I can finally sit on the floor in straddle with my legs straight!

A few months ago I tried sitting in straddle for 1 min., about 2-3 times a week, as inspired by this video:



I did it as part of my cooldown routine after strength/hypertrophy training. I kept it up for a few weeks, then changed my cooldown to focus more core work.

I just could not get my legs straight because of my perennially tight hamstrings. The adductors might have been tight as well. Ryan does say in the video that bent knees is fine, as well as leaning your torso back with arm support.

During the 4/7 mobility session, I noticed I was able to spread my legs wider than I did last week, during practice of the straddle side bend from the Pike superset. I was following the instruction to sit on an elevated surface so I could sit in straddle with straight legs and straight low back. For elevation I was using a stack of almost all my puzzle mat tiles.

So today I thought I'd test my straddle sitting. I was able to straighten both legs! My low back was curved, though I found I could straighten it by contracting the abs with medium effort. I'm only in the middle of the 2nd week of Strength Side's Master Mobility program, so I'm impressed with the flexibility gain after just a short time.

For the straddle side bend exercise, I still want to sit at a height that allows my back to stay straight, when upright, without additional effort from the abs. This exercise is done with a weight held in the hands to help deepen the stretch. Even though I do use a light weight as recommended, I still don't want to take any chances with the low back. So, tried straddle sitting on 5 stacked mat tiles, and still felt I had to consciously straighten my low back. I then tried 8 stacked tiles and found that was a good height for me - with legs and back all being straight without extra effort. This new height is still quite a bit lower than before. So at this new, lower, height I should be able to stretch my hamstrings more than before.

I'm using a 4kg plate for my straddle side bend practice. To reduce shoulder fatigue, I don't force my arms to be straight, and hold the weight above and slightly behind my head, so that the load goes more to the back than the shoulders. I only try to straighten my arms when it's time to hold the stretch for the prescribed number of seconds.