Contract-Relax Stretches for Middle Splits

Contract-Relax Stretches for Middle Splits

Contract-relax style stretching is a common (and effective!) type of active flexibility training. As someone who struggled with middle splits for a long time, I really enjoy the difference in comfort I can feel after doing some contract-relax work - hopefully you notice a difference as well!

Contract-Relax - What is it and How Does It Work?

“Contract-relax,” as the name implies, involves contracting and then relaxing your muscles to aid in a stretch. There are quite a few variations, and I’ll just be covering two in this post.

1. Contracting the muscle being stretched, then relaxing and holding a passive stretch

By isometrically contracting (contracting the muscle without changing its length) a muscle while it’s in a lengthened state (aka a stretch!), we can take advantage of advantage of autogenic inhibition - the ability of a muscle to relax when it experiences a stretch or increased tension due to inhibitory signals sent from the Golgi tendon organ. This could involve short, controlled “pulses” or tenses of a muscle while doing a stretch, or contracting the muscle for a slightly longer period (5-10 seconds) before relaxing and holding a relaxed passive stretch.

In addition to potentially facilitating a deeper stretch within the stretching session, this is also helpful to strengthen a muscle at it’s lengthened end range, which helps increase flexibility over time as our muscles get stronger to support an increased range of motion.

When thinking about middle splits, the adductors (inner thighs) are a good muscle group to target with this kind of engagement because they are in a lengthened position when your legs are in your middle split.

2. Contracting a muscle on the opposite side of the join being stretched, then relaxing and holding a passive stretch

This also takes advantage of an isometric contraction because neither the muscle contracting, nor the muscle being stretched on the opposite side of the joint are changing their length. By contracting a muscle on the other side of the joint we can take advantage of the principle of reciprocal inhibition - the ability of a muscle on one side of a joint to relax to accommodate a contraction on the other side of the joint. A classic example is if you pick up mug of delicious Jasmine tea (mmmm Jasmine tea - my favorite!), your biceps contract to pull your forearm toward your upper arm (lifting the mug), and your triceps relax to allow the movement to happen. If your triceps contract while your biceps were contracting, you would have some trouble completing the action. Thankfully our bodies are smart enough to allow for efficient movements!

If we use our hips in a middle split example, our adductors (responsible for adduction, or bringing your legs closer together) are the muscles being stretched, and the muscles on the opposite side of the hip joint responsible for the opposite range of motion (in this case, abduction, spreading your legs wider) are your glutes. So for this type of contract-relax we would be contracting our glute muscles for a short period, to help relax our inner thighs.

Let’s see how both of these types of contract-relax techniques can be applied in a frogger stretch:

How To: Frogger Contract-Relax (2 Ways!)

Personally I like doing these types of strengthening exercises in a frogger stretch because it’s often gentler on the knees than in a straight-leg traditional middle split position.

1. Inner Thigh Squeezes (Contract-Relax: Adductor Engagement)

1. Start in your frogger stretch (knees bent 90 degrees, hips in line with knees), enjoying your sweet sweet adductor (inner thigh) stretch

2. Keeping your legs in the same frogger position, squeeze your inner thighs with moderate intensity as if you were going to bring your legs together (but not so hard that your legs actually move - we want to maintain that same frogger position) and hold that contraction for 5-10 seconds

   • The goal here is not to crush a watermelon with your inner thighs, squeezing harder is not better! Aim for something you’d consider like 50% intensity, or 5 out of 10 perceived exertion

3. Relax your inner thighs (stop squeezing), let your knees push out wider if it feels comfortable to sink deeper, and hold this relaxed/passive frogger stretch for another 20 seconds

4. Repeat for 3 sets total of 5-10 seconds contracting, 20 seconds relaxing, optionally sliding your legs a tiny bit wider

   • I like doing all 3 sets back-to-back, without coming out of my frogger stretch, but if that feels very intense, there’s no problem with coming out of the stretch for a moment after you do your 20 second passive hold, shaking out your legs for a couple of seconds, then resuming your remaining set(s)

2. Outer Knee “Lifts” (Contract-Relax: Abductor Engagement)

1. Start in the same frogger stretch as above

2. This time, for the active/contract portion engage your glutes as if you were going to lift the outside of your knees and outside of your thighs up toward the ceiling. Hold that glute contraction for 5-10 seconds

   • Again, we’re only looking for a moderate contraction here (like a 5 out of 10 intensity), and your legs shouldn’t actually move

3. Relax your glutes (stop squeezing), let your knees push out wider if it feels comfortable to sink deeper, and hold this relaxed/passive frogger stretch for another 20 seconds

4. Repeat for another 2 rounds of contract-relax, for a total of 3 sets

   • All 3 sets can be performed back-to-back without coming out of your frogger, or you can take a couple of seconds to wiggle out of the stretch if you need to between sets

Contract-Relax in Half Splits and Full Middle Splits

You can also do these same type of drills in a half middle split (one leg in a frogger position, other leg in a middle split position), or full middle split - but only if it feels safe on your knees! I would generally only recommend this if you already have a very close-to-flat middle split to avoid putting undo shearing tension on the knee joint.

For the half middle split, that’s a nice way to work on one leg at a time (focus your contraction work on the straight leg), whereas a full middle split you would do both legs at the same time like in your frogger.