Leaderboard

> Your consistency and progress have both been very inspiring for me (and kept me going when I first started and hadn't yet learned that stretching was something other than just holding a position). Thanks so much for the kind words. Mutual inspiration for sure. And upon reflection, I think some of the early days of my ST journey were driven by multiple factors, one of which was fear: "you privately fear yourself to be at the core: prone to backsliding at the first opportunity"[1]. And ironically, though I am less consistent than I was during the initial days ST journey, I have less fear. Moreover, my life situation has changed dramatically (I'm now working; had taken multiple months off in the midst of a challenging divorce and had luckily harnessed that time to explore stretching). > The more I've stretched, the more I recognize just how significant this insight is Agree with you. I'm aware that this is a lesson that I learn and continue to relearn over and over. [1] From Oliver Burkeman's Meditation for Mortals

Day 365 of stretching and flexibility / 1 year anniversary of Stretch Therapy (ST) First and foremost, want to say thanks to everyone (especially Kit) on the forum. I appreciate both the feedback, comments, and I also draw lots of inspiration from your comments and your own posts and other threads. It's been quite a year and though I'm no where near where I'd like to be in terms of flexibility and strength, I am proud of my own consistency this past year despite numerous (failed) attempts over the past 15-20 years. Though today marks day 368, I recorded the above on my 1 year anniversary of Stretch Therapy Most intense pain (right now) continues to be my left hip flexor, when I draw my knee towards my chest. This is the same pain (described below) sensation I more or less wake up with every day. Though I believe I am healing this part of my body, I'm less confident compared to other parts of my body parts healing since the left hip flexor pain has been lingering the longest (more details on this below) From an outside perspective, some of the positions I'm in may seem like I'm doing much (e.g. right leg out, toes pointed upwards) and to me that's not as important as the internal sensations that I'm experiencing (e.g. excruciating ankle pain that's slowly healing, that I'm sure) I'm more confident in tinkering around. Though some of the exercises draw inspiration from others (including ST starter course), some positions I find myself holding come from tinkering and becoming aware (in that moment) of a painful sensation or restriction. A few other things on the top of my mind > If you have not been doing remedial stretching, limbering, and relaxing, please don't be surprised to wake up one day to find that you've got a pain in some part of your body For me, this hits homes because I feel lately because though I am significantly more loose and flexible than 1 year ago, I feel and more aware of my pain — especially in my (order of pain from highest to lowest) left hip flexor, right ankle — in my body. Despite working my hip flexors and waking up everyday with somewhat excruciating left hip flexor pain (including today), I belief that in time, the pain will be something of the past; even more so because I remember Kit mentioning in some post (or an email) that it was year(s) he would wake up with lower back pain, which caused him to more or less crawl out of bed, despite his consistent stretching, strengthening, relaxing. That anecdote plays a role in me continuing to persevere despite my current frustration.

No, it doesn't—and isn't that great? Yes, I have been trying to get this point across to students for about 30 years now – actually it's probably closer to 40. What you feel in your body is what constructs the reality that you experience. When you're stronger you can do more of everything.

I wasn't planning on posting here, because the sinking of our boat had nothing to do with being flexible or not being flexible! It was a structural failure of a catamaran design in poor weather conditions. However, having said that, there is no doubt that my years of lying relaxation practice plus conventional sitting meditation practice meant that I did not panic when the boat started sinking. We were quite way offshore as well. Anyhow, the upshot was that the boat sank shortly after I was rescued by Marine rescue Port Kembla. That's probably enough for here. All is good, and the insurance company paid the full agreed value for the boat within two weeks – which I think is unheard of in the insurance world!

Day 346 of stretching and flexibility Today, did a class that combines my two loves: dancing and yoga. Did an LRP yesterday and today as well. Mind constantly racing while performing LRP and continue to feel the resistance every time. But we continue. Also, though I don't typically post Instagram / social media related stuff in this post, I am re-posting my 2 year dance journey because I had quoted something @Kit_L had shared on the forum, around progress being imperceptible. Anyways, the video I had posted has (for me) gone viral on Instagram (6000+ views in the last couple days), 500+ interactions, ~100 comments. All that to say is that my dance, and my life, are linked to this stretching journey too:

> All of the adaptation occurs when you're not stretching, and you have to give the body time to recover. As well, use as many of the mobility exercises as you can on your resting days > (any muscle used in its shortened end of the range of movement is likely to spasm) Though I've read the above statements written slightly throughout the forum, every time I read them they serve as reminders and reflect what I've experienced first hand through (just under a year) stretching and flexibility journey. I myself have a tendency to over-do things and recognize that sprinkling in more rest time allows the adaptions to kick in.

Your consistency and progress have both been very inspiring for me (and kept me going when I first started and hadn't yet learned that stretching was something other than just holding a position). The more I've stretched, the more I recognize just how significant this insight is [I wanted to refer to that particular insight in a plural way, because I keep catching it in different ways and deepening my understanding of it, but it read a little too strangely]. That and Kit's "Breathe and Relax" have taken on much more significance than I ever would have suspected when I first heard it.

Not the best authority on a subject which has few authorities. I've been in this business for a while now, and I have never heard of "shocked muscles". As well, with a long background in strength training, including heavy Olympic lifting and a stint in powerlifting, I have never seen or heard of shocked muscles in either of these environments either. It is common for beginners in strength training to get stronger quickly, and if you put on 10 kg of mostly muscle in a year, then you have gotten strong quickly indeed and put on a significant amount of muscle. Pain is considered a threshold phenomenon. What this term means is that a problem can manifest over period of time but until it reaches a threshold, you don't feel any pain at all, even though the causes are present. Then one day suddenly you feel pain. This point is that this is not a linear phenomenon. If you have not been doing remedial stretching, limbering, and relaxing, please don't be surprised to wake up one day to find that you've got a pain in some part of your body. I would go very easy on strength training for a while (do only bodyweight exercise – you'll be amazed you will not lose your strength and your muscle anywhere near as quickly as all the experts tell you that you will), and I would research on how to limber, and how to embody the experience of deep relaxation. Enough of the right kind of movement, and enough relaxation, and this problem that you have at the moment will be a memory. If anyone else on the Forum has heard of shocked muscles, please post here.

