What muscle(s) does this stretch stretch?

[Howard]

Sit in a chair, cross one leg over the other in the way that gives your crotch breathing room (i.e. your lower calf rests on your quad near the knee). Lean forward. Something in the butt gets stretched. What is it?

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[Howard]

Sorry about that. The links are like right next to each other.

 

[Kipper]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but that feels like a hamstring stretch to me.

 

[eits]

glut medius, iliotibial band, and a little bit of glut max.

 

[zerocool1]

what about the periformus? I'm not sure how it's spelled.

 

[SWScorch]

I would agree with the piriformis. Mine is very tight so I do this stretch all the time at work.

 

[eits]

Originally posted by: zerocool1
what about the periformus? I'm not sure how it's spelled.

piriformis? nah, it's not that good a stretch for piriformis.

piriformis is an external rotator. you're externally rotating your leg when you put your ankle on your knee as if to cross your leg, which means you're stretching your piriformis, but contracting your piriformis at the same time. leaning forward increases the stretch, because your sacrum nutates (tilts forward), but the fact remains that it's still an actively contracted muscle being forced to stretch.

a better stretch would be to sit on the floor, legs straight in front of you, bend one leg and cross it over your knee. then, with your opposite elbow, pull on your bent knee to increase the stretch.

there's no internal rotation of your leg, which keeps the piriformis out of the equation, which keeps it relaxed, and then it gets subjected to a stretch.