Can you touch your toes, reach your arms overhead, and sit in a full squat? Can you do these things pain-free, regardless of your age? If not, you might consider that your body should be able to. Take this lack of mobility as a warning sign that you need flexibility training more than ever. Most adults, think of flexibility as extreme, when in reality being flexible is a natural ability that your body craves. Only through disuse (desk work or sitting qualifies for this), and injury, do we lose the natural flexibility we enjoyed in our youth.

How does this Happen?

Very simply, we create these mobility restrictions for ourselves as we age through prolonged periods of sitting and lack of proper exercise. It does not matter if you lack mobility in your hips, knees, or ankles, as the causes are the same. By making stretching a regular part of your routine, you will avoid many of the pitfalls associated with aging and inactivity, and in actual fact, prolong your quality of life.

Here, we will focus on the bigger benefits of the front splits, and how you can begin working towards mastering this flexibility skill.

A Stretch that Counteracts the Effects of Sitting and Aging

A properly performed front split will stretch the entirety of your lower body – which is a tremendous deal for you because it has such widespread benefit from one position. More often than not, these are precisely the areas of the body (hip flexors, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves) that get prohibitively tight when the average adult sits for hours upon hours each day. This stagnant position that begins from the time we start elementary school tells our bodies we should adapt, despite it being a dysfunctional position.

Use it or lose it

Remember, your body will specifically adapt to ANY demand or position you impose upon it. It WILL adapt to become efficient at moving if you decide to move, or it WILL become efficient at sitting and optimize your body to be efficient at being dysfunctional. In this example of prolonged desk work, your body will rise to meet the demands of this (chronically flexed) seated position.

How does your body adapt? Shortening muscle length, hardening fascia, and increasing the tone or tension of the muscles at rest are a few of the negative repercussions. But, lucky for you, there is a way to reverse this damage.

Your Solution

The Front Split Series from Our Courses is full of great drills and exercises to help combat this self-inflicted epidemic, improve your hip and ankle flexibility, and help ward off injury. Sounds simple? That’s because it is, it just takes patience and consistency. 

Vertical Lunge Bent

The Vertical Lunge (Bent) stretch is just one of the stretches in our courses that will help you gain mobility for your front splits. All you will need for this is a spot on the wall and a cushion to go under your knee. Begin by placing your rear knee and shin as close to the wall as possible. Keeping your torso upright, stretch your rear hip flexor by leaning or pressing your hips open towards your front foot. Squeeze your glutes and tuck in your hips on the rear leg and hold for around 2-minutes per leg. Take a walk to test the change, and be prepared to feel like one leg has doubled in length. Balance it out, and repeat on the other side.

Strength and Skill Carryover

Aside from a better quality of life and more agility in everyday movements, another huge athletic benefit to working towards achieving the front splits is the improvement and skill and strength transfer you will see in your pike position and hamstring flexibility. This will carry over to your V-Ups, Hanging Leg Lifts (toes all the way to the bar), and L-sits – not to mention envy-worthy skills like manna and press handstand work. So now that you know the extent of the carryover benefits, you might as well take the time to work smarter.

The average human needs to develop basic ranges of motion like touching their toes and reaching overhead as part of a longer strategy for longevity and quality of life. You can take back your youthful flexibility to do more, regardless of your age, on your time, and in your space with more drills and exercises from the Gymnasticbodies Stretch Series.