Straddle Up's - so bad

Hi Guys,

Let me just say ... I know these are bad.

Aside from working on keeping my legs straight (I have purchased the Front Stretch course to facilitate hamstring flexibility) what else can I do? It almost feels as though I am doing the exercise completely wrong. This is from the Foundation One Course and the previous steps have been good.

Thanks in advance. 

Best Regards, Nigel

Hi NIgel, the exercise it is not so bad at all. lock your knees and reduce the number of reps to the number where you can hold the knees locked. the failed reps do not count.

Hi Nigel,

Besides Alessandro's good advice I'd also say to hold for a second at the top of the movement. You could even make that a separate drill where you hold at the top and work on straightening and widening your legs. That's the hardest part of the movement so it would be the place where you could make the most gains by focusing on it.

Edit: In addition to doing it free-standing, you can mix it up and use bolsters, bands, or the wall to help get into the position.

4 hours ago, Matthias Schwartz said:

you hold at the top and work on straightening and widening your legs. That's the hardest part of the movement so it would be the place where you could make the most gains by focusing on it.

Listen to him, @Nigel Pengelly, you will be so happy about this later in the program  :-) 

I'm struggling with these too nigel . Pointing my toes and squeezing the medialis hard is  helping me early on 

keep persisting mate 

I'm just Bambi on Ice with these as well.2 years and counting. It's both a mobility and a compression issue :S

I'm still on this exercise after several months, although I'm at step 9 and thrilled with my progress.  I remember thinking how amazing it would be to actually get to 5 sets of 15, and I'm finally there (just not happy with quality yet).

I would suggest:

1. Point your toes during the movement and squeeze the small muscle in your knee area (medialis) so you know your knee is locked out.
2. Static hold at the top, as suggested earlier.  This was feedback for me too, during video coaching, and it's worked wonders.
3. Both middle split and front split series will help here, and if you're at the Jefferson Curl in the core workout, that will help too. 

On 7/24/2017 at 11:40 AM, Chris Umiastowski said:

I'm still on this exercise after several months, although I'm at step 9 and thrilled with my progress.  I remember thinking how amazing it would be to actually get to 5 sets of 15, and I'm finally there (just not happy with quality yet).

I would suggest:

1. Point your toes during the movement and squeeze the small muscle in your knee area (medialis) so you know your knee is locked out.
2. Static hold at the top, as suggested earlier.  This was feedback for me too, during video coaching, and it's worked wonders.
3. Both middle split and front split series will help here, and if you're at the Jefferson Curl in the core workout, that will help too. 

On 7/20/2017 at 2:59 PM, Leigh Kettle said:

I'm struggling with these too nigel . Pointing my toes and squeezing the medialis hard is  helping me early on 

keep persisting mate 

My recommendations in a nut shell with these two posts. gonna take some time to build that compression strength in the hip flexors, and sections of the quads. It will come. Pick a volume that allows high quality without failed reps. This is where you will get the best bang for you buck and although you may be doing less total volume you will be progressing faster in the long run