When siting in the position as shown in the attached photo, with my right leg bent my knee is comfortably flat to the floor but when reversed and my left leg is bent the left knee is about 6 inches from the floor. Does anyone have a specific exercise that would help specifically with the left side. (Im on about the hip opening and the bent leg being flat to the floor as opposed to the straight leg which is flat on both sides)
when you do butterfly stretch do your knees touch the floor? I would expect that you need to work on side splits, butterfly stretch flexibility for that. How long have you been focusing on stretching?
No not right the way down but its even on both sides when doing the butterfly stretch. Ive been focusing on stretching for about 2 months now after a very long lay off from training. Due to family issues I've been pretty much inactive for the last 5 years.
unless you can do a butterfly stretch, the other way you will get your knee to the ground in the pictured stretch is by tilting your hip - but that's not stretching. The purpose of this stretch is focused on the hamstring and calf muscles of the extended leg, so I would say focus on that for the stretch in question, and add other stretches, like side splits and butterfly for the other parts of flexibility.
Thanks for the replies yeah I know the stretch in question is mainly for the hamstrings I was just overthinking things and trying to reason why one side was so different to the other. It doesn't really effect the hamstring stretch lol just bugs the hell out of me because its not aesthetically even
If you have been out of condition for several years. it is worth having a session with a sports physio who can look at your range of movement and balance of muscle strength and give you a tailored course of exercises to follow. they should be able to print out diagrams and take you through the exercises to check you are doing them correctly, and tell you what performance targets you should meet to progress from one excersis to a more difficult one. Video the session on your phone. If the physio does not want to be videoed ( which is entirely fine) . Video yourself doing the exercises under the physios instruction.
