GM of Hadaka Korosu
I think that certain stretches are bad because they CAN but undue stress on joints and tendons COMPARED to other stretches that well stretch the same area with far less risk.
That said, if it works for someone, great, if it doesn't, there are better options.
I don't think any stretch is BAD per say, unless it is done in a "bad way".
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
Ninja Vanish!!
I used to do hurdle stretch, but I feel it puts too much strain on the knee. I usually do butterfly, sitting hamstring, torso, instep, and sumo, than follow up with about 10 stiff leg kicks on each leg. I feel you can never emphasize stretching enough.
"The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero projects his fear onto his opponent while the coward runs. 'Fear'. It's the same thing, but it's what you do with it that matters". -Cus D'Amato
凸 囧 凸
The knees are the most vulnerable when stretching the lower body.
Especially while working towards side splits.
Stretching the illobiltal band can help alleviate pressure on the knee.
The hips and by extension the knees are also particularly vulnerable when working side stretches.
My stretching routine for the lower body includes front splits and over splits, side splits, seated straddle pike, seated pike, ceyatui, zhengyatui, chaotiandeng, pigeon pose, butterfly, downward facing dog (for the lower back).
Originally Posted by Scott R. Brown
Registered User
That's my thinking. A lot of times the people who have a lot of trouble with this just aren't putting in the time stretching. Nothing is 100% true or false, but generally speaking, if one is feeling tremendous pain with any particular stretch it has more to do with overall flexibility.
Showing some hip stretches was a good idea. I feel that as I have gotten older it has been far more important that I stretch my hips.
Last edited by HumbleWCGuy; 01-20-2011 at 02:32 AM.
Resigned
as far as doing the hurdlers stretch, it depends on how much flexability you have on the opposite side hip external rotators and adductors - while I don't think you can blow out your knee by doing it, at the same time, you may not be able to effectively isolate HS before you engage other hip / pelvic musculature, and therefore the tightness of those muscles might impede your ability to get a clean HS stretch;
IMPO, if u r going to do a seated unilateral hamstring stretch, the most efficient is with the opposite leg tucked in
the reason for this is that the "secret" to doing a HS stretch is to use anterior pelvic rotation to lengthen the HS by moving the proximal insertion (the ischial tuberosity / IT) away from the distal insertions (knee joint) before doing any sort of forward bend at the hips; the best way to get this inisitally is to simply sit up straight and arch the lower back; once you can do this with ease, only then should you start to flex the hips forwards, but doing so while maintaining the lumbar spine in neutral or slight extension; the big mistake people make is to bend forward by flexing lumbar spine, which causes the IT to actually approximate towards the knee joint;
so, while I don't think the hurdler's stretch is uniformly "bad" across the board, I prefer the other way, as when using the hurdler's stretch, you can't get the same degree of pelvic mobility around a tranverse axis; but that's just me...
Poet of Pugilism
Even if the stretch weren't potentially damaging to the knees I think you're still missing that the Hurdler's stretchand the Seated Quad Stretch
both suck - from a biomechanical stand point.
Registered User
There is no evidence for either. That's what you are missing.
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