to drop the heel to the side so you have internally rotate the thigh. I am going to move that knee in so I have adducted the hip and that should be hitting it. We have ended up targeting that Sartorius muscle.
Sartorius Muscle Stretch
Now, if you don’t feel anything, what you can do is adding a little bit of hip extension and I can do that by using a foam roller. I am sliding the foam roller underneath Orsy’s thigh and she is going to go through the same thing. Bending at the knee, dropping the heel out, bringing that thigh in and then we have ended up targeting that sartorius muscle. You are looking at feeling the stretch. It could be up in your hip area or it can be down in your knee area.
Sartorius Muscle Stretch with Foam Roller
What if you don’t feel any stretch or what if you don’t feel anything?
Go back and make sure that you have done the exercise correctly looking at the bending at that knee, dropping that heel out (internally rotating that thigh), moving that thigh inwards or adducting that hip and then adding some hip extension.
If you have made sure that you have tried progression one and progression 2 and your technique’s perfect and you don’t feel anything, there is a good chance that you don’t need to stretch out your sartorius muscle.
Orsy was commenting that she doesn’t feel anything with it so it’s probably a muscle that she doesn’t need to stretch. But with myself, when I went through the sartorius stretch especially with hip extension on that half foam roller it really targets that sartorius for me.
Give that a go and let me know how it goes.
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Rick Kaselj, MS