Seated Straddle Stretch

When I do the seated straddle and lean forward to stretch, am I suppose to feel the stretch in my lower back, hamstrings, pelvis area, or did I do something wrong?

Should I keep my back straight throughout or is it okay to bend my back?

Plus sometimes my toes won't stay straight (pointing at the ceiling) and turn outwards, what can I do to fix it? I manually turn them.

In a seated straddle stretch, you should turn your feet out. The instep of the foot should point up and slightly out.

Keeping the back straight will stretch the hamstrings more while rounding it will stretch the lower back more.

Really, it will stretch where you are tight.

Ta!

Blairbob said:

In a seated straddle stretch, you should turn your feet out. The instep of the foot should point up and slightly out.

Wait, really? I thought the goal was to keep the feet pointed up, so that you can eventually do a... "pull through" or whatever it's called.

There is a slight turn out but yet pretty much keep them pointed. You do not want to let the toes/feet roll forward/inward.

If you get a good pancake and middle split, doing those pull throughs is only about 2" of ROM. Makes them real easy that way. Otherwise they suck hard when you push your pancake off the floor, struggle through middle to your stomach.

I'm gonna hijack this thread instead on creating a new one. For a few days now I have been doing seated straddle stretching in front of the tv, with the tv bench in-between my feet with my legs pressing in against it. I have made some progress already with maybe 30-40min sitting there in one go.

My problem though is when I'm getting out of the stretch my legs hurt really bad. I feel it both in the thighs and hips and when I bend my legs I have to take it real slow cuz the tendons on the back of the thigh/knee hurt really bad and kinda cramp up.

It hurts real bad but after maybe 10-15 minutes I'm totally fine again. Am I doing something wrong or am I just stretching more than I am used to?

Sounds like you might be going a little hard. If you're going to stretch everyday don't push it. Go just to the edge of tension and stay there for a few minutes without trying to increase your lean. If you really want to sit there for so long make sure it's easy and comfortable, or at least switch it up. It should not "hurt real bad," especially if it's daily practice.

Kit Laughlin recommends one day of dedicated contract-release stretching a week, and simple limbering the rest of the week. But that's only one day in which new ROM is achieved, and rest of the time you just maintain it. Coach thinks Kit's the best at what he does. A lot of people have had great results with it. It's worked for me.