Straddle Up (MN/PE2) and the TFL...

Hi guys

Like many newbs around here on F1 the exercise that's proving the toughest for me is Straddle Up MN/PE2. As somebody that sits at a desk all day and has focused on upper body lateral exercises when visiting the gym, MN/PE2 has quickly shown up my overall lack of hip/leg strength. Every thing aches (but in a good way ).

I can largely feel the aches in the side of my hips which I've worked out is likely to be the TFL (tensor fascia latae). These muscles scream stop and a little rolling with a tennis ball provides some nice relief. Has anybody had issues with this muscle in particular when performing MN/PE2? If so, what did you do to strengthen or lengthen the muscle? Did you target the muscle directly or work on surrounding muscles?

I know I can search the internet for stretches etc, but I wanted to hear from GB members.

Thanks! 

Not exactly the same thing but related....

My left hamstring suddenly went tight one day (possibly pulled) from overdoing a pancake stretch when I wasn't fulled warmed up.  After that I just could not get it loosened up and I lost a ton of ROM.  Then one day I noticed how tight my TFL was, so I rolled it with a lacrosse ball and felt my whole hip loosen up.  In that 2 minutes of TFL rolling, I recovered almost all my hamstring ROM.  If that little muscle can have such an effect on passive flexibility, just imagine what it's doing for active flexibility during MN/PE2.

tex0413 said:

Not exactly the same thing but related....

 

My left hamstring suddenly went tight one day (possibly pulled) from overdoing a pancake stretch when I wasn't fulled warmed up.  After that I just could not get it loosened up and I lost a ton of ROM.  Then one day I noticed how tight my TFL was, so I rolled it with a lacrosse ball and felt my whole hip loosen up.  In that 2 minutes of TFL rolling, I recovered almost all my hamstring ROM.  If that little muscle can have such an effect on passive flexibility, just imagine what it's doing for active flexibility during MN/PE2.

yeh, it's crazy. Making my legs feel like they're made of iron. I suspect, as you did, that a solution might be to roll / dig around some of the other surrounding muscles (e.g. gluteus medius) to relief some tension from the tfl. Sitting all day at a desk in an IT job doesn't help either.