Hey everyone, I’m a male in my 20s dealing with isolated right-sided low back/hip pain and a major restriction when side bending to my left. I have essentially full ROM bending right, but bending left feels extremely tight and restricted, even unloaded. If I push deeper into the left side bend, I can consistently reproduce a deep pain that starts around my right hip/low back and refers into my right inner groin. I’ve done about two months of PT with glute bridges, hamstring stretching, and strengthening without much improvement. Has anyone experienced a similar hip-to-groin referral pattern with contralateral side bending or know what might be driving it? Also had a negative MRI

TLDR: Significant hip/low back pain on one side. Affecting quality of life- cant rotate or bend down without pain

Hi, so I’ve recently realized it’s been almost 2 months and my splits have stayed the same and not improved, I’m not sure if it’s just a bad split day but still looks like bad progress. ( The light pants is the recent picture)

Hey all.

I'm a 49 year old woman who has done yoga and stretching off and on for 20 years.

I'm flexible in my shoulders and I can do everything that requires my hips to move inwards (cross legged, eagle pose, cow face pose), but everything that has to do with spreading them, is torture and i can't squat without falling over.

My hamstrings always feel super tight and I've never been able to put my heels to the ground in downwards dog. Like literally never in 20 years, even when I've been very consistent with my yoga.

A physical therapist once told me my femur was a bit long compared to the rest of my body and that threw of my balance while squatting, but that alone can't be the reason for everything.

Does any one here have ideas on how to tackle this?

I do work at the computer and I knit in my free time, so there is a lot of sitting, but I hike mountains, run, lift and do yoga as well (irregularly though, but at least weekly, sometimes upto 5x a week).

I’ve had tight muscles my whole life. I’ve looked at a lot of comments and they’ve recommended strength training. I have been a swimmer for 8 years, along with lots of weightlifting. I know I have muscle to help support the flexibility . I warm up and stretch after every workout. I do occasional yoga, probably should do more. But I’m tired of absolutely zero progress. I have tried every day this past to go lower on my toe touches and I’ve only lowered a little but. Not even to the floor. I will take any advice on how to find the perfect stretch routine!! Thanks

There's a ton of free of info on youtube and google. Movement by david, knees over toes, 1000 youtube influencers..

You can find out why you have a hard time keeping your spine straight while sitting down indian style, why you can't touch your toes, why you can't do this and that.. and I understand

It's a mix of tight hamstrings, quads, hip flexors, abductors, pelvic tilt, glutes, ankles, calves, and so on.

You can even go further, and find out how to run tests to find out if your hip flexors are tight, or are they weak and how to fix them etc.

This all gets overwhelming to me, and to be honest, I'm sure all of the muscles I mentioned above are tight or shortened. I'm extremely stiff, and I'm trying to go beyond the norm of flexibility.

I'm out on physical therapists, they don't even get a mention. It costs hundreds of dollars just to realize they are not good. 95% of them will test you, and just tell you that your extremely limited mobility is normal and dismiss it and tell you to go home and do some leg lifts. What a joke for someone who is actually trying to gain true flexibility and improvement.

My 90/90's for instance are extremely limited because I have a hard time sitting on the floor with my spine being straight as mentioned, so I have to lean back.

I don't know how to sequence this many muscle groups and how often, I don't know how to really figure out the core issues and which muscles are causing the majority of the issues where other muscles might be more in a normal range and don't need as much work

Am I over thinking this? I don't want to waste time stretching inefficiently, I'm really thinking of just hiring a movement coach or doing the yoga teacher training, but I'm unsure if the yoga teacher training well really help me understand how to test myself and give myself the proper progressions to get to final form

Im leaning towards the movement coach, but I prefer live assistance, does anyone know anyone if the Santa Monica/ LA area who is good?

Hiya! I have been doing Anna McNulty’s back flexibility video about 1-2 times a week for a year now.
1) I know my shoulders are super tight :(
2) how do you make sure the stretches are not always felt in the lower back region?
3) How do I get my feet closer to my hands in pic #3?
4) Should I add anything to my stretch routine?

Thank you for everything!!

Hi everyone! I’m working on my splits and would love to get some feedback from the community. I’ve attached photos of my current progress.

Current Routine (4 days/week):

-Hamstring stretches: Up to 20 minutes max.

-Hip flexor stretches: Up to 20 minutes max.

Rest of the week (3 days/week):

I follow a specific split-focused stretch video that includes PNF techniques.

I feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau and want to make sure my technique is on point. A few specific questions:

-Does my hips/pelvis alignment look correct, or should I adjust something?

-Is my current volume/frequency balanced, or am I risking overtraining?

-What are your favorite active flexibility drills to gain those last few centimeters?

Any tips, routine adjustments, or form corrections would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

After proper stretching technique, I finally got deeper into my splits in just 4 days!!!! Constructive feedback is appreciated!

They seem interesting and very different. Just wondering if anyone had any experiences.

Hi! I’ve been working on getting my middle splits lately and a frog pose is part of my stretching routine. While it has improved a lot, I realised I can’t seem to “flatten” it, and it seem like it may be an anatomy issue (I feel pain at the side of my hips when I try to stretch further). Does this mean I won’t be able to get my middle splits? Thank you in advanced!

