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LRP in the mornings. Mindful breaths through the day. Beautiful sunset over the lake tonight. A relatively short session to write about today (longer to do). I did 8 rounds of 30s on 10s off sessions of skipping on Saturday and Sunday. I did 8x45s on 10s off skipping today. Roughly 2 jumps/second. I'm noticing an old ankle sprain a bit with the skipping (from the beginning), so I'm hopeful that continued practice in the right amount rehabs it eventually. 10x1 pullups +10kg. These are feeling a little easier which is nice. I'm generally pausing for a few seconds up at the top. 2-3 minutes of rest between them. Tuck front lever position -> controlled floor dismounts. I don't really know what to call these. But when I first tried doing the tucked front levers I had to get into them awkwardly from above, and didn't really have a smooth dismount out of them. Now I'm trying to build the strength to be able to get into and out of them smoothly. Getting into them is still not possible without momentum or else a toe hook on what I'm grabbing onto to pull myself into it, getting out of them is now smooth and quiet though. Bent leg L-sits - focusing on figuring out lat engagement and the press off the floor more than the core aspect of it. Single leg dose pose - No ladder bars, exploration of tight lines. I should have taken a long break between sides. There was some burn in the trapezius by the end. Tailor pose - Heading South for a bit and will likely bring some more weights back with me to see if the weighted bounce technique will work with more weight than I have with me. Right now, I'm using the spend ~10-20 minutes sitting in the end position between sets of contractions with little bits of rocking the pelvic forward and backwards. I think I've reached a plateau with this one at the moment, so I'll keep practicing it. I ran through the hand/finger sequence while I was waiting. I ended the session with the Rod of Correction on my calves. The skipping made that more intense than usual.

I spent several days of shoveling snow after the big east coast snow storm on the 25th. Without the Daily 5, I’m not sure my back would have survived the constant demand. I focused on my shoulders today. I limbered by hanging as suggested, and stretched out with the band. My focused stretches were my internal and external rotators - against the wall and my own hip respectively - and the cat stretch variation. I better understood “moving my hips out of the way” this attempt, which made more sense to me as pulling my non-stretching-side hip towards the same side shoulder in the horizontal plane. It’s a fun puzzle to work on a pose and explore for the tightest line. Hanging again after stretching, I felt the burn most in my hands and in the caps of my shoulders. And I felt a bit penned in by my arms because my head neither hangs relaxedly in front of our behind them. But mostly it felt good to hang.

I don't see a thread specifically about HF ballistics, but there are several big ballistics threads, so Emmet was likely referring to the discussion in one of those (even if not, all worth a read): Head to Toe stretching Ballistic stretching; 90-day challenge, ongoing reports Stretching Chinese Style Was happy to find this gem again: One does not simply...

8k race today,race time 39.43,chip time 39.28.....I finished strong with a kick towards the end

13k run this evening

Ran 10 miles this morning with some members of the club

Recovery run today,ran easy and sped up on the way in

Thanks Kit, I will give that a try. Edited to add: That makes quite a difference to the feel of the movement generally and no cramping which is nice. I made it to 16s with a full floor one with that cue, so that's definitely a piece that I was missing.

LRP in the mornings. Waking up earlier makes that easier. More relaxation through the day and deliberately letting go of tension. Metta is still sporadic in the evenings. Skipping is something I'm still getting used to, right now I'm doing roughly every other day 30s on, 10s off for 8 rounds (went again. I'll stick with that for another week or two and then increase the number of rounds or interval lengths, not sure which at this point. I generally seem to hit just over 2 jumps/second (usually 64-66 jumps in 30s). I mostly feel it in my calves, feet, quads, and glutes none of which is surprising. I can imagine that this might be the answer to building up enough calf strength/endurance to make the transition to barefoot running easier. L7 - Pancake preparation session. I probably should have done this one sooner, but it was good to work through it at this point anyway. Hip flexor lunge - mostly limited by the hamstrings of the front leg at this point. There's stretch in the hip flexors though. Some sideways lean to get the second elbow down after the contractions. Sumo squat - I should work more on these. I don't find them especially fatiguing in my quads at this point--especially with the arms holding me up, but pulling the knees wider with the muscles at the back of the hips is relatively taxing. Squashed frog - This one still is not my favourite stretch. I know from previous experiences that more knee padding is in order so I had a folded blanket handy. I found the most groin stretch in the pelvis tilted forward rather than tail tucked and increased it somewhat when I moved back towards the feet a little bit. Elephant walk - My hamstrings are quite a bit tighter today than my normal. That may relate to the skipping and calf tightness associated with it. A little bit of sensation in the lower back--especially with the two leg version at the end. Under butt - mostly lower hamstring today, very different sensation than when I tried it previously. Straight wide legged forward bend - mostly gracilis and a little bit of hamstring + lower back. Half pancake - quite intense through the inner thigh/gracilis today. It seems to also be going down into the inside side of my calf (quite a ways down). I assume that's some calf tightness from the skipping. Internal rotations - nice way to end.

