Why NOT to Stretch Quadriceps: Am I doing, something that I should not be doing? This question does come up often. And today I will talk about one of those things, when it comes to mastering the True (Squared) Front Split.

While some people simply try to “push it till it happens” approach, many others realize that if they have very flexible posterior chain of the front leg and anterior chain of the rear leg, they are that much closer to the split.

In common terms that means: hamstrings of the front leg and hip flexors of the back leg.

Here is what I see done very frequently (By the relaxed stretch folks)

People get into the lunge stretch. From here they attempt to increase the stretch somehow. What comes to mind most often is to flex the rear knee. Hey… when you do that, you  feel the “stretch more”. So why not?

Feeling deeper stretch should be helping. Right? … Wrong.

Why NOT to Stretch Quadriceps

Here is the thing

There is only one muscle that opposes this stretch. (Extended hip and flexed knee) and that is Rectus Femoris (the flexor of the hip and extensor of the knee)

Anyone trained in the Easy Splits Certification Course would know the issue with that right way. If you don’t, let me explain.

You see Rectus Femoris is just one of 10 or 11 muscles that prevents the rear leg from participating in good split. And unless a person is super tight, it’s not very important. It’s relatively slacked when the knee is straight, as it is in the True Front Split.

Why NOT to Stretch Quadriceps: Test Yourself

Here is how you know if Rectus Femoris is preventing you from doing a split or not. Take this test:

1. Get into a deep hip extension. Measure the hip angle. Do it manually for now. (We have a flexibility measuring tool that will be available soon.) 
2. Next flex the knee. And measure, the knee angle.
3. If the total angle is 90 or more, Rectus Femoris is not getting in a way of your split.

But here is the kicker… 

Why NOT to Stretch Quadriceps

By flexing the knee, you may be preventing other deeper muscles from being stretched, since flexed knee can prevent full hip extension. Those muscles (Especially Psoas, Iliacus and Sartorius) are left untouched or not properly targeted and your split is not improved as the result.

• If your rectus femoris is very tight and you flex the knee, you can’t go any more into hip extension: this will stop you from stretching other hip flexors. So, paradoxically if your rectus femoris is very flexible, then stretching it won’t make other hip flexors more flexible.
• So you must isolate and target those other hip flexors properly, and you can learn this in the Hip Flexors Program.
• If your rectus femoris is flexible, there is no reason to think that stretching it will help with a split, since on a split the rear knee is not bent.

Why NOT to Stretch Quadriceps

Do you want to learn and teach how to achieve 180° splits?

Then this could be the last possible destination for your split training and split teaching. 

Why?

Because everyone who uses this program starts seeing results fast. Most people progress at a rate of 10 degress a month. (Full Split is 180 degrees)

Why is the EasySplits Certification so incredibly effective?

Because: There is no mystery. There is no guessing.

• For each split, you know exactly what muscle you need to stretch.
• Exactly how to stretch it. 
  How many times to do it.
• Exactly when.
• Exactly how often.
• Everything has been tested and retested and tested over again. Everything has been confirmed to work.

What you are getting with EasySplits Course is SPEED. Speed of progress. You want to see results each time? This is the method to do it.

You are also getting ‘retention’:

The notion of retention is a 6,000 pound Elephant in the Room.  Anyone can get you few degrees more flexible. Anyone who knows a few things about stretching. As your body warms up, it loosens up. That is no secret.  The BIG questions is; can you retain that flexibility? If you could, you would not be needing this seminar. You would have had your splits by now and so would everyone else. But the BIG BUT, here is when you cool down, you are tight again, as if no stretching took place.

Click here to learn more about the EasySplits Certification!

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