By Nancy Howard, for SparkPeople

If you are like me, you spend a large portion of your day sitting. And because of this, it isn't too uncommon for many of us to have tight hip flexors-the muscles responsible for flexing the hip or drawing the knees to your chest, as well as moving your legs front to back and side to side.

Your hip flexors are not a single muscle, but are actually a group of muscles which are comprised of the iliopsoas, the thigh muscles including the rectus femoris and sartorius, as well as the tensor fasciae latae, the inner thigh muscles including the adductor longus and brevis and finally the pectineus and gracilis.

Tight hip flexors are a common complaint amongst runners, too, due to the small, repetitive movement when running which can bring on injury if the muscles remain tight. If you suffer from tight hip flexors this may lead not only to hip pain, but lower back pain as well. Therefore, by doing stretches and exercises to help release the tension of the

By Stepfanie Romine, for SparkPeople

I used to love watching scary movies when I was younger. I still have memories of junior high sleepovers, when a group of us girls would make buckets of popcorn, curl up in our sleeping bags and watch horrible, D-list movies like "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and "Child's Play." We'd scream and shriek, finding some kind of bizarre delight in scaring ourselves. As an adult, I still got a thrill from a good horror flick, much more so than my husband, who jokes that you cannot make a scary movie unless it has the word "The" in the title ("The Others, "The Cabin in the Woods," "The Shining.")

By Jessica Collins Grimes for TheBump.com

Thinkstock / The BumpBut then I had kids. And scary movies were no longer fun or silly. They became, well, scary.

Isn't that strange? That was certainly a side effect of motherhood that I was not expecting. But every time I watched some young starlet meet a horrible death onscreen, all I could think was, "What if that was my child?" Even watching movies like "War of

Create some me-time in your bathroom.

For many moms, one dream far surpasses all others: enjoying some guilt-free "mom time" in the bathroom. Taking a nice bubble bath without desperate cries for "Mama!" or tiny hands reaching under the door probably seems as likely for many moms as having a lottery check delivered personally to their homes by Brad Pitt. If you share the fantasy of "mom time" in the bathroom, consider these secrets that might possibly turn your dream into a reality.

Adjust your schedule. When my daughter was a newborn and I hadn't yet figured out her rhythm, I'd no sooner set foot into a long-awaited shower than her cries would echo through the house. Now that she's older and has a predictable sleep routine, showering before her wake-up time or during naps ensures me a nice, full-length, blissful shower and some primping time to boot.

Create a baby safe zone. For babies and younger toddlers, set up a baby safe zone that includes some well-loved or novel toys. My daughter thinks it's a hoot when I