Standing on my left leg, right foot lifted, reaching for it with my left hand. Something in my left lower back / upper glute area locks up and stops me before my hamstring even engages. “Diagram” attached showing where.
Straight-on hamstring stretches are fine. Only this rotated cross-body version hits the wall, which makes me think I've been stretching the wrong muscle this whole time and the real limiter is QL or obliques on the standing side.
Anyone dealt with this? Specifically curious how you fixed it!
The blocker for what? You can't plam the floor and you feel like your lower back is stopping you?
Your body doesn't work through individual muscles. It works in chains. I went from touching my knees to palming the floor in 3 months with the elephant walk
I normally get a weird sort of pain/tension around there of I don’t stretch my glutes and adductors. Training my hip in different ways has also helped!
Yes. I get a lot of patients with QL tightness. Personally, mine is very opinionated too. I find many people get a good QL stretch from this movement. It won’t let me post a picture. If you need to know, the English name is revolved head to knee pose. I’m not a fan of YJ but here’s the movement https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/revolved-head-to-knee-pose/
This hit the spot so well!
my lower back also has veto power over completely normal stretches. very cool feature, spine.
You are hitting a wall because that standing cross-body hamstring reach puts the standing leg into heavy internal rotation and loads the posterior pelvic floor. Since the left leg is fixed on the ground while the torso rotates, the left QL and ipsilateral obliques lock up to stabilize the pelvis before the hamstring even gets a chance to lengthen. Try taking a step back from forcing the cross-body reach and focus on opening up the posterior aspect of that left hip first. Set up in a half-kneeling position with the left knee down, tuck your left hip slightly under without squeezing the glute too hard, and reach your left arm straight up toward the ceiling while breathing out fully. This clears out that left side lateral tension, unloads the QL, and allows the pelvis to shift back so the hamstring can actually take the load. Does that shift in the left hip change the locking sensation when you re-test the stretch?
Yes, I feel less tense in the position. A little similar to right lunge, right?