Suggestion About Hamstring Compression For Press Handstands

[Tyler Gibson]

Hello all,

 

I personally suffer from abismal hamstring compression and straddle flexibility. I stretch and foam roll daily just to prevent my muscles from tightening up into short, knotted chunks of meat. This is the biggest problem I have encountered for training press handstands, and currently press to headstand on handstand WODs, because I lack the flexibility to press to handstand without leaning forward substantially (which I also lack the planche strength to do). I have a suggestion that I hope will help others with my predicament. 

 

I have found that performing static stretching immediately followed by a dynamic movement to be extremely helpful. For instance, for today's handstand WOD I preceded each set of HS press with a static stretch. Each pike HS press was preceded with a pike stretch, and each straddle press was preceded with the closest think I  can do to a pancake stretch. I find this addresses two factors that affect flexibility:

 

1. The stretch reflex, what Pavel refers to as antagonist passive insufficiency. This is the nervous systems response to an attempt to lengthen the muscle: the muscle tightens, leading to the muscle length that is the limit of our current flexibility.

 

2. Weakness in the antagonist muscles. When I first learned to perform pistols and hanging leg lifts, I initially thought I could not perform them properly because of hamstring inflexibility. As I progressed I realized that It was not flexibility, but a lack of strength in my abs, hip flexors, and quadriceps that prevented me from performing the movements.

 

The combination of passive flexibility, and strengthening of antagonist muscles that comes from combining passive stretches with active movements addresses both of these issues and leaves me feeling immediately more limber and mobile.

 

I am not an expert but this has worked well for me. Tell me what you think of this idea and correct me if I've said anything incorrect.

[Joshua Naterman]

This is definitely an important half of the flexibility puzzle. If you're not strong enough to overcome the passive tension of the antagonistic groups, you won't be able to actively stretch as far as you can passively stretch, and over time your body will re-calibrate the passive tension as it gets used to allowing greater active ROM.

 

The other half is simply understanding that, when trying to lengthen tissue, which IS an issue that needs to be dealt with,it is a long process and works best when you get at least 30 minutes of full ROM stretch per day for the muscle groups you need to be flexible.

 

You simply can't replace the time.

 

This was how I got to 6" from side splits when I was fighting... 30 minutes of wall splits every day for 3 months. I couldn't even open to 90 degrees, and I ended up at 165-170 or so. Nothing else worked for me.

 

Different people have different issues, but there are only a few you can have and there's no quick fixes to any of them.

[Tyler Gibson]

Wise words Joshua. I wasn't proposing this as a "quick fix", but rather something that would be a good supplement to an additional daily stretch session.

 

What are wall splits?

[Joshua Naterman]

I just laid on my back with my legs in the widest split I could get into. We usually used PNF for ~4-5 minutes to get to the end of my current ROM, and then I just stayed there for 30 minutes.

 

I know you weren't, I just know that within a week somebody would have asked something about how fast this would work

[Tyler Gibson]

Interesting, I'll have to give that a try in my next static stretching session. 

[Andrew Long]

I was always afraid to try stay in a stretched position for such a long time as when i came out of said position I felt very stiff like something was out of place.  Is it really ok to get into a stretched position and just stay there for such a  long period of time?

[Tyler Gibson]

The key with stretching is that nothing should be painful and you should never try and push it too far. A lot of people get the idea that stretching should be treated the same as strength training, and that you should always be pushing as hard as possible. There is nothing wrong with stretching for extended periods of time as long as you don't try and push your self too far. Consistency is far more important than intensity.