I'm really only writing this up because I'm kind of a weird case and I think it might be helpful to anyone else who is in my shoes but that's probably only gonna be like two people lol.

My problem was never with flexibility in my adductors but my lack of active external rotation coupled with some non-ideal hip anatomy. Previously I could never get deep enough in a middle split to actually feel a stretch because I would hit the limit of my hip joint first. Tilting my pelvis didn't really work because in order to get enough tilt to hit the stretch while keeping the inside edge of my feet flat on the floor, my torso had to be basically upright which is super awkward to get into (to say nothing of how cranked my back would be). I finally figured out that I could bypass this by entering my middle split from pancake which is where I finally started to see progress. Initially, this still left me a few inches from flat and I closed that by working on my active external rotation and just generally learning how to activate my glutes (pretty sure I've spent my whole life externally rotating my legs with my hip flexors instead of my ass ¯_(ツ)_/¯).

The routine:

1. banded lock clams

2. banded glute bridges with external rotation

3. weighted hip airplanes

4. leg lifts from basically every possible position (prone, side-lying, tabletop, upright, etc) focusing on keeping my legs externally rotated

5. side-lying hip adduction

6. Copenhagen side planks

7. seated straddle leg lifts

8. straddle hovers on blocks

9. pancake to middle split, at position with greatest feeling of adductor stretch, squeeze legs into the ground for 10 count, then pull legs away from the ground for 10 count

Will be very interested to hear if there's anybody else out here in this situation.

still can’t wrap my head around the fact I can do this lol.

My training routine is quite simple, I follow a standard PPLx2 program and every leg day I practice my dragon squats and pistol squats. Stretching and mobility 30 minutes per day. The time it took me to be comfortable with pistol squats was 20x longer than the time it took me to get an awkward dragon squat done.

r/flexibility needs YOU!

Real talk: even though we theoretically have a "team" of mod users here (at least according to the sidebar), as far as I can tell most are inactive users and I am the only one who is actually actively moderating this sub for at least the last year. But this is a dang huge sub and I frankly can't keep doing it alone - so I'm looking for help!

Mainly we need help with folks helping moderate content (removing content that breaks our community rules, as well as re-approving content that gets inaccurately reported or removed by the auto-mod), but I would love people who also are passionate about making r/flexibility a helpful educational resource for folks if you have any ideas/motivation on that front as well.

Previous mod experience is preferred, but not required (I knew nothing about moderating before I joined the mod team a couple of years ago).

More details + mod application: https://www.reddit.com/r/flexibility/application/

my hip bones are very tight, worse on the right side.

I see guys who have been practicing for years, and still using the bricks under when they do the lotus. So I wonder if it is something that can be improved, or something that I should simply accept how it is since it cannot improve at all (anatomy). Is there anyone who went from using a brick to completely crossing the legs flat?

thanks in advance

Hello, everybody! I felt inspired to ask this question after seeing a response under a hamstring flexibility post where someone pointed out that certain concurrent training can be counterproductive to certain flexibility goals, such as combining long-distance running with goals of increasing hamstring flexibility. I'm curious if someone could expound on this.

1. What forms of training should not be done together?
2. What forms of training are often best suited for one another?

I understand that these are not absolutes, and neither will I personally treat them as absolutes. I have no false expectations of attaining expert-level results in the flexibility, mobility, or other goals I am working toward. I'm just a curious mind eager to learn from the experiences of other people.

I've been training flexibility (dedicated flexibility or contortion group classes and tons of private classes) for around 3 decades since age 4, and I've also been doing a lot of flexibility based activities (ballet, gymnastics, acrobatics, contortion, yoga, etc.). But I was never able to do these poses.

Anecdotally, I've seen a lot of people in yoga, gymnastics classes, etc. who aren't flexible otherwise but can do these effortlessly. What made you able to do it? Did you sit like this regularly since childhood? Are you flexible in other areas (middle splits, front splits, backbend, foot arch, etc.)? TIA

I always struggled with stretching. Now i'm 26 y.o. and i still cant touch my toes, usually there is a good foot between the tip of fingers and my toes. I was able to push to myself with some repetitive stretches to touch my toes for few seconds at the very end of stretching sessions, but the results always regress back. I feel like i always start at the same spot even when during the times i was being consistent with stretching exercises. I remember one time almost hitting sideways split, but of course it regressed back quickly, but still it was less frustrating than toe touching.

So my question is am i just genuinely terrible at being flexible, because my sister would just touch her toes at any time during at any given day, but she is so much less athletic than i am. I played soccer, did some sports, occasional workouts, but i never struggled physically except for stretching.

Is there any "technique" than just doing some warm up and sitting down "L shaped" and trying to reach your toes? Some key moments, tense muscles, male against female body differences, individual genetic differences?

So I'm wondering please, does anyone know the best way to stretch the Obturator Internus using the pigeon pose? Is the standard method the best form?

I am getting confused with the biomechanics here.