Increasing straddle flexibility?

[dcs24]

I was wondering what some good exercises are to increase my straddle flexibility? I have been doing seated straddles, really trying to get on my sit bones, for a while now...but am still not progressing past 90 degrees. The past week or so I have also been adding this stretch:

Even doing the Straddle - PB Bent... my arms often touch my legs...not so much resting on them, but simply because I don't have the flexibility to not have that happen.

Is there anything else I can be doing?

[Joshua Naterman]

Moving slowly through the range of motion will do more for you than long static stretches. Long statics can help, but you are trying to teach your body to MOVE into this position, not just sit there. Don't forget to move in your standing straddle and wall straddle. I don't think you will get much out of doing this on your seated straddle until you can bet past the 90 degrees position at the hips both in regards to the angle made between your legs and the angle made by your hips, back, and thighs.

There are a lot of people with a lot more experience than me in this regard, so feel free to chime in and contradict me!

I think that two versions of the wall split will help a lot:

1) resistance bands. You need to have active control over opening your legs in your straddle, and using the resistance bands is an ideal way to do this.

2) Ankle weights. These will help you achieve your true assisted active ROM in the stretch, which you should move into and out of slowly and regularly. This isn't meant to be weight training, the weights don't have to be super heavy. This is literally to assist you in reaching the end ROM. Version 1 will help wake up and strengthen your outer hip muscles and teach you to use them to actively reach the straddle, and this version will help you to reach the fullest ROM that you can without causing injury.

For standing straddle pike, I would suggest going as low as your flexibility allows, bending the knees slightly if you need to in order to feel an actual hamstring stretch, and then standing part of the way back up. Repeat that a lot, moving slowly (at least a few seconds on the way down and up, you're not looking for a hard bounce). Eventually this, combined with seated pancakes once you get past 90 degrees with a straight back, will lead to a nice controlled pancake.

Keep in mind that your muscle bellies have to grow longer to achieve this, and that takes some time. Like planche training, truly excellent flexibility is a long term goal for those of us who are out of adolescence. There are some exceptions, but once you reach your current limit you simply have to slow down and enjoy the ride. Pushing too hard just causes problems.

[Blairbob]

Froggie splits.

Basically a middle split on your knees. It will look funny but it works.

Another variant is to do a middle split with one leg straight and one leg bent.

Wall splits are interesting. It's pretty common to do them that way on your back with an assist to open your hips more. PNF.

[Aaron Griffin]

Froggie splits.

Basically a middle split on your knees. It will look funny but it works.

I can't seem to do a froggy split that feels right - it always feels like I'm going to pop my leg out of the hip joint. Any advice here?

As for wall splits, I've played with them while reading sometimes. It's crazy uncomfortable to get out of after 10+ minutes or so. I'm not sure if it did any good, as I really only did it for about a week.

[viewty]

I've found that when stuck on a flexibility plateau, as with other things, remix your routine. By no means guaranteed but more often than not will help get the ball moving again.

What's your current stretch routine? (stretches, frequency, type, intensity etc.)

Write down what you're doing and when, then see if you can find different stretches that target the same muscle (group) and try those for a month or two.

Changing the order of your stretching can sometimes yield fresh results.

As mentioned, if you don't already: PNF!

Try adding different types of stretching - the cross over from static to dynamic is fairly good, from dynamic to static not so much. But there is a little, and it might just be that it only takes a little nudge to get things moving again. Include active static not just passive static (bonus of some strength gains).

Frog splits are awesome. There's so many different ways you can 'push' the stretch to target different areas. Try changing the angle of your torso - it's a slightly different stretch if your on your hands, on your elbows or on your chest. Set the angle of your torso before sinking back into the stretch. Try sinking back and then changing the angle. If your hip feels like it's about to pop, relax, come out, and try a different position. That feeling can rarely be described as a good one.

[Alessandro Mainente]

without any doubts...wotk with weigth to build up strength on the adductor muscles and legs's flexors...after do the PNF isometrich stretching following a correct strength progression and remember that the PNF is not ligth stretch routine is a real strength work for your legs

[dcs24]

Interesting.

For the middle split on your knees.. is that http://www.trickstutorials.com/images/s40.jpg? Or is that something different?

As for PNF I have a pretty basic set that I go through every day or every other day from my hip PT. Other than that I follow AGT http://agt.degreesofclarity.com/stretching/ and less often http://performance-training.ca/exercises/flexibility/lower_body.html

[jl5555]

For the middle split on your knees.. is that http://www.trickstutorials.com/images/s40.jpg? Or is that something different?

That is a frog split. Good to do from time to time but difficult to start with.

I think that for men stretching time is better spent on leg together stretches such as low lunge, half split, hurdle stretch, pike, etc. Hanging splits are a good way to work these actively (hang from a bar and split your legs, try and hold that one for more than a few seconds).

[deadlift425]

Frequency and patience will get you past your plateau. 1-2x a day spend 5-10 minutes stretching in the straddle. Pnf is faster, but static will get you there with enough practice. If your doing resistance training already, I would focus mainly on the static stretching afterwards and maybe PNF 2x a week at most.

[Cole Dano]

I've got to agree with the above.

What won't help though is what's in the picture. It's very pleasant and a great way to relax which i'm all for, but generally won't help build ROM.

Since i haven't seen this here, what i used to do a lot and found effective was to sit straddle in front of a wall with a couple of straps hanging from it ( you could do it in front of a door and use the doorknob ) and slowly pull in. I might do it for 10 minutes at a time. It's best if you can have your feet blocked out a from the wall so there is space to work in.

