P2 Hip Flexor Stretch - Lunge

[Fábio]

Hi,

I started the ABSS and on P2 during the lunge stretch for the hip flexor I felt some sharping pain on my left lower back, nothing crazy, it just went away soon as I moved a little bit. It's not the first time that I feel this on that position, always on the left side with the left leg extended back.

Looking to the video I noticed that Olivia has the hips and pelvis aligned, in my case I noticed that my hip on the extended leg is a lot behind the hip with the leg on front and also the hip with the leg extended is also lower than the other.

I'm missing some muscle activation or something?

[Nathan]

Hi Fábio,

Welcome to the forums!

13 hours ago, Fábio said:

I'm missing some muscle activation or something?

Your body is simply doing whatever it can to escape the stretch  Focusing on the form as presented will ensure that the stretch occurs where intended. You will likely need to come out of the stretch a bit - no problem. Think of what you were doing as a different stretch, so you're not regressing. Use strict form and find your starting point for this "new" stretch, and then work from there. Proper form is often humbling, but the results will be far greater in the long run. And if you're ever unsure, feel free to post a form check here on the forums!

[Kit_L]

@Fábio: that little pain in the back is simply momentary lumber hyperextension—and that is caused by the exact same muscle you are do the stretch for! And always feeling that in the same place is all the evidence you need to say with certainty that this side is your tight side. That's also why we say "every exercise is both diagnosis and treatment". 

And welcome to the forums!

[Fábio]

Maybe I'm also extending to much the back leg, the thing is that I don't feel the hip flexor stretching on this position so I keep letting the hips going forward. Can I replace this exercise with the one from P1 where we do the stretch seated and move the leg back? On that one I really feel the hip flexor and upper quad without any pain.

[Kit_L]

19 hours ago, Fábio said:

On that one I really feel the hip flexor and upper quad without any pain.

There's your answer! Can you upload a screenshot of the exercise you are talking about to make sure we are talking about the same one? In general, it's always OK to replace an exercise that creates discomfort, or pain, with one that allows you to feel the stretch in the right place. 

[Fábio]

3 hours ago, Kit_L said:

There's your answer! Can you upload a screenshot of the exercise you are talking about to make sure we are talking about the same one? In general, it's always OK to replace an exercise that creates discomfort, or pain, with one that allows you to feel the stretch in the right place. 

Sure, the first one is the one where I feel the pain on the low back/glute on the leg extended back and I don't feel the stretch on the front of the thigh and hip flexor.

The second is the other exercise that I mention from P1, on this one when I pull the leg back I really feel the stretch on the hip flexor without any pain.

[Kit_L]

@Fábio: excellent.  Work the seated one for a month or two, then try the first one again. In time, the first one will give you a deeper stretch. As well, still talking about the first one, if you open out the front leg's knee angle past 90°, this will put the hamstrings of the front leg under more stretch and for some people this can reduce the extension moment in the lumbar spine.

[Fábio]

2 hours ago, Kit_L said:

@Fábio: excellent.  Work the seated one for a month or two, then try the first one again. In time, the first one will give you a deeper stretch. As well, still talking about the first one, if you open out the front leg's knee angle past 90°, this will put the hamstrings of the front leg under more stretch and for some people this can reduce the extension moment in the lumbar spine.

Thanks. I will keep working on the seated position and later return to the other.

Just a double check when you say "open out the front leg's knee angle past 90º", you mean extending the leg moving the foot forward or keeping the foot in place just let the knee travel forward over the foot?

[Nathan]

16 hours ago, Fábio said:

Just a double check when you say "open out the front leg's knee angle past 90º", you mean extending the leg moving the foot forward or keeping the foot in place just let the knee travel forward over the foot?

Hi Fábio, he means to open the angle of the knee to greater than 90 degrees, i.e. unbend/extend the leg out. You can achieve this by moving the front foot forward, or keeping the front foot in place and moving the rest of the body backward, away from the front foot. (The first will be easier, of course.) If the knee were to travel forward over the foot, that would be reducing the angle to less than 90 degrees - the opposite of what we want to do here.

Does that make sense?

[Kit_L]

@Fábio; to put this another way, move the front foot forward of the knee. This action puts the hamstrings of the front leg under more stretch; this directly stops hyperextension.

[Fábio]

Got it! I will do that and see how it feels.

Thanks a lot for the help, the program so far is feeling great specially the twists and side bends really hit my straight T-Spine.

[nick_kuchedav]

On 11/4/2019 at 10:14 AM, Fábio said:

Maybe I'm also extending to much the back leg, the thing is that I don't feel the hip flexor stretching on this position so I keep letting the hips going forward. Can I replace this exercise with the one from P1 where we do the stretch seated and move the leg back? On that one I really feel the hip flexor and upper quad without any pain.

A quick side comment from me. When I started my ST journey there were a lot of cases in which what Kit was saying/has written wasn't my feeling at all.

Over time many of these things improve without me changing anything (just following his instructions). So nowadays I tell my guys- don't always listen to your body, sometime you both speak at different languages, just keep working.

BTW, I share your pain and totally understand how painful hip flexors exercises could be   

[Kit_L]

On 11/8/2019 at 12:45 AM, nick_kuchedav said:

So nowadays I tell my guys- don't always listen to your body, sometime you both speak at different languages, just keep working.

@nick_kuchedav: Thanks for that. I often say, "the body is speaking to us all the time, but sometimes it can use a language we don't understand, or speak in a way that we can't hear". 

"Just keep working"; I used to say it this way, "Just do the work". Same thing! Thanks, KL