Look up torticollis; literally Latin for "wry neck". This extremely painful condition can be caused by a draught from a window while sleeping! And torticollis is 100% the domain of levator scapulae. This condition has been talked about for centuries. To future proof yourself against these sorts of things, we need to strengthen these muscles, and also make sure that we're not holding excessive tension in the neck area – what most people don't understand is the tension anywhere in the neck is going to cause the muscles which are the tightest – and in everyone that's levator scapulae – to either go into spasm or start signalling pain. This is how the body works in this universe. And don't worry about overdeveloping the neck muscles or anything like that – most people have never done any specific strengthening work for levator scapuale, and as a result they respond very quickly. But increasing the strength of these muscles will not make your neck look like Mike Tyson's or anything like that. As well, and at the same time (and after the strengthening work as a perfect time to do this), we do need to take the head and neck through that full range of movement I described above. In other words, as far forward as possible, and while holding the head forward, cautiously take it to the side as far as possible. That puts levator scapulae under direct stretch. General contractions can then be done (across and back to the starting position) – and don't forget the contractions themselves are strengthening.

> And I have found that only doing the kind of bouncing that you do when skipping is the right kind of stress to heal this, at least for a while. No amount of strengthening the calves seems to have any effect on this weakness Hey @Kit_L very interesting! As part of my rigorous dance training, one of my coaches has us "jumping up and down" in place for minutes at a time. When I first started doing this a couple months ago, I could barely last a few seconds, before my calves felt like they were going to explode / cramp. However, half a year later, I can sustain this sort of movement in the order of minutes. With this in mind, I just noticed over the last couple weeks that my plantar fasciitis has (fingers crossed) disappeared completely and wonder if this exercise / stress of bouncing up and down, has contributed to the recovery.

The best thing you can do for your shoulders is learn to hang, eventually (apart from our hands) being fully relaxed, for time. We have some videos on our YouTube channel that talk about this. I would definitely do this before doing the warming up exercises for the shoulders – and you can do a set at the end as well and then chart the sensations in the shoulders over time. When I was making the YouTube video, my then training partner Craig and I learned to hang by one arm for a five full minutes, alternating the arms every 30". This is a bit extreme but nothing will help your shoulders and improve your grip strength more than this. Of course, start with two arms!

Ran four times this week,9.2k on Tuesday,Fartlek Wednesday,over 8k Thursday and 5k parkrun on Saturday. My left ankle is sore now,the back of my calves are heavy,lead like.I'll take today and tomorrow off

Not that we have a choice! But embracing this reality changes everything. And very nice progress on the chins, too.

They sure are,it is a PB from 40.30 to 39.28 which is good,its nice to see an improvement in performance

As I try to commit myself more fully to the practice of stretching and relaxation, I want to join the forum with a log of my sessions. My hope is that the goals I'm pursuing by enrolling in the Mastery courses have more substance to me as I share my progress in a more public way. I have never been very flexible, but as I enter my mid-30s I want to be a good steward of the mobility I have now while hopefully getting closer to ability like touching my toes, squatting with my heels on the ground, and moving my shoulders more freely. And I recognize that this will take real focus and patience. So I appreciate the space I have here to talk about how this goes! Today I began with the lower body. I did limbering movements Sumo Squat, Boxing the Compass, and Baby Flop for about 5 breaths each I did exercises Relaxed Lunge, Standing Knee lifts and 3 rounds of Full Squat, focusing on bringing my torso to my thighs. My right hip pops in the socket when I lift it and aches a bit when seated for longer periods. This has also been an impetus to take stretching and mobility more seriously. But in the squat I feel strong if not super mobile.

I'll try to get into a good rhythm and go from there

Cross country skiing...interesting!

