Hanging Leg Raises and tight hip flexor

Dear GST athletes,

After following GST training for a year, I am now confronted with an interesting question:

If someone knows, that his hip flexors are tight (a fact which certainly needs to be adressed), is it a good idea to still follow along with the F1 Manna and Front lever progressions (eg hanging leg raises, vups, hollow body hold and rocks). Ostheopaths and physiotherapists have advised to avoid these kind of exercises to not make the hip flexors any tighter. Respective stretch courses are being followed alongside Foundations.

If you could help me out with your thoughts and comments, that would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards

Florian  

Hi Florian,

To me, it sounds like you are doing everything right. As long as you are ensuring your mobility and strength are at mastery level before advancing then you will be fine. Especially if you are performing each stretch course once per week, I suggest continuing with the programming. The structure of your Foundation training will ensure that your hip flexors reach a proper level of mobility before you advance. I recommend submitting form checks for all of your progressions to ensure that you did not advance prematurely.  

If tight hip flexors are a concern,  add a pair of 90s Hip flexor stretches at the end of each workout.  Also if this is a long term problem, look into whether you have an Anterior Pelvic tilt issue, and add the relevant exercises and stretches to fix it.  

 

Hi Florian, one of the most important thing about strong hips flexor it is that they tend to be stronger than abs , this reflects the tendency of the lower back to arch during PE3-4-5-6 of front lever, BUT if you begin from PE1 up to 3 gradually , your abs will become stronger and will defeat the hips flexor. the primarily goal of front lever core work it is strong abs, they are necessary for improving the spine stability during the future suspended work. I cured 2 cases of lower back problem due to strong hips flexor and (as a chance) weak abs:

tons of hollow body work (before abs failure due to fatigue) and weekly front split series.