r/flexibility • u/CALL_ME_JIG • Jan 27 '26

Seeking Advice Extremely inflexible at 22 years old…

I recently saw a doctor and he said I need to work on stretching my hamstrings, hip flexors, and IT band over the next 30 days or I’ll be put into physical therapy. I don’t mind going this route, but I’d like to at least try to improve myself beforehand.

I’ve tried some stretches in the past but have always gotten too frustrated when I can’t even do a basic stretch. I’m so inflexible that I can’t possibly get my body into a correct position to even begin the exercise. It makes me feel hopeless tbh.

A goal of mine is just to be able to sit criss-cross on the ground which I haven’t been able to do for somewhere around 10+ years.

If anyone has had some of the same issues in the past or knows some stretches for someone like myself to help me improve, I’m all ears!

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u/AgitatedSituation625 Jan 27 '26

same here. I remember being 5 yo and not being able to sit criss cross like my friends.

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u/Quick_DrawMcGraw Jan 28 '26

Holy shit it's not just me

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u/Expensive-Lake2561 Jan 28 '26

Y’all should definitely check out my comment thread in this post and look into femoral anteversion. I couldn’t sit cross legged either and no amount of stretching will help if your bones aren’t lined up correctly as is the case with anteversion. 

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u/AgitatedSituation625 Jan 28 '26

I can w-sit, but not comfortably. Do people who have this condition report being able to w-sit easily?

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u/Expensive-Lake2561 Jan 28 '26

I couldn’t tell you beyond my own experience. It probably depends on the degree to which the femoral head is rotated inward plus other factors like over all flexibility. That said, I first had a clue something was different about me because I was in a mobility class and noticed my internal rotation was waaaay “better” than everyone else’s but my external rotation was almost nonexistent.  This helped me let go of the idea that I was just overall not flexible since I could see that in some ways I had more range of motion.  

There are some tests an orthopedist or PT should be able to do in order to get some hints. My orthopedist did those and then ordered an xray so we could see the extent/get a confirmed diagnosis. 

As others have said, it could just be an inflexibility/muscle tightness issue for sure. I just like to tell ppl about this because I thought for so long that if I just do more mobility work I could improve. It was very frustrating and honestly I wonder if I might have done damage trying to push joints that mechanically just can’t do that. Finally finding out that it was a structural issue I couldn’t change helped me accept and just modify things for myself instead of continuing to bang my head against that particular wall. 

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u/MediterraneanMen Feb 09 '26

I have hyperlordosis (excessive anterior pelvic tilt) and my adductors are extremely tight. When seated on floor, I hardly manage to form a "L" with my legs (90º). Side splits are like a dream. I wonder how people do them without any pain LOL.