How To: Active Straddle Hover
How To: Active Straddle Hover
Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme straddling between two trucks (more like Jean-Claude Van DAAAAMN amiright?)
“Straddle hovers” are one of my favorite exercises for active straddle flexibility - not only do they super strengthen your hamstrings, they also make you feel like Jean Claude Van Damme doing an epic split between between two semi trucks.
I originally learned this drill from Micah Walters (he’s a wonderful instructor - highly recommend!) and I love doing variations of straddle hovers with my students.
If you can comfortably sit in a straddle on the floor with a flat back, then you can work on straddle hovers!
Note: Yoga Block Placement Matters!
Block placement is the biggest factor in being able to scale up or down the challenge level of this exercise - the closer you have your blocks towards your hips, the “easier” (“easier” is a misleading adverb - these probably won’t feel easy!), the closer towards your feet, the harder the exercise becomes. For folks with a narrow straddle or very minimal amount of forward fold due to tight hamstrings, I would suggest keeping the blocks under your thighs.
Block Placement Examples:
Level 1: Blocks Under Thighs
Level 2: Blocks Under Knees
Level 3: Blocks Under Calves
Level 4: Blocks Under Ankles/Heels
(I can’t actually do blocks under heels, ankle support is my current “challenge” level)
How To: Straddle Butt Lifts
Start seated on the floor in a straddle with yoga blocks under your legs (see above for suggested placement options)
Engage your quads:
If you have blocks under your thighs or knees, engage your quads to try to lift your feet off the floor and straighten your legs
If you have blocks under your calves or heels, engage your quads to help protect your knees (imagine pulling your knee cap up towards your thigh)
Time to lift! Lean forwards as far as you can while keeping a flat back. As you lean forwards, press your thighs/knees/calves/heels into your blocks to try and lift your butt off the ground for a moment
This is where folks who have more hamstring flexibility have an advantage - the more you can lean forwards and reach with your torso, the easier it is to lift your butt off the ground because it helps shift our center of gravity closer to the support points
Then drop your butt back down to the floor. That’s 1 rep. Try to do 4-10
Need to make it easier?
Scoot your blocks in closer to your butt
Do negatives: use your hands to help lift your butt, then try to slow down the decent by pressing your legs into the blocks to engage your hamstrings as you lower your butt
Want to make it harder?
Move your blocks out an inch (honestly a small adjustment makes a biiiig difference)
Widen your straddle
Try and keep your torso more upright (as opposed to leaning forwards)
Try to hold the straddle hover (see below!)
How To: Active Straddle Hover
If you can get the coordination and hip engagement to do a couple of reps of butt lifts, it’s time to challenge yourself to hold the hover!
Start with the same setup you used for your straddle butt lifts (see above)
This time when you engage your quads and press your legs into the blocks (engaging the hamstrings!), try and hold for 3-10 seconds. Reaching your arms out to the side for balance can help, as can leaning forwards a little
[Optional] Have someone take a picture of how cool you look!
Bonus Points: Do It Somewhere Fun
Fun places to bust out this trick include: On aerial silks! Between two chairs! At the gym! Got a cool picture? Shoot me an email or Instagram DM and I’ll add it to this post (with credit to you, of course :D)
The pictures above are all me . . . if it isn’t obvious because I make the same excited face in every photo!
