Standing forward fold, hands nowhere near the floor, about mid-shin. If I straighten my legs my back rounds heavily from the low back. If I keep the back flat I have to bend the knees a lot. It has been exactly like this for six months of regular practice with no change at all. How do I work out which thing is actually limiting me?
Try active work rather than passive holds. Thirty seconds of hanging in a fold does far less for me than a set of slow controlled leg raises or a very light Jefferson curl. Passive stretching maintains range, loading through range builds it. That was the biggest thing that moved my numbers after a stalled year.
Backing this up. I got more in eight weeks of loaded work than in three years of holding stretches.
Worth knowing that some people have hip geometry that limits fold depth regardless of muscle length, and that part never changes. If you have room in the seated test and still cannot fold, do not grind at it. Depth in a forward fold is not a health metric.
Nerve tension can look exactly like tight hamstrings too. If it feels like a sharp pulling line down the back of the leg rather than a broad muscular stretch, that wants a different approach and probably a professional look rather than more stretching.
@queenright_quin · 3w ago · 3 replies
Test it: sit on the floor with your back against a wall and your legs straight out in front. If you cannot sit with the low back touching the wall and the pelvis upright without bending your knees, hamstrings are the limiter. If you can sit upright there easily and still round in a standing fold, it is more about how you are moving than how long anything is. Six months with no change usually means you are stretching at the wrong end — most people hang passively in the fold, which stretches the low back rather than the hamstrings. Hinge from the hip with a flat back and stop where the back starts to round. That point is your working range and it will move.
Reply
Report
@queenright_quin · 4w ago
Then work there: seated, folded blanket under the sit bones to tilt the pelvis forward, and hinge. The blanket is what turns it into a hamstring stretch instead of a back stretch.
Reply
Report
@skillet_sara · 3w ago
Wall test says hamstrings, comfortably. I cannot get anywhere near upright.
Reply
Report