I went through programs 13 and 14 a few days after the last post. Both well worth the time, but I didn't take notes on it since I'd planned to write this not long afterwards and then didn't get around to it. I plan to continue interspersing programs from the starter course into my training since they cover a lot of areas that I've been missing. That ends up keeping me feeling a whole lot more comfortable than I would be otherwise. I've been spending a lot of time with various squats in the last week and moving between the bottom positions of one leg, two leg, and Cossack squats without getting up or stabilizing myself with my hands. I've discovered lots of stabilizing muscles that aren't used to moving between those positions even though I'm reasonably comfortable in the end positions of all of them. I can do freestanding Cossack squats now, though they still aren't easy (particularly when I start to turn towards the straight leg). But I'm at a point where doing them frequently is no longer something that my body objects to, even if the volume on any given day isn't all that high. I think part of my difficulty with them is coming from the last little bit of movement before my hamstring is resting on my calf and the first bit when getting out of it again after being in the 'resting' Cossack squat. Keeping my weight far enough forward in that transition area is still quite awkward unless I put my hands down, use a weight, or have something to grab onto, but it's getting easier. The cramping on the outside of the hip is gone until I start turning towards the straight leg, but even then it's becoming more an intense contraction than uncomfortable cramping. Overall, it's a much more comfortable movement now than it was a month ago, but it's also obvious to me that I still have a long way to go before it will feel like a normal position. After looking at @Matt Chung's post on his progress with one legged squats I decided to see if my left knee was feeling up to training for them again. It seems to be, as long as I'm careful about it. So I've done some negatives, static holds part way through, and spent a good amount of time in the bottom position. I've also started to explore moving back and forth between sitting on the floor and the bottom of a one legged squat (not a static movement for me, but I was a little surprised that it was possible at all). I've also done some lifts and static holds of the straight leg slightly upwards in the bottom position (quite intense for the quads, hip flexors, and core, but without the hamstring limitation I'd have if I tried to do the same thing standing up). So far there is less DOMS this time around than the first time I worked up to them which is nice. I did some sessions (~20-30 minutes) reading in the resting squat. I finally understand that I can, for lack of a better way of putting it, just sit on the bottom part of my calves and the little bit of effort that eventually became uncomfortable just goes away entirely. That said, my feet now tend to go to sleep if I'm in the position for that long in this new relaxed way, so I either need to spend some more time in it to see if familiarity fixes it or else change my stance a little to avoid that. I did some (2x5/side) pushups with one arm out farther to the side than usual, some more pullups (4,3,2,2), 60s static hold in the top position for ring dips, and some legs raised ring rows (6,6,5,4,6) since my last post as well. LRP.

Day 362 of stretching and flexibility journey Summary: Hit the gym yesterday and worked on single leg squat variations. Played with position of pelvis to see how I can balance between using my quads vs hip flexors. Less cramping than 4 weeks ago (from what I can remember) in the rectus femoris. Also, because I've been (seems like more recently) waking up with left hip flexor pain, and since its been nagging for a while, in addition to the stretches I've been doing, I'm exploring strengthening exercises (using kettle bell and performing weighted hip flexion). Discovered (again, a reminder I suppose) that my left leg is much weaker than right - I can smoothly single leg squat with my right leg but with my left, there are certain positions within the range where I feel my left leg unable to sustain the squat and I've up until now have had a tendency to quickly move past those positions of instability and now trying to, when reaching those position, HOLD it for as long as possible Played around with leaning forwards and backwards during single leg squat - I think last couple weeks, I was so focused on engaging the hamstrings so in order to engage the posterior chain, would lean back. But I cannot balance myself (without the Kettlebell) when over emphasizing the hamstring engagement (part of it has to do with the fact I now know how to feel and engage the hamstring). But realize I was to also, after talking with a friend who can single leg squat, equally engage the quads. As such, leaning forward more and leveraging the ankle mobility Attempted "couch stretch" - boy, my quads are tight (as well as weak, I think) and during the exercise, the mind had the thought/urge to "cheat" the position to make it seem as though I could actually obtain a further range of motion (ROM) than I actually could but reminded myself "why am I doing this?" and then when I tail tucked, my ROM significantly reduced but I could FEEL the stretch sensation deeply

And the state of one's mind powerfully influences all muscles and fascia in the whole body. The mind's effect, in this regard, is the stronger, I believe. Please do outline any practices and strategies that you have found effective in this regard; we're all eager to find more effective methods, and the longer agent orange is in the W. House, the more pressing this is becoming. I should also say here in case anyone thinks that my recommendation to 'embody the state of deep relaxation' is something that will happen after doing a few yoga nidras is made lightly, that I spent six months on retreat in New Mexico once where all I did during the daytime was walking and doing four or five extended lying relaxation practices and I have detailed those elsewhere. Achieving the embodied state of relaxation is something that will take some people many months if not years to achieve – but the changes in one's body and the experience of relief and the robustness of this new state in the face of new stressors will make it all worth it.

Day 361 of stretching and flexibility Most recently, having been doing heavy stretch sessions but predominately daily limbering. I would like to devote more time moving forwards however recent life changes (e.g. going back to work) have made it a tad more challenging logistics wise. Yesterday was fantastic. My dance instructor friend in London recently started teaching a class that combines both dance and yoga. The first house is (relatively) vigorous exercise for 60 minutes followed by 30 minutes of yoga. I typically struggle with just doing yoga only classes because it often takes a bit for my body to warm up and I'm finding that my body responds very well to heavy dance before yoga. Reflections Halasana Pose - I was surprised how much further my legs could extend over my head however even though I felt I could reach my legs further since I didn't feel restriction in my hamstrings (like I normally do) but it was my actual neck that I felt unsafe about Hamstring activation - this may be obvious to others on the forum but for me, I'm finding that I can FINALLY (after about a year of stretching) really FEEL and ENGAGE my hamstrings and this has much to do with DRIVING the hips backwards

Excellent insight. Likewise on the insight about frequency of stretching – most people don't need to do as much as they are told to do by 'the experts'. If we tune into what our body reports back to us, like you have found, you may end up with different frequencies for different parts of the body as well. Listen to what the body says – it never lies. All good; carry on!

