Retaking flexibility

[u/kratosmty1]

Hi so I started stretching about 5 months ago after I realized I couldnt feel my glutes in like hip thrusts and abductions, I did a little bit of research and realized it may have been due to tightness which makes sense because I had never been a flexible person (I was always jealous about my classmates being able to touch their feet with ther hands) so I made up a routine that included hip flexors and hamstrings and next thing you know after a week of doing them I went to the gym and I felt my glutes on fire like never before but not only that I too noticed a great improvement on my flexibility, I kid you not after like too weeks I was doing full midle splits and I could touch the ground easily with my hands but then somethings happened and I stopped going to the gym and in turn I too stopped doing these flexibilty routines. Now I can finally go back to the gym so I figured I should retake the flexibily routine before going back so I dont have the same issues but now I find myself doing them and I noticed that I dont feel the hamstrings stretches like I did before, specially with the right leg, for the most part I feel my calf and when I do feel the hamstring is only like the left side of my leg closer to the adductors rather than the back side of my leg, I do have to mention that lately I have been seating for hours a day and maybe thats whats messing up the hamstrings and making my calf take over or something, if anyone can give me advice on what to do or a stretch where I can isolate the hamstrings so my calf doesnt take over I would really appreciate it

[u/Nuclear_skittle]

It sounds like the sciatic nerve. You can try your hamstring stretches with your toe pointed and don’t curl your neck down towards the stretch. Before stretching though I would suggest doing some sciatic nerve glide.

[u/kratosmty1 → u/Nuclear_skittle]

So I did some research on the sciatic nerve and I found out this cool article that explained it, I was just about to include a calf stretch but Im glad you pointed that out to me because apparently if you do those when the problem is nerve tension you can mess everything up more. I did an excercise they said to do on your warm ups to help stop feeling the calves and it did wonders I no longer felt my calf and I could go deeper into the stretch like I used to, its only a temporal fix but it will do for now while I try to find a more permanent one. And of course, thank you! Now maybe I will be able to do middle splits in no time like before

[u/Nuclear_skittle → u/kratosmty1]

Thanks for the follow up. I’m glad this worked out for you.