Hamstring Tendon Tightness During Straddle

Hello, 

Today was my first day to work on the middle split series and I feel as if I have extreme tightness in my semimembranosus tendon and semintendinosus tendon (both proximal to my knee) when I am in the straddle position.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to eliminate this?

I also feel some tightness in my TFL when I am in the straddle position also.  

Any help would be great!  

Thank you

It will be my pleaseure to offer my help Jacob, could you upload a picture of your straddle position stretch?

Luke, 

I have posted it above. 

Thank you!

 I remember reading something on this forum about gracilis tendon adhesions around the knee insertion being quite common. Same insertion point as the two muscles you mentioned @Jacob Behara. Hope this helps!

Yes there are some YT videos out there by Kit Laughlin, some I saw on this forum, about releasing the gracilis to facilitate straddle and pancake flexibility. I've been playing with them myself but it's a bit hard to do on oneself. Trying to figure out a way I can do it with band tension and some sort of tool to dig into it. It looks like a promising technique, since that is definitely an area of tensionI can relate to.

TFL: get a tennis/lacrosse/baseball (in ascending order of firmness). Find the boney part at the front of the hip. Stick a finger into the muscle BELOW and a bit to the side of this boney point. If you shift your weight so you're standing only on the same leg, this muscle will pop out under your finger. This is how to find the TFL if you're unsure where it is.

Lie on the floor, with the ball between this muscle and the floor. Let the ball sink in a little. It might be a bit sore, so support your self on elbows and legs. Contrary to popular belief, making it hurt more doesn't make it more effective. Spend about a minute or so rolling up and down the TFL.

Gracilis...yes, that's a tricky one :S

1 hour ago, Matthias Schwartz said:

Trying to figure out a way I can do it with band tension and some sort of tool to dig into it. It looks like a promising technique, since that is definitely an area of tensionI can relate to.

If/when you figure it out, please post a video. I could use some digging there too, and have nobody to do it.