A brief reply from me today; and if what I write is not sufficiently helpful, please post again. In order of likely causes, you mentions that you are getting a partner to stretch your hip flexors. This is a very good start. As well, search for "quad hip flexor" on our YouTube channel. Do twice a week, if you're fully recovered from the last workout. Once a week will be effective. You absolutely need to recover from the previous workout, particularly in the case of the first half dozen sessions. It takes a long time to loosen the quads and hip flexors. I noticed your background of soccer – all soccer players have extremely tight quads and hip flexors – and they are also very strong as well. Nothing comes for free in this world! As well, you cannot effectively meditate with your knees off the ground as your picture shows; pain is guaranteed. Please put something underneath the outside of those knees like a rolled up hand towel and rest the knees on the support. On meditation retreats, this is called "building a nest". Once you can rest your knees on supports, you will find that the hip flexors will relax to some extent, and this will allow you to sit up straighter. Have you seen the How to sit for meditation video on YouTube? It has all the exercises you need and is follow along. With respect to sitting in the Burmese position, given how high your knees are up off the floor, you absolutely need a thicker cushion to sit on. You could even use a low bench to test this theory – when your hips are sufficiently higher, your back will be able to be straightened with less effort and your legs will rest on the ground. You may need something almost 200 mm in height.

Day 355 of stretching and flexibility journey Had the thought recently that with stretching and flexibility, like other aspects of life, there's no endpoint, no finite destination, but constant tweaking. It never ends. Spent a few minutes this morning searching for a thread / quote that Kit had contributed to and finally stumbled on it: > The deeper reality that is at work here is that until the body feels that it's strong enough to feel completely safe in the full side splits position, no matter where that is for you, the apprehension reflex* will stop you from relaxing fully in the end position. When you're strong enough, then you'll be able to relax fully. The reason I've been thinking about this is because started 2 months ago, I started hitting the gym once a week and strength training my legs (and the entire posterior chain) with single leg dead lifts, and the variations for the single leg squat (below). And recently, almost a year lately, I'm getting pretty darn close to being able to being able to touch my toes (just under a year ago, could barely reach passed my knees) in a RELAXED state. And to me it feels that recently, I've experienced a leap in flexibility (particularly around the hamstrings) and suspect it's both a combination of the cumulative stretching over the past year AND last couple months of strength training. It feels as though the stronger I get (using weights or calisthenics), the more my body TRUSTS me to both transition into a certain position and hold it. Areas I'm still working on Rehabbing my left shoulder - puppy pose still hurts and uncomfortable quite a bit but I believe (similar to right shoulder) that it will be a matter of time before things just melt into place. Also continuing to do (about 30 second) pull up bar hangs Rehabbing my right ankle - while resting the heel of my foot on the floor, if I drive my foot down towards the ground, I get excruciating pain around achilles heel (I believe this is the same ankle I sprang and snapped years ago) however over the past 3-4 months, the intensity of the pain has reduced. Unsure how long it will take before this ankle heals fully but again, relegating control here and continuing to do the exercises. Trust Experimentation with single legged squats For the first time in my life, my hamstrings feel sore. Historically, it's always been my quadriceps so something is changing here. During single legged squats, and the variations, I am playing around with shifting my hips back (which activates my hamstrings and glutes). However, I think I've over-corrected a bit because most recently, when attempting single legged squats, it feels as though I'm no longer leveraging my quads. Will keep playing here

Hey matt, wanted to chime in and thought this progress is looking awesome! Keep it up

Not a trditional pancke! Indeed - I agree! "But anyone can get there if they're prepared to put the time and effort in" - at this rate of progress, I shall probably be dead before I achieve a perfect straight line. But at least my leg flexibility isnt getting worse (and may be improving very slowly), so I'm having fun with that; unlike my spinal flexibility which is deteriorating as my vertebral discs compress with age (I am losing height at the standard rate with age). Very sorry to see about your boat by the way; that must be very distressing. All my condolences. I'm glad you are OK though. Maybe you will tell us more one day.

Yeh, nah (as the infamous OzzyMan loves to say). But I think you could, and it might be worth trying. And your clip is playing on our channel now and there are some nice comments there: Go Matt!

I did a brief, pretty angled wall handstand a few days ago. My wrist was slightly sore afterwards, but seemed to tolerate it okay--similar to when I first started doing pushups on it again. I'll probably use the progression from https://stretchtherapy.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/wrist-mobility_bodyline-exercises_handstands.pdf and add in some brief practice occasionally. I've been doing pullup ladders with pretty low rungs (3-4) to start acclimating myself to the volume of those again, but will probably stick with only a session or two a week. I've been doing bar hangs as well, both short one handed hangs and longer two handed hangs. My sumo squats improved significantly between this post and the last one. The Cossack squats are becoming easier, and I've started adding a hand on the arch side of the foot on the stretched leg sometimes to increase the intensity. I've also started practicing the side to side variation using a kettlebell in front of me on the floor to provide a little bit of counter balance to keep my heels down instead of coming up as they tend to want to do. I have some cramping in the outer part of my hips (especially on that right depending on far out to the side my leg is) in what I think is the tensor fasciae latae (but could easily be something else in that general region) in the bottom position as my leg goes farther out to the side. I'm going to start introducing the squashed frog from E4 and see if that helps with some resilience to the cramping there along with the sitting piriformis stretch, and a variation of the 'baby flops' with one foot resting on the knee of the other that intensifies the stretch in the outer hip quite nicely. It's very interesting to me how much more I notice about everything else that's tight or working hard in the position now that the adductor/gracilis sensation is much less intense than when I started. It's also obvious to me that I need to work on some ankle strength and stability to avoid the collapsing the arch in the free standing version. I'm happy to report that the toes on my right foot are spreading better than they were before, and the perceived mental effort is reduced. My conscious control of the right little toe has improved to the point that I can move it independently, though I'm still building up the muscles there since they aren't strong enough to full explore the range of motion without cramping up. LRP.