LRP in the mornings. Mindful breaths throughout my days. Metta in the evenings. Skipping 8x45s on, 10s off. I felt much springier today than I have in any previous session. I'm still noticing it in my ankle afterwards, so I'm going to stick with the slow progression (2 weeks before I can move on) so I don't over do it. I was doing about 100 bounces each set so my pace is up a little bit from where I started too. 12x1 pullups +10kg neutral grip. 3s pause at the top. 3 minutes between sets. It's remarkable how much easier those feel than they did when I started doing them. 30s/side one arm hangs Knee ab-wheel rollouts 3x5 Short xc ski along the shore this afternoon ~30-40 minutes, strange texture relative to the powder or groomed trails I've skied on before. I was planning to stretch when I got back, but I cooled off too much and now I'm stiff (fell on the way in and worked some of the stabilizing muscles in the legs/hips that I seem to only use in any significant way when skiing). I'll probably do some limbering with the daily 5 later this evening.

What I'm hoping for too. What I know for sure is if I do nothing, no problem ever goes away. And pausing in the top position of chinups (and trying to pull the bar closer to the throat at the same time) is excellent isometric work (and perfect for people like me who are weakest in that position).

I did a lap of the Palace,some leg swings and 4 strides as a warmup.Met my uncle and did some kilometers with him.Finished with another lap of the palace and 5 hill sprints

Cue yourself to flex the lats hard first (so pull them down to the hips before pressing yourself off the floor); this can make them do more work (and you could feel a bit less in the triceps).

I designed the cue (to bring the arm up in front of the body and then overhead) explicitly to reduce the effect on the shoulders, because so many people are so tight there (we feel that movement in the shoulders, but it's because the lats are too tight). And people who have frozen shoulders and other problems of that sort have been able to do the side bend if they bring the arm across the front of their body instead of the usual out and up. As long as you reach as far off the fingertips as you can in the end position, the stretch should be the same.

I believe it is a true plus to hang daily. I try to do this every day myself. Initially, if there's not enough range of movement in the shoulders, you will feel it there – but as your lats loosen and the arms and spine come into alignment (and this might take a bit of active hanging to achieve), then one day you'll find that you can actually relax completely apart from your hands working. This is a major change and in my experience 100% beneficial.

LRP in the mornings. I'm planning to try metta during lunch break to see if moving it earlier helps with consistency. Skipping again yesterday, same 8 rounds of 30s on 10s off. I'm feeling it less in my calves today than I have previously, but still sticking with the the same volume for a couple more sessions before I change it. I'm quite aware of an old ankle sprain when I'm doing it, so I'm hoping it helps rehab that some more. 8x1 pullups + 10kg yesterday. Shorter rest between sets. --- 4x30s alternating one arm hangs (no rest) - for anyone wondering about the significant time jump compared to recent posts, I wrapped an old wide and thin resistance band around the bar so I wasn't slipping off from lack of friction. The problem with that method is the likelihood of blisters from too much friction, so chalk or handle bar tape still seem like they are probably better solutions in the long term. Pulling myself up high enough to get my other hand up onto the bar to switch was harder than I thought it would be, more practice needed. 3x12/side sandbag (20kg) split squats 15 minutes in a resting squat - I mostly spent the time exploring hands and wrist mobility. It's been a while since I sat in the bottom of a squat for a while, but still basically effortless. I went through this one today. Hip circles - tight left adductors with this one today for some reason and somewhat tight right hamstring. Side bend - not really significant, but I find I always bring the arm up and and over rather than across and up to bring on more stretch and assume that's a side effect of that movement being patterned from dead hangs and pullups. I liked the Sumo squat rotations a lot. I'm going to incorporate them more often. Good stretch in the groin. Added in some calf stretches before the squat <-> standing forward bend sequence to alleviate some of the tension in the back of the leg. Limbered into straight legs at the end. The triangle pose variant and contractions are quite intense today. My left side is quite a bit looser than the right. Hip swing -> lunge was interesting. My pauses before putting the foot down were very brief, so I'll work on those. Seated piriformis stretch. Very deep with this one today and not a whole lot of stretch on the right side, more stretch on the left side. The rotation that followed was novel. I'm not sure what I make of it, it didn't feel intense so much as unusual. There was a spot that stretched wonderfully just above my right hip that went away when I did it properly with the slump. There are some areas in the middle back that clearly haven't moved in that way in a long time too, but they weren't stretched so much as stiff. The diamond pose was an interesting comparison with the sensations in the Tailor pose, and I spent some time afterwards working on the same pelvis shifts (I can do that a little bit now, whereas previously there was much less ability for that). I'm finding more nuances in the sensations in the inner thighs and groin, and also with the muscles at the back of the hips that pull the knees down. Back bends - these were much needed today. I finished off with 20s tucked L-sit that for some reason cramped my triceps significantly since I was focused on pushing myself off the floor.

