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The Bendy Blog: Flexibility Training Articles
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Work Your Active Split Flexibility with Front Split Slides
If you’re looking to train flatter (and stronger!) front splits, working on your active flexibility is a must - particularly working on strengthening your hamstrings and hip flexors while they’re at their end range of motion. These sliding drills below are one of my favorite ways to train active front splits because they strengthen our muscles across a pretty full range of motion, including the end range, helping increase our flexibility over time.
Advanced Quad and Hip Flexor Stretches for Contortion
If you’ve got relatively flexible hip flexors and quads (ex. you can easily pull your heel to your butt in a standing quad stretch, and/or you have flat splits) - it may be time to up your hip work for those muscle groups.
These are all deep anterior (front of the) hip stretches that may make you feel your quads like you’ve never felt them before!
How To: Femoral Nerve Glide for Tight Hips (2 Ways!)
As a follow-up to Monday’s post, Stubbornly Tight Hip Flexors? Quick Test for Femoral Nerve Tension, here are two quick, easy nerve glides you can do to help un-stick your femoral nerve before lunging into deeper stretches (pun 100% intended).
Stubbornly Tight Hip Flexors? Quick Test for Femoral Nerve Tension
Do you feel like your hip flexors (or quads) are always pretty stiff, even when doing regular, dedicated stretching? What if I told you the culprit may not be your tight muscles at all and no amount of passive lunges and hip stretches would really make a difference?
Time to learn about the role of our good ol’ femoral nerve and how it behaves differently in out stretches than our hip flexors and quad muscles.
Help! My Knee Hurts in a Lunge
Knee discomfort - especially in the back knee - while doing a lunge is not uncommon for folks with tighter hips. There are many reasons you might be feeling some knee pain while in a lunging position: weak quads, tight quads, improper patella tracking, too much pressure on the patella, etc. Thankfully, there are several modifications you can try that can alleviate some of the pressure on your knee so that you can still stretch comfortably!
Straddle vs. Middle Split - What’s the Difference?
Having dabbled in the wide world of contortion training for 11+ years now, I’ve come to learn that there are some serious inconsistencies in naming conventions for stretches/poses. But when it comes to straddles and middle splits, all instructors can agree that these are distinctly different poses. Why does that matter to you? It influences what muscles you need to train to be able to do them, and informs the “proper” form for safely working on your hip flexibility for these shapes.
How To Get Your Leg Higher in Three-Legged Downward Dog
Feel like your lifting leg is a dead weight in Three Leg Down Dog (Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana)? Does trying to lift your leg higher make your calves and hamstrings burn like the dickens? Then this post is for you!
How To: Active Straddle Hover
“Straddle hovers” are one of my favorite exercises for active straddle flexibility - not only do they super strengthen your hamstrings, they also make you feel like Jean Claude Van Damme doing an epic split between between two semi trucks.
10-Minute Middle Split & Straddle Routine
This post is a long overdue follow up to my 10 Minute Front Splits Routine post from a couple of years ago. Below is a nice short stretching routine that’s a great foundation for working on your straddles and middle splits. Because both straddles and middle splits require inner thigh flexibility (quite a bit) and hamstring flexibility (straddle pancakes require a lot, middle splits just a little) - it’s helpful to work on them both at the same time.
Knee Pain in Middle Splits? Try These Adjustments
If you experience knee pain when practicing your middle splits, you’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for new practitioners to feel some discomfort in their knees - and I’m not talking about “good stretch” discomfort. So you’re wise to learn what’s going on to fix this issue!
30-Day Toe Touch Flexibility Challenge
Calling all toe-touching wannabes! Join me and my lovely very-average-flexibility assistant Nate to learn a beginner-friendly stretching routine aimed to help improve your hamstring flexibility to help you touch your toes.
How to Close the Last Inch(es) on Your Splits
So you’ve been training you front splits for what feels like for-ev-er only to get stuck 1-2 inches away from the ground for months. Sound familiar?
Don’t despair! There are two main things I’ve found help students the most once you get oh-so-close and need to just close that last inch or two to get that sweet sweet touchdown.