I've noticed that the past few months, I've had some tightness in my hip flexors. I have a sit-down job and I assumed this would get better once I started exercising regularly. I've been doing the treadmill for a half-hour for five days a week, and occasionally add supplemental exercise like rollerblading, walking outside, or riding bike. I've been exercising like this for about two or three weeks, thinking the tightness would naturally work itself out. It hasn't yet, but it's also not getting any worse. I admit I haven't done enough stretching, which would probably help.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what helped?

How long should it take for these muscles to loosen up?

At what point does one decide they should go to the doctor for it?

Thanks in advance for any input, comments, or suggestions.

I've been going to a physical therapist for a knee problem for the last month or so. Many of the exercises he has me doing are actually for hip strengthening since those muscles, etc. help keep the patella correctly located (mine is not). To start however, I do at least 10 minutes on the stationary bike and then a fair amount of stretching, and then we move onto oh so many hip exercises. You might want to try something similar (longish warm-up, good stretches, exercise) to see if that works it out. Of course, if your having actual pain, you should skip all of the above and go straight to the doctor!