This is exactly why boxers skip, and I've probably mentioned this in the past. I am doing similar bounces at the moment myself, but without the rope. I have found increasing numbers in any set works the best for me. Once I got up to sets of 300 x 3, calves were rehabbed. And building the capacity to generate and use stored elastic energy is definitely part of the transition to 100% barefoot. Re. metta being sporadic in the evenings: I have found an inverse relationship between fatigue and metta, so not surprising. Keep going!

That last thread is a crack-up, even now. Thanks for digging it out!

It really shows you how much of our stress we create ourselves—and we're not aware we're doing it. Very insightful, yes. I can't remember his name, the ATG guy, but I'm pretty sure the heel coming up a bit is not a problem for that exercise. It was the stretching aspect of that exercise he credits with his excellent HF length. It is a great dynamic stretch, I feel. If you take away the balance component (finger against a wall), and really tuck the tail, square the hips, sink the hips until the back knee touches the floor, and use the back leg's quad to straighten the back leg, and stay there, you can make it an excellent active stretch out of it.

Today was the first time my knees touched the ground (with both shoulders down) in the spinal rotation exercise of the daily five. I don't do it as often as I probably should, but today my body just kind of spontaneous turned into a close enough facsimile of it that I did it. I was pleasantly surprised with where I ended up and found it gave quite a nice working of the muscles along the spine. LRP in the mornings. I'm learning a lot about myself by sticking to it at that time of day. Some mornings I'm more pressed for time than others and observing my response to LRP and just how much less inclined to relax I am because of the imminent deadline to leave right after an LRP on those days is insightful. Despite not really considering myself a morning person, I find myself waking up earlier to build in more time to remove the rush in the mornings so I can relax into my days. Metta in the evenings is still quite sporadic. I've been considering some form of indoor cardio for a while. Reading Kit's comment here and having made multiple attempts over the years to start skipping that didn't stick, I decided to finally just embrace the learning that comes with picking up a new skill. I'm planning on a pretty gradual increase to avoid shin splits and aggravating other old injuries, so did 5 minutes of 20s on 10s off to start. --- Pullups 6x1 +10kg neutral grip (did one regular grip--markedly harder than the others in the upper back) One arm hangs 2x10s/side I tried the tucked ow + front lever tuck variation. I will keep it in mind and come back to it when I'm stronger than I am now or when the weighted pullups feel easier than they do now. That is a brilliant combination though. Wrist warmup - supporting the bad wrist with the good hand through the awkward palm up variations to warm into it. This is one of those things that like physio is quite painful until I eventually get used to it. In this case, it's, I assume fascia running along the ulna and some tendons on the inside of the wrist where I seem to be feeling it. I had the same general problem with pushups early on, and again when trying to do diamond pushups Yesterdayages back. I'm going to keep working at it. Calf stretches + hamstring limbers - preparatory for the L-sits so I'm not limited by any tightness in the back of the leg. Chest stretch - I usually follow it up with some wide grip on a stick (my rod of correction is a 4' length of dowel) overhead and then let my chest relax as my straight arms fall and stretch backwards. L-sit 10s full today. The rest were one leg up one leg down. Still more limited by the pressing myself off the ground for that length of time than by core strength with these. Gracilis is tight on the right side with these today. I had planned to go through the rest of the Monkey gym circuit 1 and I should have started with it instead of the pullups or skipping. Sandbag (really a 20kg sack of wood pellets, but I'll refer to it as a sandbag since that's what it resembles) split squats 2x10/side. I'm not sure how I'll react to these, so I erred on the side of caution with the volume but after I started to feel them. I'm not used to the form with these, but I'm trying to keep the weight forward. 1x10/side ATG split squats (trying to keep my front heel down, hamstring to calf, feel the hip flexor in my back leg to get low enough). I may need to do these on blocks to get full range before my back knee hits the ground if I keep my front heel down. I'll stretch tomorrow or Sunday unless I'm too sore.