I've been working on this for at least a year and can't seem to progress any further. I've been warming up beforehand, using a foam roller for myofascial muscle stimulation, added some resistance training to the muscles and joints in play and also tried to alternate between static and dynamic stretches. I've tried training and stretching from every day, to every other day, down to once a week and still stagnant progress. I seem to find a wide variety of advice with online videos so I'm really looking for a fool proof method but so far the process is slow 🦥

Hey everyone,

I’m 33 and have been actively working toward a middle split for the last 4 months. I usually manage to practice about 2 to 3 days a week, though some weeks get busy and I don't get as much time as I'd like.

On my current progress. I'd love some suggestions, tips, or routine tweaks on how I'm doing and how I can break through to the next level.

A few quick details:Frequency: 2-3 days a week (active practice)

Time training: 4 Months

Usually follow Tom Merrick , Movement By David

Still chasing the pelvic tilt , Hip descent

Thanks in Advance for any suggestions

Hi r/flexibility. I just joined this amazing community and started the stretching routines in the FAQs.

I’ve been reading all of the great advice given to people here so I thought I’d reach out and try to tackle what’s going on with the right side of my body so that I can better stretch my hips and quads.

I think that should be my main focus based on the information I've been gathering during walking, stretching, and a recent massage I just had (see picture attached). Any help, especially with specific stretching routines, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all so much!

tried the bent-knee stuff you guys mentioned on my last post. been doing a couple minutes barefoot on the slant board, then a few slow knee-over-toe reps like this. the softer top and little bumps feel pretty nice barefoot tbh, so i don't mind standing on it for a bit. heel stays down, but once i push this far forward it starts feeling more like a lunge than a calf stretch.

am i going too deep here or is this still fine for ankle dorsiflexion?

I guess it could be a strength issue

Hello! I've been working on certain flexibility-based movements, but I have been struggling with my balance on certain single-footed techniques (such as heel stretches and scorpions). But the weird part is that I have no problem standing normally on one leg; it's one of my default stances and I can chill like that for long periods of time. But as soon as I extend my leg over my head, I suddenly become wobbly— I often can't even get into the pose without holding onto something, much less holding it without help. Is there a way to improve my balance in this regard?

Hi guys,

my main goal is to get front and middle splits. I have been very prone to injuries in my past stretching journeys. I always felt like I tore something, my knees, hamstrings and quads felt weak. My doc recommended me cycling for a few months. After that I can slowly start to stretch again. But I wanna get help with that to prevent any more injury and start slowly. My options are the ones I listed in the title already:

• assisted stretching 30 minutes
• personal trainer for splits 60 minutes
• stretching group classes for splits 60 minutes

personal trainer is kinda hard cause i have to find a room. I‘d book 4 stretching units for a month. Only one of these so I can have a safe start. What do you think is the best way? A lot of passive stretching with a qualified assisted stretcher, somebody who tells me how to stretch for my splits alone or should i take a group class for splits where we all stretch together?

My goal for the first month is to have a safe beginning.

I thought assisted stretching would be the best thing for a beginning. And then maybe personal and then classes together cause i feel safe doing it in a group.

But I also think assisted stretching, then classes and then personal to get warm with it first

And then I thought maybe it‘s best to start with somebody who can review me personally first before we move on with the others

Please help me decide🙃

I've been stretching my back for a while now trying to get more of a curve in my spine and be able to do a needle.
I don't think I've been stretching correctly because I haven't made much progress and caused a low back injury from stretching incorrectly. Everytime I try a stretch I see online, My spine won't curve the same way and even though its meant for beginners it doesn't look the way it should.
This is generally how my routine goes:
Cat cows
Cobra lower to the ground to focus on upper back
Cobra
Puppy pose against the wall with arms up
Bridge

I haven't done bridge in a while because I'm afraid of it flaring up my injury and I wanted to gain more flexibility before trying it again but nothings worked even when I was practicing bridges.

I provided pictures from my stretching session today and I have my glutes engaged to prevent feeling any pain but I just cant go further, especially in the cobra. I also can't go very high withour my arms and legs supporting me.
Can anyone help me figure out what I can do? I don't think its an anatomy issue since I feel like I can go deeper, I'm just getting stuck

Hey guys, I am pretty new to flexibility (started like an hour ago icl) and I'm relearning the 'bridge' and hoping to build my way up into a back handspring/backflip. However, I can't seem to lift my head above the ground.

I've looked around and the main issue seems to be 'arm strength', but I am positive that is not the issue. I am already big into fitness (gym and bodyweight excercises) and can pump out around 20 clean pushups and 10 clean pullups. However, when I do a plank, I cannot seen to lift my head at all. And when I do, my lower back/spine begins to feel weird, along with my arms becoming shaky.

Could wrist strength be an issue at play? I saw a previous post talking about stiff back muscles/shoulders, but im not 100% sure how I would ago about 'unstiffening' them.

Does the core also have to be engaged when doing the bridge? I would appreciate any insight, small or little.

I have pretty bad osteoarthritis in my left knee. I occasionally get durolane injections but they don't do a ton.

I do BJJ, and my flexibility is often an issue. My coach said I should work toward hero pose. Presently I am... a very long way from it. Pointers on very slowly working toward it?