> Outstanding. Does Youtube have any capacity to cross-post—I would really like to feature your video on our channel. Or you could send the original to me and I can upload it on our channel and credit you (of course). I'm unsure about YouTube's cross-posting capabilities and seems like the closest thing is a "remix". Appreciate the thought Kit and share it with you via Google Drive (here). > Has anybody commented on the change in the tone of your voice? It sounds so relaxed and confident at the same time, and the audio quality is excellent on that video. Congratulations! Not yet you are the first! And it's funny that you pointed this out because then I went down a rabbit hole of watching old videos of mine, where i narrate, and there is a pretty significant difference but I honestly had not noticed it until you pointed it out. I'm coming up on almost 365 days of stretching (I re-started LRP again, for like the 100th time, a few days ago) and I have no doubts that stretching / relaxation has impacted me in both subtle and obvious ways.

In the lunge position (and its variations) we are always playing hip flexor tension against hamstring tension; if we lean forwards, hamstring tension increases; and vice versa if we lean back. In any lunge, there is always tension in both groups: this is intentional. The reduce the effect in the back leg, though, once in position, use the HFs to draw the back leg's knee forward a little—this will decrease the tension in the back leg. Leaning forwards with a straight back can be added (this will further decrease tension in the back leg and simultaneously decrease tension in the top of the back leg. Play with these, and please report back.

Day 339 of stretching and flexibility journey Quick short post. Flew from London to Seattle and visited the states for about 2 weeks to see friends and family. So more or less was disconnected from this platform but miss the frequent posts and reading of threads. While in the states, I would limber pretty much every day, my nieces and daughter following along since they are in gymnastics and enjoyed showing off their new moves to me (I felt really inspired). I did hit the gym once while I was there and continued working on the single leg dead lift and pistol squat variations. I was surprised to find that I can squat deeper (on a single leg) and was able to do more repetitions. Strength training, as others have said on this thread, seems to be more "straight forward" (in terms of gains and progressions) than compared to flexibility. Something I've mentioned here before but when I wake up in the morning, my left rectus femoris (and potentially another one or more hip muscles connecting at the hip) is so tight and painful and before I even fully gain consciousness, when I'm half asleep, I find myself drawing my left knee towards my chest in the morning, tensing at the hip, to get my hip to relax. After about 10-15 minutes post waking up, my hip hurts less. At first, I had thoughts of how I am sleeping at night (my left leg tends to sleep in the squashed frog like position) but wonder if it's the reverse: I am sleeping that way because I am stiff. Unsure for now. Regardless, will continue with stretching etc.

@Ned: Have you seen this version? The big features are moving your balance point forwards by coming up on the ball of the support leg's foot, and bending the straight leg, and then using the quads to re-stretch that leg – this is a completely different sensation. This is the move that unlocked my Cossacks for sure.

Yoga nidra, of course. A standing practice like this, if done regularly, can do wonders to ease hidden tensions. For me the tight links are hips and neck, but different people have different restrictions. Samatha-style meditation takes a while to kick in, but can sustain nearly any other practice and in itself induces relaxation Vipassana/Shikantaza. I'd like to make it a routine like I used to do years ago, but to make the most of it takes time and it's a very scarce resource these days. It's however useful when the mind is crowded with thoughts and/or when I need to figure out what I'm feeling Om chanting, as odd as it may sound, helps me relaxing my face and diaphragm. I just began doing it, so it's too early to draw final conclusions, but so far I have had good results. There's a practice Gurdjieff referred to as “self-remembering” and I believe it's quite similar to a yogic practice called “Abide in that which is unchanging”. It's basically the opposite of mindfulness, in the sense that you have to discard all transient sensations (basically everything) in search for what is constant within you — the observer. It can be done as a sitting practice, but I usually do it randomly during the day when I feel stress creeping in. What triggers this awareness for me is asking the question “Am I asleep or am I awake”?. Then a feeling pops up and as I focus on it everything else gets lower in intensity. Differently from other meditation practices, you can keep up this even while doing daily activities, you just need to keep that feeling into your awareness. Of course it's difficult and at some point you'll “forget yourself”. Physical training. I don't care if it's weightlifting, running, stretching or hatha yoga: if I don't discharge energy, I get tense easier. Occasionally pranayama. Mainly box-breathing. But it's not really a routine I have, just something I try when everything else seems to fail me. The only thing I try do daily, with extremely high priority is Samatha. I feel focus is central to everything else and I can always find time for a quick session. These days I usually do Om chanting if I only have 10 minutes, otherwise it's 15-30 minutes of Samatha. The other practices, I do most days and sometimes circle between them. I've found that they seem to support each others well. I'm not familiar with chakra systems, but I do know some practices require performing “bandas” and engaging with muscle contractions even at the perineum. So, yeah, I imagine pelvis is part of the chakra system.

Try sitting on a sticky Yoga mat or similar: that will stop the hips moving forwards. And in my experience, cushions are just way too soft for Support – try a couple of yoga blocks or something like that on top of this the sticky mat and that should hold you in position way more effectively. And these devices can be bought incredibly cheaply now, so don't buy high-quality ones to try this idea out. Anything like these will do.

