Turnout and Hip Flexors

[Guest The Lilac Fairy]

I did some research and looked around a few of the forums. But I still need a little help on determining what is not allowing my turnout to get any better and I have spent the last year focusing on improving it. Some of the stretches and techniques I have tried are the butterfly stretch, straddle stretch, tennis ball release/massage, and the stretch where the hips and knees are stacked at ninety degree angles.

I have semi-tight hip flexors. My straddle or middle split starts at every day at 135 degrees and after around thirty minutes of stretching after a brief warm-up ( cardio ), it goes to 175 degrees. When I'm doing this stretch I feel a sort of pinch in the root of my hip instead of a stretch. Also, during class the 175 doesn't translate to my leg positions. My knees don't follow along that line but around the original 135 straddle.

The stretches I mentioned before, beside the straddle, are all flat or at the maximum ( butterfly and ninety degree stacked stretch). Can anyone "diagnose" the pain so that I can break past this wall in my progress?

Edited October 20, 2011 by The Lilac Fairy

[Mel Johnson]

Two things go into turnout - first is flexibility, which is what you're talking about here, the second is strength, which is what keeps you turned out as you work. You are working on flexibility by doing what amounts to passive exercise, with gravity and friction doing the work of rotating the legs in the hipjoint. Now you have to work on strength, which is really just consistently working in well-rotated turnout in all you do. That's really the way to developing turnout, and no single thing is a substitute.

[Guest The Lilac Fairy]

I use the "clam" exercise that Ms. Clara linked to a post a while ago with a thera-band wrapped around the top of my thighs for extra resistance. I know strength takes time to develop so on top of my stretches I will do an equal amount of strength exercises. Also, when I said that I couldn't achieve the whole 175 degrees I meant that in the process of trying to push my knees back, in first position, I experienced the same pain as I did in the straddle stretch. With that in mind do you have any ideas of what, besides strength, is causing this pain?

[Mel Johnson]

Impossible to say without direct observation of the activity. There are numerous structures in the hip which could be reacting to pressure or pulling, so many that hazarding a guess, sight unseen, might be dangerous to you. Ask your teachers to follow you through the movement. They may be able to see what's hurting.

[Guest The Lilac Fairy]

Thank you I will be sure to ask.

[Victoria Leigh]

And stop trying to do the straddle stretch before you are thoroughly warmed up. Do not do it before a full barre.

[dancemaven]

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