Rear leg alignment for the Front Splits

I've been struggling to get the front splits right and stretching for it. I know the key points for having the front splits in the correct form; Hips are squared, front leg forward and locked out, rear leg behind and straight, and upper body upright. What I don't know is how do I keep my rear leg straight?

Pointing the toes to the side is the best bet, but still not straight. If I try to get it straight, I'll engage too many muscles and could ruin the stretch. Pointing the knee and toes of the rear leg directly at the floor is the least helpful in my experience as it doesn't really do much. Cheers.

I'm at about the same point as you (in contrast to you I'm content with it). Getting the rear leg really straight means to stretch further, so I'd say: Oversplits help

The instep of the rear foot should be on the floor. The foot should be not turned out.

Does anyone know if there is any benefit to training splits with back leg turned out? (knee to side - Ballet style).

It's called cheating since it makes the split easier. Basically the rear leg is doing a side split so there isn't an evil stretch and pressure on the rear quad.
 

http://www.trickstutorials.com/index.php?page=content/flx3#dsf_2b4 The progressions is "the classic application: isometric for splits.

Hope this helps 

Blairbob said:

The instep of the rear foot should be on the floor. The foot should be not turned out.

I've been doing that for years and got sod all results from it. All I'm doing is banging my head against a brick wall.

Rafa said:

http://www.trickstutorials.com/index.php?page=content/flx3#dsf_2b4 The progressions is "the classic application: isometric for splits.

Hope this helps 

Those PNF things? I've been doing pnf for over a year now, its great! And the tricks turorial was saved in my bookmarks/favourites for some years as well.

Work for quality - sink into the splits as low as you can while keeping your back leg straight and hips squared.  A square split is a lot more work and a lot more useful so train that, fight to not let your back leg bend or hips lose alignment. Also make sure you are training strength in your splits too, as you train more you will be able to maintain muscle tension in some areas while relaxing other muscles.  Oh, and if it takes a bit longer than you would like...yeah keep going and stretch consistently, real gains in strength and flexibility do take time.

dmcmanam said:

Work for quality - sink into the splits as low as you can while keeping your back leg straight and hips squared.  A square split is a lot more work and a lot more useful so train that, fight to not let your back leg bend or hips lose alignment. Also make sure you are training strength in your splits too, as you train more you will be able to maintain muscle tension in some areas while relaxing other muscles.  Oh, and if it takes a bit longer than you would like...yeah keep going and stretch consistently, real gains in strength and flexibility do take time.

Are you saying tense one muscle whilst another relaxes? So essentially doing two things at the same time? I've always believed its wrong to do two things at the same time when it comes to stretching.

I just tried your advice. Dropped my rear leg on my bed. By keeping the knee straight, the glutes and/or hamstrings (I'm beginning to think that may be quads rather than hamstrings...) have to be engaged to do that. And at the same time the hip flexors, psoas, etc relaxes or goes into a stretch. I've tried my best to keep the knee straight but there's a small bend there. I feel the stretch is working. I'll keep doing that. Cheers.