Hi! My pelvic floor is still more or less a source of concern, but afaik my prostate is fine and I have no major symptoms. I take care of the area through weekly stretches, drills and relaxation practices. I'm also training it for strength because I definitely lack it. I'm much more knowledgeable now, mainly due to the degree I'm studying to obtain. True, simple, yet not at all easy. There's a handful of roads that leads there, but you need to have constant vigilance not to get overwhelmed by old patterns. Yoga nidra is fantastic, but I find it easier to carry the results into my messy life when I supplement with other practices and strategies. While I have some experience in this regard, I'm no master and I frequently get caught into pitfalls. Every muscle that has insertion on the hips can influence the pelvic floor. Adductors and hip flexors are commonly tight and even neglected strength-wise, so addressing them is a good idea. Personally I find that a long session of piriformis stretch has incredible effects across the whole pelvis. The key is experimentation to find the most crucial areas. Drills can be good, but require time and dedication because you need to sustain a movement pattern or static pose for a long period of time, letting gravity and kinetic energy doing the work. I suppose hatha yoga can be beneficial, personally I have experience with Qigong-style training. I want to also mention breathing. The pelvic floor is also called “pelvic diaphragm” and has a synergistic relationship with the diaphragm muscle: it expands on the inhale and shortens on the exhale. Mastering a diaphragmatic breathing and learning to feel the pelvic floor to enhance the relaxation during the in-breath has been quite useful for me. Similarly, if one is trying to work on strength and do kegels, it's crucial to do the contractions while exhaling. Of course, if there's an issue of tightness down there, it's best to stretch/relax the area after strength training. Notice also that “pelvic floor” is a general term encompassing a set of muscles with slightly different functions. Contractions can be focused on the anus, on the urethra, or on the whole pelvis. Learning to feel the difference brings best results and could prevent side-effects.

No, not if there are exercises in it that you can't yet do—because attempting them would be stretching, not limbering. Whichever parts you can do, while staying relaxed, can be limbering though, and these can be done daily, but you might become bored with them if you do. Anything done daily runs the risk of becoming routine—and if this happens, awareness has left the room. Only do these kind of things with full awareness, and presence in the sensations you experience as you are doing these things. No, just because you said this is painful. Do not do this. Try sitting on a low bench as I suggested (~200 mm) just for a moment or two. Anything solid around that will do. Report back. Alternatively, try a seiza chair. These are used like this: And please work on the advanced piriformis pose (it's the first pose on this page, HERE; lack of relaxed length in these muscles is why your pelvis is tilted back when you sit as you show above. This is also why you need a much higher support to sit on.

Words to live by; I know everyone reading here will have heard a form of this sentiment many times. THE solution, long-term, is to have the experience of being deeply relaxed embodied, so you can return to it any time. What we experience as "stress" is internally created—which is why two people witnessing the same event can have completely different responses to it internally. Whatever you experience as stress creates tension in your body. Increase tension in all of the parts that we talk about on this forum is exactly the problem of modern life. This is what the relaxation part of our work is all about. And yet you all will have seen the tremendous resistance that some people have to doing a lying relaxation practice – even while they acknowledge the value of it. There is no other way of learning how to be relaxed than actually practising those exercises. They're all free from our site. They work. The second point to consider for the problem you talk about above is mastering the tailor pose. The tailor pose definitely stretches the pelvic floor muscles, and in Iyengar's book Light on yoga, the tailor pose (Badhakonasana, Sk.)is regarded as being the most important pose for prostate health. It's not the first part that is the most important (getting the knees down onto the floor), it's the 'pulling the body with a straight back forward between the legs' part. That is the most important part. It's also the hardest part. I can't comment on the pose of the child because I don't feel that that affects my pelvic floor directly. The tailor post does, I believe, but please try it yourself and report back here. This is an important topic.

I've been feeling quite tight lately (I think calisthenics, but also not doing enough general stretching/limbering since I've been more focused on Cossack squats), and have the sense that I needed to spend some time stretching everything else. So to cover what I haven't been doing and sort of get a general sense of where I'm at again, I added module 2 of the starter course back in this week and have been doing some limbering Cossack squats, 'baby flops', and knee raises here and there. I feel much better at the end of this week than the start of it and it was good to be reminded of some cues, and just to relax at where I am rather than trying to get to a new spot. I was also a little bit surprised at how much more range of motion I have in some positions--even feeling quite tight going into it--compared to the last time I did them and was surprised to realize how my 'quite tight' now is leaps and bounds looser than when I started stretching in the fall. In retrospect, I think part of that tension isn't so much newly accumulated as that I've just gained more awareness of some underlying tension that body and mind are ready to start letting go of. I've had three sessions working with the starter course again this week. Programs 8 and 9 at the start of the week, and program 10 a couple days ago and programs 11 and 12 today. The first session went well. I'm amazed at how much my shoulder flexibility has increased even with the relative infrequency I've been deliberately stretching them. At the same time, I also know that I'm limbering through a much larger range of motion than I used to. My whole arm and shoulder starts on the ground now and I need to start to twist the other one up a bit to bring on the stretch in the (floor) pec/bicep stretch. Exercises 12/13 from Stretching & Flexibility are improving, though I've been sporadic in practicing them directly. My hand reaching behind and up is now pointing more in the direction of my armpit than out to the side and is at least sometimes around my shoulder blade. I also feel less restricted at the end range than when I started working on it. The hip flexor stretch is the first deliberate one that I've done in weeks and it was very much needed, more range of motion here as well. I think the knee lifts have added a little more strength to the hip flexors so I'm more comfortable with more stretch, but it could easily be from something else too. The seated rotations were also particularly pleasant. The second session with the hamstring stretches was quite pleasant as well (and needed!). My wall straddle has improved significantly from when I did it the last time, a few inches further down and a much more comfortable to keep my quadriceps tight with everything else relaxed. I found something referred to as the adductor smash (many variations exist on youtube), which is along the lines of the rod of correction on the adductors and did a little bit of that. I'll probably try a few different variants before I find my preferred method for doing it. The tailor pose is still stubbornly about where it was when I started (or feels that way at least). Patience, relaxing, and being persistent are key, and in time it'll get easier. I started today with 4,3,2,1 pullups (easier than before, but I'm still adapting to them) and 10,8,6,4,2 slow pushups (not especially taxing) since I haven't done either this week. Some time in the bottom of a resting squat again. I enjoyed the cat sequence quite a lot and can feel a lot more looseness through my shoulders, torso, and rib cage now than before. I also found some new spots that aren't quite as supple as some others that I'll work on occasionally. There was some difference between left and right side sensation when looking back towards the ankles. The squashed frog felt like a completely different stretch compared to the first few times I did it with more "squashing" than I could manage earlier as well. It was much more comfortable, and hitting that same spot on the outside of the hip that gets some tension in the Cossack squats so hopefully the combination will help alleviate that over time. My quads are quite tight relative to a lot of other things, so I'll add some stretches for them in more regularly. The calf stretches today were also very much needed. My calves have been tight and physically resistant instead of soft in the last couple of weeks (brought on by the beach runs I'm sure) and the stretching and rolling on the rod of correction is working on softening them again somewhat. The wide leg elephant walk was also very nice to revisit. I'm pretty comfortable sitting on my heels at this point, although I'm noticing a tendency to rotating my heels outwards a little bit (top of the foot/ankle flexibility) probably needs some work. No real quadriceps stretch until I've leaned well back with the tail tuck and then it's mostly something I feel in my knees. I seem to be back on track with daily LRP as well which is nice. I've also done a few sitting sessions this week without much discomfort in my middle-upper back (historically the limiting factor for me). I was having a hard time getting my mind to settle during the sitting practice until I was thinking about what was different compared to the lying practice (other than just posture) and worked through my points of contact and a body scan like I would during the lying practice until I ended up with just the breath sensations. After that, it became somewhat easier, but still more distracted than I typically am with the lying practice.