That is because your ankles are not loose enough and the muscles at the front of the shin have to work hard to pull the knee as far forward as possible against that resistance. Same with the lower back: if your ankles are not loose enough, the only way to maintain your balance is to bend the trunk forward to bring the central gravity forward. Work on all the ankle stretches we have, both on our side and on YouTube. Once you're loose enough in the ankles, you'll be able to drop your body weight down without any muscular effort whatsoever – and the weight of the body will keep you in the bottom position of the squat. This is how most Asians hang around to smoke a cigarette –and we're talking about 80 and 90 year-old men here. It's definitely doable and it will only take time and a bit of effort.

Worked on my squat today limbering: boxing the compass, butterfly and some sumo squat exercises: relaxed lunge, diamond pose and a little time in full squat with my heels elevated. Diamond pose is something I feel down the entire length of my leg, with sharper sensation behind the knees. Another pose I am interested to stick with and observe over time, not least of which because I saw a video of 100 year old Dick Van Dyke doing the pose with ease. Lunging is strongest in my hips, and I’m trying to avoid over doing it there because I’ve felt like knots multiply in my flexors after too much direct pulling. Trying to strike a balance. Holding a deep squat, I feel a lot of effort in my shins, hips, and back. My right knee is difficult but not terrible. I feel confident here though, very optimistic about room for potential in this pose. I plan to begin my day tomorrow with a relaxation lesson as a kind of Friday treat. I’m looking forward to it!

@Matt Chung: the location looks like the same spot that literally everyone holds tension in: the lower fibres of levator scapulae. Once the soreness settles down, you can test this by carefully taking the head forwards with a neutral thoracic spine, then taking the head to the side (while maintaining the forwardness). You'll soon know if it's LS. Strengthening the shrugging muscles (there are lots of them; don't overthink it) usually works in time. Once a week will be enough. In my clinical experience, it's unusual to injure the rhomboids. LS is (statistically) much more likely. Rhomboids are strengthened by full protraction/retraction in horizontal pulling movements. For everyone, some strengthening of horizontal pushing and pulling muscles, along with complementary vertical pushing and pulling is necessary in today's sedentary life.

Thanks Kit, I'll give that variation a try the next time I do them.

That's some time under tension there. If you want some variation (and I'm working on these myself at the moment), once you've got the initial position do tuck front lever rows – the arm and back effect, assuming you're doing full range of movement from the bottom (so, protract), is very intense. I normally start the rep with the rows, doing as many as I can (10–15, the last being partials), and only then do I untuck the legs and then hold the hardest position I can statically, for at least 10 to 15 seconds, and I hold it until I'm pulled to the ground by gravity and I'm working negatively the whole time, resisting as hard as I can. I normally only do two of these and that is my whole session on that exercise. I have been working like this for a couple of months, and I have found that I've gotten stronger every workout – the last time I did these, which was two days ago, my thighs were vertical in the untucked position with a straight back.

Thanks for the welcome! I read the article after a day and will have more words in response on relaxation and what it means for me in this moment when I have a little more time, but suffice to say I wish I'd spent more time on that practice of quiet rather than digesting the torrent of really aggravating footage out of Minneapolis today! No good segue: here was my stretch practice: The shoulder warm up is actually hard work for me lol, even just the swinging and circling of the arms. I like the feeling of loosening and warmth but it’s honest work. I found a nice beam as an anchor point and a strong band for Yuri band exercises, which do feel effective in unbinding the shoulder in a very palpable way. I especially feel tight on my left side when pulling behind the body at the midpoint with the band. Also the left when pointing upward, I feel it radiate from the point of my shoulder to my neck. Not in a terrible painful way but in a locked way if that makes sense. I love the stick movements. Really feel in control of the exploration here. Just fun. Internal rotation is also much tighter on my left side. I am right-handed so this probably shouldn’t be entirely surprising but it’s interesting to pay more attention to the discrepancies and how they materialize. For exercises, I did the modified cat pose, both on the ground and on a chair as I don’t have stall bars. I did some internal rotation against the wall. And I did about 5 seconds of hanging by my full weight from each arm, after which I cheated and did some hanging with my feet supporting most of my weight but exploring the range of motion in the shoulder. All three of these exercises were on the strong side of sensations so I feel properly spent by this effort. I will be looking at a long relaxation session when I have time later during this long weekend.