[Jason Stein]

DCS24,

As an added nuance to the conversation, I can echo my understanding of Thom Kurz's ideas for usable flexibility: increase your strength at end range as, to paraphrase Kelly Starrett, new range of motion is weak range of motion.

For pancake and middle splits, Kurz recommends isometrics, treated (as mentioned in a post above) as a strength exercise (i.e. 3-5 sets, 3-5 reps, 2-3x/week; between 10-30 second maximal contractions.)

As for other exercises, I experienced great results (greater feelings of solidity, strength, support) with my pancake with wide-leg (straddle) good mornings with a barbell; also, seated pancake with a dumbell behind neck. Both stimulate maximal contraction under load at end-range. I held the last rep 10 slow breaths.

I have seen the Thera-bands tied to the feet, as Josh described above, and would be curious as to others' reports of measurable improvement using them (also, sets/reps/etc).

I hope this is useful.

best,

jason

[dcs24]

I have seen the Thera-bands tied to the feet, as Josh described above, and would be curious as to others' reports of measurable improvement using them (also, sets/reps/etc).

Since i haven't seen this here, what i used to do a lot and found effective was to sit straddle in front of a wall with a couple of straps hanging from it ( you could do it in front of a door and use the doorknob ) and slowly pull in. I might do it for 10 minutes at a time. It's best if you can have your feet blocked out a from the wall so there is space to work in.

I'm not sure I understand these. Maybe a photo? Is my back facing the wall, with the bands around my feet, hooked up to the door knob...or am I completely lost?

[dcs24]

Any further clarification on the above?

[Jason Stein]

Dcs24,

Regarding Thera-bands for active straddle flex:

http://youtu.be/nTXVUOwVTiY

best,

jason

[dcs24]

Oh wow, that was great. Thank you.

[Quick Start Test Smith]

I've recently begun doing power splits (as Coach suggests) 2-3x a week as well as straddle split isometrics holds (PNF) and lots of static stretching. The power splits are incredible. My mixed split (martial arts split) increased about 7" in one week and my straddle went from about 12" to about 6". I'm sure most of it is neurological, but dang, this stuff works. I highly recommend all three, but EASE into the power splits because they are very intense and it's easy to injure yourself. I've been doing a personal variation of power splits (but not as effective) for a long time before I even knew they existed so I could jump straight into them. I will say this: power splits hit the hamstrings AND adductors hard...

[Aaron Griffin]

Link to the power splits please?

Edit: looks like it's here. This seems awesome.

However - the explanation is a little goofy. Any pictures or videos you could provide? I don't understand the "heel in ring" part

Edit2: I just tried this by putting my feet in both rings like one would expect. I mean, they rotate and stuff. My rings are hanging from a doorway bar, so I'm not entirely sure how to do this in a stable manner, but pushing one leg forward and one leg back does seem to work as well as I expected

[Joshua Naterman]

Link to the power splits please?

Edit: looks like it's here. This seems awesome.

However - the explanation is a little goofy. Any pictures or videos you could provide? I don't understand the "heel in ring" part

Edit2: I just tried this by putting my feet in both rings like one would expect. I mean, they rotate and stuff. My rings are hanging from a doorway bar, so I'm not entirely sure how to do this in a stable manner, but pushing one leg forward and one leg back does seem to work as well as I expected

My ex's daughter and I played around with this when I lived in California near the end and they work! We hung the rings off of a soccer goal.

[Cole Dano]

I love it when old posts pop up at the right time.

I'm going to give this a whirl for a while. I can do full splits fairly easily but adding the dynamic element looks like a real challenge. I doubt i can even go to 50% at first. This will be very interesting.

[Joshua Naterman]

I love it when old posts pop up at the right time.

I'm going to give this a whirl for a while. I can do full splits fairly easily but adding the dynamic element looks like a real challenge. I doubt i can even go to 50% at first. This will be very interesting.

Jealous! As in, I'm jealous of your splits.

[Bruno Cochofel]

I love it when old posts pop up at the right time.

I'm going to give this a whirl for a while. I can do full splits fairly easily but adding the dynamic element looks like a real challenge. I doubt i can even go to 50% at first. This will be very interesting.

Jealous! As in, I'm jealous of your splits.

I second that jealous

Anyway, I would like very much to try that power splits, but my rings are on a door frame, so I guess I don't have the space.. But someday (soon I hope) I will post a picture of my splits... I'm working on that...

[Aaron Griffin]

I love it when old posts pop up at the right time.

I'm going to give this a whirl for a while. I can do full splits fairly easily but adding the dynamic element looks like a real challenge. I doubt i can even go to 50% at first. This will be very interesting.

Man, if you could video this, it'd be awesome. I played with the movement, but really couldn't get "stretched" due to rotation and instability.

My idea (which I thought of later) was to put only one foot in the rings, one on the ground, and just extend that foot out and come back - similar to an ab wheel rollout, but with the legs.

[Quick Start Test Smith]

I don't know if I'm doing it 100 percent properly, but I'll take a pic in the next few days if I can.

Phrak, that would be waaaaay too easy IMO. If you can't do much at first, just do very short ROM carefully... it works though.

[Aaron Griffin]

Patrick, see what I mean in this video here, right around the 30s mark:

6DeRmAGLovk

Yeah, it's a pilates video and a TRX - best I could find

[Aaron Griffin]

I'm going to give this a whirl for a while. I can do full splits fairly easily but adding the dynamic element looks like a real challenge. I doubt i can even go to 50% at first. This will be very interesting.

Were you able to figure this out? I'd love to see a video/picture from someone - especially if you rings hang in a doorway. Because I can't really figure it out, and it might be a factor of not being able to move the rings sideways