Thanks Kit, thanks for taking the time to respond. Very helpful.

Was thinking about this thread recently. When I first discovered (just under a year ago) ST community, I was going through the beginning stages of (what many would consider, including myself, a very contentious and painful) divorce and I had made the choice during the summer of 2024 to temporarily stop working (i.e. wind down my consulting business) in order to single parent my daughter. This period of no work planted a seed in my brain: what if I can (financially) afford taking a few years off for a mini sabbatical. Anyways, during that stretch of time (of a few months), on the days I didn't have my daughter, I doubled down on the ST starter course and drummed up fantasies of my own version of "the great escape": taking 1-2 years off of "work", become a barista, raise my daughter, and explore dancing and stretching and other activities that I've wanted to do for a long time. Long story short, that version of the great escape did not manifest for reasons beyond my control. However ... I am living a slightly modified version. Whereas before (and many many years) I was working 40-60 hours per week, I am now consulting for 20 hours a week, the remainder of time I devote to raising my daughter and in community with other movement practitioners and feeling particular grateful for this different version. Anyways, hope folks are still exploring or living their great escape.

Good going

In my humble opinion, the best way to come to a conclusion about whether or not to use a lift is to try it, and see what happens. There is no downside to this approach. If you try it and you don't like it, stop using it. I used a heel lift, as I've written about elsewhere, when my back was particularly fragile and it was a lifesaver for me. The relief was instantaneous. If I recall correctly, I used to heel lift for about two years until my back settled down. And now talking about many years later, I've been barefoot for 15 years and never use any lift of any kind and my leg length difference is still exactly the same. If your back is not a particular problem at the moment, then it's up to you whether you use one, or try one, or not. What I wrote in Overcome neck & back pain is that if the difference that you find using the standard leg-length test (which is available free on YouTube) is not large, and you cannot come to a strong view on whether there's a significant difference or not, concentrate on the flexibility tests the same text talks about. Most important are comparing hip flexor flexibility left and right.

Very sorry to hear that. Best wishes for it, Jim.

HIP I.R.: I have been grappling, for some time now, with a total lack of this ability, for which I cannot find the correct path of resolution and release of the tension that causes it. Lately I have been wondering strongly what it is due to, and I am not only referring to postural and joint positioning habits, but to something deeper (feelings of tension/fear experienced in daily life). I would be very interested in your opinions on this. How to set up a proper stretching/relaxation routine and around which poses should be focused in order to actually understand from which areas/muscles this stiffness arises? How to approach such a strong and actually limiting tension in various areas (including that of one's sensitivity/confidence and that of fear)? I apologize for my bad English and greet you all with a big hug from Italy. Thank you very much gentlemen, FOR ALL.

Good morning everyone, I answer only now because I was hit by a very bad flu attack, which kept me out for more than ten days. I find that boxing the compass is a wonderful exercise and I try to perform it often but with a moderate intensity because especially in the first form in which you perform, always in the right hip I feel a strong limitation in abduction, both in the inner thigh and in the outer part of the buttock. As requested by Kit, I attach below the photos (very handmade ) of the tests that I do to measure the internal rotation of the hip and add that the physiotherapist who I consulted told me to have a right hip TILT, if I remember correctly referring to the articular capsule. I hope to find a path that will help me to free my hips and lower back, given also the office life I do, to feel better and more free. Thank you again and have a good day.

Yes, pretty amazing changes for such a relatively short time. Keep going!

Thaks for that @Kit_L. However, first please can I suggest that you move the later bits of this thread to a new thread? I feel bad that I have hijacked the thread, which is now veering into a separate topic, and I dont want to discourage the original poster from continuing her own very interesting postings of her journey. Thanks. A few things about doing a full straddle. Pic 1 is a diagram of someone attempting to do a knees-forward straddle with the torso horizontal to the floor, but is not quite there yet (as I'm not - at very best, my pelvis is 3-4 cm away - as I know from my straddle machine). The oval is the pelvis seen from behind, and the two lines are the legs. If this person is determined to touch down, and relaxes ito it, the knees will be bent sideways. This is what I think is happening to me sometimes - I sometimes feel the stretch rather higher in the side of the knees than the attachments of the gracilis and semitendinosus. Actually, I'm not attempting to do a full knees-forward straddle, but the knees are rotated partially up, so there will still be a sideways component. Not good. I allow the feet to come slightly forward to partially accommodate. The real solution is to hold tension in the muscles and not come down until I'm ready (which will take forever at my current rate of progress). As for the way into the pancake, I attach a photo which shows a mix of the two ways you suggest (it was taken in the same session, a couple of stretches after the previous photo). The feet have come further away from the wall (there is less weight on them, which has allowed them to move), and are rotated forward a bit, but not completely, as are the knees. Also, the diagram got me thinking about the exact geometry. The distance of the centre of rotation of the ball joint of the femur from the front of the pelvis and the base of the sitting bones, the length of the head of the femur, the angle that the femur makes with the lower leg all affect what will be pressing on the floor in a perfect straddle. I tried looking at anatomical diagrams, but I've no idea if they are drawn accurately enough, and there will also be individual variation. So I gave up. But its an interesting point to consider. Anyway, the take-home message for me, is to concentrate more on going into it from standing, as you suggest. It the moment, I lean forward to take a controllable amount of weight on my hands. And thanks for your compliment on the position - it is all thanks to your teaching! Jim.

This is always the best way to get into (or back into) something that the body experiences as "new". How do we know the body experiences things this way? When we're sore the next day! Very likely—the body is trying to help (widening the leg position). As you know, any muscle that is working in the contracted and of the ROM is likely to cramp, as anyone who has tried to point their toes knows! No problem (and a quick standing side stretch will calm that down immediately).

This is absolute gold (along with many other threads in these forums) - thank you

As well: Definitely worth trying.

So, please show me the position you're using to determine that you do not have much internal rotation—that will help me. And a few comments on what you wrote immediately above: That will be your hip flexors you feel, most probably, and you may be inadvertently using these to pull yourself forwards (any muscle used in its shortened end of the range of movement is likely to spasm). This can feel like a block. Or the hip flexors may be holding significant attention, in which case they will not flow/squash out of the way in that position and that will feel like a block. In any case, get down on the floor and try stretching both hip flexors, and then try the elephant walk again, lowering yourself with your arms and not pulling yourself forward with your groin muscles and see if that feels any different. Another thing that you can try, which will help the same range of movement is to lie on your back, keep the back pressed to the floor, and pull one knee gently into the chest. Contractions can be done here too, simply by trying to push the knee away from you while you hold it in position, and then restretch. Last, in this phase of your flexibility journey, do not do any exercise too often. Any exercise that you experience as intense, for whatever reason, do only once a week or once every four or five days at the most. All of the adaptation occurs when you're not stretching, and you have to give the body time to recover. As well, use as many of the mobility exercises as you can on your resting days. And yes, daily practice of the relaxation exercises will help enormously, but this also takes time.

Hello from Australia. Are you following one of our courses presently? How (what have you done) to determine that you lack this range of movement? That is what the Starter Course will teach you. It includes access to all our lying relaxation recordings, too. It begins at the very beginning. And please read this: https://stretchtherapy.net/relaxation-wiki/ Once you've read it, listen to the setup instructions, and download one of the recordings, turn off your phone, lie down listen and follow. Fear and anxiety are rife these days – and with good reason. But, definitely, it is possible to teach the body and mind a new way to be in the face of the chaos. And once you learn how to be more relaxed in daily life, suddenly you become aware that you are not feeling anxious. This can be a very nice little shock!

In my view, everything needs to be stretched—using the example you gave, of stretching the calf muscles, of course you need to stretch the shin muscles and the whole of the front of the foot itself – many reasons including trying to avoid shin splints if you're a runner. My strong suggestion is to avoid trying to find underlying principles here and simply work on everything, slowly, over time. This is why we recommend the starter course to literally everyone, even if they're already flexible – what we have found is human beings are expert in cheating, and what cheating means really is nothing more than avoiding discomfort. What that means is that we always avoid the areas that we instinctively or subconsciously know are tight. So we have to eventually, over time, work everything slowly. The mantra of Stretch Therapy™ is no unnecessary tension – and you will need to try a stretch for everything in order to know where you hold tension. Having said that, the vast majority of the population hold way too much tension, or to use your language, have way too little range of movement in quads and hip flexors. As for your second question about range of movement changes, that's just a snapshot in a moment. What is important is your cold flexibility and its changes over time, and we are talking years here not minutes or weeks or months. I hope that's helpful and if I didn't answer your question, ask it in a different way.

The chiropractor's tests are not as accurate as the standing test I described in the clip above; there are many reasons for this claim. Nonetheless, let us assume that you do have a structural leg-length difference (let's use the shorthand of LLD from now on) of 1cm, or more. The 11 studies I referred to briefly above were whole-body X-ray studies (just what you measure on a whole-body X-ray to determine LLD led to a vigorous debate all by itself). A 10mm LLD was claimed to be the point of significance but with zero arguments to support this; the 10 studies subsequent to the first one simply accepted that significance point and ran with it. Lesser differences can be significant, depending on lifestyle. 5mm is definitely enough to cause all the problems you have noted and a great many more. Let us accept the chiropractor's assessment of 10mm. Heavy lifting will exacerbate all the adaptations the body must necessarily do to adapt to the asymmetrical forces acting one it, because the body needs to distribute these forces as widely as possible throughout its structure, muscles, bones, fascia. All have to adapt (this is automatic and out of our control, BTW; and not a problem). An induced scoliosis is one such adaptation; I have one myself, but it is of no significance now. You can see my scoliosis in the video above; it is exaggerated when I put the blocks under my longer leg, and when I put the blocks underneath the shorter leg, my spine becomes more or less completely straight. So—what to do? First, adopt a relaxation practice, daily, and commit to three months. If you do this, you will notice many changes, and most will be permanent by then. The nexus here is that the majority of the discomfort in your body is coming from the asymmetrical adaptations your body must have made; all the stronger places are also holding more tension. Learning how to really relax will make an unimaginably large difference in your daily life, more than literally anything else you can do. Held tension is what is causing the "irritability" in the body you mention in your first post. As many others have reported in this forums, you cannot imagine the effects of this before you feel them—so get started today. Some background here: https://stretchtherapy.net/relaxation-wiki/ Next, a simple stretching program is needed, and the key muscle groups to loosen are the three hip flexors. You will need to concentrate especially on the partner hip flexor stretches, and the quad-hip flexors stretches—it's possible to have loose quads (when stretched on their own) and loose hip flexors (when stretched by themselves), and very reduced ROM when both ends of these muscles groups are stretched at the same time—this is completely unexpected by flexible people (like dancers and gymnasts) but we have seen this literally hundreds of times, both in the clinic and on workshops. Here are the best exercises: https://www.youtube.com/@KitLaughlin/search?query=quad hip flexor You will notice that you are much tighter on one side with any of these exercises—this is a major consequence of your LLD, and the main cause of the SIJ "rigidity and stiffness", too. You'll recall that the origins of all the fibres of psoas and iliacus are the anterior surfaces of all the lumbar vertebrae, and they share fascia with the lowest part of the diaphragm, and quadratus lumborum, and their insertions in the femur mean these muscles have significant leverage on the rotational positions of the vertebrae (as well, this is a major factor in the scoliosis you mentioned). The reason it's essential to balance quad length is because of its attachment (anterior inferior iliac spine, or AIIS)—asymmetric resting length here is a very significant contributor to anterior pelvic tilt and rotation; again visualise the scoliosis. We have found that the greatest bang for the buck (in terms of results gained for time spent) is to do two strong stretching sessions a week only (one session can concentrate on the quad-hip flexor exercises; the other on only the partner hip flexor exercise) and need take no longer than 15–20 minutes. The third recommendation is a small (5mm I suggest) heel lift in the shoes you train in. If you train in bare feet a quarter kg plate underneath your heel when doing any of the vertical load-bearing exercises will work just fine. Use something thinner if this feels too much. This heel lift needs to be relatively non-compressible. I used a piece of leather that was about 6 mm thick in my Olympic lifting boots, and in the days when I used to wear shoes a similar lift in them as well. The fourth recommendation is to concentrate on unilateral training for six months or so (single-leg strengthening in particular) because while you might not feel this, one leg and glute will be weaker than the other. The general rule is to loosen the tighter of any pair of muscles, and to strengthen the weaker of the pair. This way whole body symmetry will be attained, in time. Doing the relaxation exercises speeds these adaptations, too. Comfort in the body (along with improved function) will be the result.