LRP in the mornings and mindful breaths through the day are both working well. I finally got around to listening to Patrick Kearney's Mindfulness Immersed in Body talk (SBS 2015), fascinating listen. The timing and length of metta in the evenings is more sporadic than is ideal, but reasonably consistent overall. Quite a bit of fatigue from the last session. I expect there will be a fair bit of that from today's session too. I'm tentatively planning on alternating between sessions like today's and the Monkey Gym circuits, but I'll see how things feel and what progress is like. I don't think I can combine the two without a hefty drop in intensity somewhere. One arm hangs (2x10s/side). Towel hangs (2 hands) 1x10s, some slipping toward the end, but not enough to slide off. I'm not sure if it's because my towel is too thick, but I find the towel hangs significantly harder in terms of grip strength--more practice needed. Pullups 4x1 +10kg, 6,5,4,3 at bodyweight. I did the last 3 with a palms in grip and was surprised how awkward it felt since I used to prefer it many years ago. Some strange sensations in the front of shoulders when hanging in it (disappeared when I started pulling up). I'll play around with that a little more to see what's going on there since it might just be related to my hand position on the bar. More core and chest involvement than I've noticed before. Wrist warmup, I spent a good couple minutes working on palms up, fingers in, make a fist exercise and was pleased with how much it limbered with working into it using my other hand on it for stability/preventing pulling sensations in the back of my hand. Still not comfortable, but markedly better than the last session. 3x10s band holds in the top of an L-sit (heels on floor). Uncomfortable for the wrist from the added force, better on fists with this one. 2x20 leg raises - adding a brief pause at the top and trying to avoid momentum. My legs are a bit above horizontal at the top. 2x25 pushups - slow and controlled. 1x10s tuck front-lever holds. Difficult and very lat intensive at this point in the session. More core involvement this time than previously. I did a few more (less horizontal than for the holds) after as tucked inverted rows rather than holds to work on horizontal pulling a little. 1x5,4,3,2,1/side single leg squat (slight pull backwards at bottom for assistance on the way up). These are getting (slightly) easier. --- Skandasana - Feeling easier, less stretch on the right than the left side, so I'm not 100% if that's just looser today or if I'm cheating myself out of the stretch on that side somehow, but the depth is quite low and exploring that side didn't seem to increase the stretch sensations at all. Reaching triangle - Very intense in the inner thigh, but it feels like I can do this one correctly now, whereas previous attempts I found too intense. I will add it into the rotation more regularly. The sensation of pulling forward myself with the groin muscles feels unique. Lots of hamstring stretch with this one too. I noticed the calves were tight, so I stretched them (included some more side to side/rotation of the torso to work different lines), before repeating this one a few more times on each side. Wide legged elephant walk - more stretch through the lower back with this one as I work to figure out how to unlock the folding the pelvis forward in that movement. I took a more relaxed approach that I have lately and it makes quite a difference. Half pancake - Onto the floor with this one. Quite intense hamstring on the right side when sort of over the leg, and more intense gracilis/inner thigh today on the left side especially when I move towards the center. Marked improvement in comfort and range of motion compared to previous sessions, some asymmetries between sides are becoming clearer. Top of the ankles need some stretch for this to be entirely comfortable--even using seiza as a bit of a warmup. More sensations in the low back as the pelvis starts to tilt. I'm being diligent about keeping the movement there rather than rounding the back forward. Tailor pose - I revisited soft supports under the knees with this one since my knees are now low enough to rest on things of reasonable height. No real difference that I can tell which is good to know too. I am much more aware of what's going on in this exercise than I used to be too which is nice, and my contractions are definitely getting stronger. Single leg dog pose - My approach to this one is more as an exploration than a stretch. I've had it in mind to try again for months and haven't until today. I don't have ladder bars, so I improvised a bit (partially successful) and will try to see if I can wrangle some kind of better support to make it a little less taxing on the shoulders. More intensity in the calves than the hamstrings today, but also some hamstring. The calves are mostly feeling it in the outside at the top. It'll be good for me to practice this one. I'm planning to work through the foot sequence tonight or tomorrow to work on flexibility through the top of the foot/ankle and counteract the effects of too much time spent in winter boots.

As a counter to all the serious stuff on this website, here is a picture of me in a performance just before Christmas, dressed as a leopard in a dance piece. NB - I tweaked a muscle on my good side, so this is my bad side, hence the forward lean, and the tilted hips. As usual, I aim for perfection. and as always, I miss.