Heya guys, Wondering if anyone can help me or suggest anything. Straddle stretch. Which muscles do you need to stretch to stop "sitting" on their lower back? A lot of guys have this problem. What stretch do u do to improve that stiffness. Guys look like they are dying when they try it... K
That "stretch" is a useful tool to quickly assess overall flexibility in the pelvic complex (particularly in the high hamstrings and adductors, hip flexors and thoracic spine). I use "stretch" (in inverted commas) because most people can't get into a decent enough position without compromising joint integrity to actually get a good stretch out of it. To further illustrate this, I can get most people into a much greater range of motion (in that "stretch") just from ten minutes of thoracic spine foam rolling and hip band distractions than actual stretching (which shows that a lot of movement restrictions highlighted by that "stretch" have little to do with actual muscle length). Plus it's hard to get any sense of progress because you can't take specific measurements. Before I go ahead and reel off a bunch of other, better exercises you can do, why do you want to increase your flexibility? Specific goals would help me better prescribe specific remedies.
re: the specific stretch in the OP, here's pretty much what's happening: in red, roughly, the muscles of the posterior chain on the back, hips, thighs and calves, and whether they are contracting or extending. upper right, what happens when the correct posture is assumed for the exercise, and on the lower right, what happened in the picture in the OP. this happens because people think they only have to reach forwards and touch their toes, when in reality they have to stretch, which is not the same thing. ideally yes, you'd touch your feet, but the stretch in the legs is caused by the muscles in the legs being lengthened. now both the hamstrings and spinal erectors (post. chain muscles in the thigh and back) pull on the bones of the hips, in opposite directions, so if you relax the lower back, the muscles of the thigh will be able to contract without resistance and pull the hips down, resulting in what happens in the error picture, where you bend forwards without stretching. on the other hand, if you contract the lower back muscles, this pulls the pelvis up, against the hamstrings, and contributes towards lengthening them, which is what causes the stretch, without ever needing to lean forwards and grab your feet (which is only necessary when you need to increase the stretch even further, and neccesarily has to involve rotating the hips more as well:
