Fascial connections around front of hip joint?

[Jim Pickles]

I wonder if anyone else has information this - I'm trying to work out the main restrictions on backbending at my hip. E.g. in a total backbend, such as a bridge (gymnastic) I have very little backbend at the hip, and if I could improve this, my total backbend would improve a lot.

1. If my knee is bent strongly, then I have very little backbend at the hip joint. This suggests a rectus femoris limitation. This is shown for instance if I do a lunge (one foot in front, the back knee on the ground, with the back lower leg upright against a wall), and then try to drop the hips forward - I have very little movement (and the front of the hip joint hurts like hell - sorry, I mean there is a strong sensation).

2. In a forward split (where there is a backbend at the hip joint of the leg going back) I can lift my back foot using the hamstring, and then pull it closer to my torso with my hand. The fact that I can use the hamstring to lift the back foot (and can then pull it quite a bit further), suggests the rectus femoris is not the limitation when my foot is on the floor. However, after lifting the back foor to its limit and then putting it down, the hip joint definitely feels looser. So stretching the rectus femoris (which is not limiting the movement) frees up the hip joint.

The only thing I can think, is that either (1) there is a connective tissue tightness across the front of the hip joint, or (2) if muscles are involved, there is a fascial adhesion somehow from the rectus femoris onto the iliopsoas (maybe the same sheet of fascia crosses both muscles). If it is the first possibility, then I just have to stretch the front of the hip joint with a fascial-directed regime (long held stretches), if the latter, working on iliopsoas and rectus femoris with muscle-directed stretches would help too.

I wonder, has anyone else faced this issue, do you find the same thing (limitiations not fitting with the anatomy of the muscles), and what exercises have you tried?

Thanks a lot,

Jim.

[Nathan]

Hi Jim,

I wonder if it's not just a matter of appearances being deceiving. What I mean is that it will be much easier to ensure that the hips are squared in the wall quad lunge setup, so the stretch in the RF will feel much more intense at what seems to be less extension of the HF. I may be mistaken, but I seem to remember seeing a picture of you in the front splits at the recent ST workshop in Brisbane(?) and your hips were rather unsquared. If I'm not remembering incorrectly, then perhaps the amount of stretch being applied to the RF is not so much different between the two setups.

Another possibility is the apprehension reflex may be particularly strong for you here. In the lunge setup, your whole upper leg is exposed and unsupported, while in the FS setup it is firmly on the ground. Try using some kind of prop up against the front of the leg being stretched and see if that makes a difference.

I could be way off, but just a couple of ideas to consider/play with!

[Jim Pickles]

Nathan - thanks for your comment. The amount of squaring is certainly a variable to be considered. However, the feeling in the lunge is so strong that I think something else is going on - I suspect that it is because the rectus femoris is being stretched from the origin rather than the insertion end and that the tissues at the origin end are more sensitive. However, the fact that stretching the rectus femoris further when in a forward split - even though it is not actually limiting the movement - suggests that something is going on, which is not in accordance with simple muscle anatomy alone. On further reflection, I would have worded my initial post differently - I suspect that the origin end of the rectus femoris has complex fascial attachments around the hip joint, which make their own contribution to limiting flexibility.

[Nathan]

Hey Jim - I know you're a smart guy with quite advanced flexibility, so it was mostly just a shot in the dark while giving others the chance to reply. I think that the apprehension reflex probably does affect it to some extent, but I also think that a fascial component is very likely. In fact, I'm pretty sure all stretches have a fascial component. The individual variation is whether that is the limiting factor in any single position, I suppose. Kit often tells about how Liv flattened her pike almost immediately with a bit of massage along the spine. I would play with both in the meantime: use a prop to create some kind of tactile feedback at the front of the leg being stretched, and do some SMR work in and around the RF origin while in the stretch. See which one has a bigger effect for you. I'm interested to find out too!