3

I have been practicing shedokan for last two years. But unfortunately I stated my training at an age of 21 years (Now I'm 23). Consequences I am facing of starting this much late is that my legs do not stretch enough to throw a proper round house kick. When I started my training 2 years back. I could stretch my legs almost 110 degrees apart. Now can stretch them almost 120 degrees apart.

When I perform stretching drills, I feel severe pain near ball joints between my legs and pelvic bone toward outside of my leg. It feels that there is some lock that prevents my legs from being stretched. Whereas I do not feel any stretching effect on the inner muscles of my leg. My instructor does not understand my condition and keeps saying, "You should keep on trying and one day you will be able to have a full stretch."

So my question here is simple. Is there any drill which I can perform to increase my stretching? Or I will never be able to gain any further stretches?

Tariq
  • 133
  • 3
  • Pilates. Pilates instructors are usually clued-up on physiotherapy, so you can ask them about the pain in your hip joints. Aside from that, I have seen amazing improvements in the flexibility of students who follow a pilates regimen. What's more, pilates is yoga plus actual science backing it up. – Captain Kenpachi Mar 03 '14 at 08:45

1 Answers1

3

There are many possible causes for this roadblock to your stretching improvement. Firstly, I would recommend a stretching program, not just a drill, that you do regularly outside of class several times a week. Tom Kurz book Stretching Scientifically can help with that. The key is to use effective stretching tools beyond static, passive stretches.

Secondly, I would recommend searching Kelly Starrett's MobilityWOD for exercises related to the hip. He talks fast about technical topics but you can learn from him. What you're describing might be hip impingement that you could solve with some specific exercises targeting the joint instead of just stretching the way you've been doing.

Dave Liepmann
  • 20,861
  • 1
  • 68
  • 134
  • I've also read Stretching Scientifically. I too recommend it. I grew up learning Taekwondo, and that was where I became very flexible in my leg span. I know that I can get my stretch back fairly quickly if I'm out of training for years. The same is not true for people who are not naturally flexible. For them, small gains over time. And stick with exercises that don't injure you. Read up. And do what Dave says: you need a stretching program. All else fails, see a sports doctor or physical therapist to figure out what's going on biomechanically. Your teacher isn't trained in that stuff. – Steve Weigand Mar 02 '14 at 03:03
  • @SteveWeigand Your comment would make an upvote-worthy answer. – Dave Liepmann Mar 02 '14 at 09:01