For anyone who experiences pinching in the lower back on doing any kind of back bending, the deep cause is always that the hip flexors are too tight (and so the pelvis can't tilt backwards on the legs—and as you extend your arms (assuming a pose so these (psoas, especially) literally pull the back into further extension). This mechanism works with the 'body trying to help me get deeper in the pose' mechanism I mentioned above in my reply to @Vibeke. So, if this happens to you, try stretching quads and hip flexors before you do any back bending, and see if this helps. Search for "wall-quad hip flexor" on our YouTube channel.

@Nick E: My first advice is not to stretch your hamstrings every day (I have to acknowledge that I have assumed that you do, from the comment you made about doing yoga most days) — and because in our system if you've made little progress in three years then you are not doing what your body actually need you to do. So my suggestion is to do only one or perhaps two sessions over a five–six day period using the bent leg hamstring stretches, but do three sets in any stretching session. Thinking on it, try once a week in the beginning – if you get deep into the hamstrings on any day, you will be sore for at least a week. This degree of stress is necessary to provoke the hamstrings to actually start to change. As well, our system is distinctly different to any form of yoga that I am familiar with because it uses strong contractions at the end of the range of movement. If these are done properly, they will make you stronger as well as more flexible, but these workouts must be recovered from. If you are still sore at the end of the week, then take more time off. Believe me, in this game, less is more if it is intense enough. If you are not doing any strength training, I recommend strongly that you use barbells, or dumbbells, or kettle bells to do some kind of bent leg Romanian deadlifts, more or less to failure (in time) to fully warmup the hamstring group before you think about stretching them. It if you have long legs it may simply be that your hamstring muscles do not experience themselves as strong enough to feel like they can let go. This is very common among tall slender male yoga practitioners. As well you can use the RollStretch method too, to find any trigger point or tension points in the hamstrings by doing that pose you referred to above (dandasana) but with a hard ball between your ischial tuberosity's and the knee, in various places along those lines. Fine which bits are really tight, and let the ball be pressed into those places by simply allowing yourself to relax over the ball. Bending the knee a bit is perfectly fine to get into position. On your non-stretching days you can do any mobility type exercises you want, and the king of all of them is the elephant walk. Search on our YouTube channel and you'll find a couple of versions of it but notice that there are no contractions involved and there is only active relaxation and elongation of the muscles. Doing the elephant walk following a serious hamstring stretch workout will be a bit painful, it's true, and the goal is to recover some of yesterdays flexibility, and perhaps not the whole lot. The last comment that I will make for today is that you need to find out what your body needs – and it will either be strength work or much more intense stretching work but done much less frequently than what any practitioner of yoga will ever suggest.

Thanks for the response! I actually was watching your hip flexor videos today;). Luckily I am past the intense pain so I can stretch, and have been sticking to 2 or 3 of you stretching videos per day. I believe you are spot in with your assessment and interestingly enough all of my major tightness has been in my left hip, the one I was shifted towards. I was so focused on the right side because of the shooting pain that I have neglected the left side all together. The seated side lateral bend is super intense but feels amazing afterwards. I can see now why a sport like hockey being that it uses hip flexors non stop would be the cause of this spasm. I can’t imagine having that for 6 months and when I read that I got a little nauseous 😅. I may try the heel lift and see if I can convince my wife to help me with the partner stretch :) I attached a picture of my leg length difference when I was laying down for you to see. I appreciate you taking the time to reply and pointing me in the right direction! I have already noticed a huge amount of progress in just a few days, and also learning my body which sounds weird but I guess I was clueless when it came to stretching correctly;). Thx again!

Two brief comments: the author wrote: In my experience, gluteus medius is a stabiliser of the pelvis, but only one of them; but if your core is either weak, asleep, or both and/or your alignment is compromised, then the role of gluteus medius becomes more pominent. Glute medius (and, later, the ITB) is what the body will have to use IF the core is asleep or weak and, in runners, a weak/asleep core is the main cause of ITB syndrome. To make the point, sprinters never have ITB syndrome, but joggers often do. Watch someone jogging closely and you will see why: the stabilisers are not being used (arches in the feet; external rotators, whole core, etc). One of the main reasons is the person jogging is usually thinking about something else or listening to music. Sprinters, in stark contrast, exhibit all stabilisers working to the max and usually excellent alignment too. This is why we recommend sprinting and walking, rather than steady state jogging. And if you want to supercharge the standing single-leg exercise described above (which is a good one) do it with DBs or a bar with some real weight on your shoulders: excellent balance and strength exercise. You will be in no doubt as to the anatomy of this muscle the next day, too.