Kit_L

'Experts just do the basics better', is the tagline a friend of mine uses for his business. This is accurate. The deepest state of relaxation is samadhi—as is serenity. At some point, these discriminations drop away and there is only the experience. This is what I have been pointing to—go straight through. In response to questions like, "what's the difference between the first and third jhãnas?", the only response I ever gave on meditation workshops around the world was, "relax more". Questions show that the questioner is fixed in the conceptual realm. The experiential realm is where you want to be. It sounds radical, but is simple. On workshops when I have made this claim, a retreatant will say, "it can't be that simple!". It is. Humans have countless reasons for making this process complicated. Going directly to the experience bypasses all the distinctions humans make. As Yoda said, "no try, only do". Cut through.

Do try the Govinda Valley recordings, and see if they are useful (useful being assessed by the insights that are produced, or not produced). An abbot friend of mine said to me once that breath counting was his sole practice for 14 years – that is a useful perspective, I believe. My main reason for suggesting that the breathing (and its corollary practice breath counting) be continued for quite a while is that the insights that arise are (in one sense) independent from the practice – they literally arise from the internal stillness that this first practice creates. As soon as you start thinking about any of what you've outlined above, you've moved from the experiential world into the conceptual world – the world of ideas, names, qualities, etc. Thinking about these things will not change your relationship to them in my experience. The experiential world is the world of ephemera (the sensations of what we call breathing are only experienced in those instants) and attending to them as they happen—this requires concentration. I think it was Aitken Roshi who said, "the entry of grace is an accident; practice makes you accident prone". I have an additional reason for recommending the first satipatthana, too: the majority of Western students have never directly experienced deep relaxation. In my experience, learning and embodying the state of deep relaxation leads directly to the experience of serenity. This state is, in my view, the pre-requisite for everything else you talk about. Last thought on breath counting: even if this is your practice, occasionally (every third session?) do absolutely nothing at all, apart from connecting the the direct experience of the movements we label "breathing" and ask yourself, "what's happening now?"

To begin this discussion, perhaps you could give a précis of what you understand the first satipatthana to be, and contrast this with the others.

It's not so much the reference points as what you feel when playing with it; this is not a precision alignment task like the advanced piriformis pose; it's moving around until you experience, 'this feels like it might be useful'. It might not be, too! Do let us know what you find.

Possibly. I will need to look at that specific video again to be sure; my favourite supraspinatus stretch is to simply hold a vertical bat behind me and lean to the side, like this: https://www.youtube.com/@KitLaughlin/search?query=supraspinatus The first two show the approach; my fave is the second one, now that I know what this is supposed to feel like! More to come. I am knee deep in a boat refit at the moment, so literally working from morning till night and have very little spare time. Having said that I want to thank you for your post – it's excellent – and if I can offer any suggestions on rereading, I will

Yes, definitely. Any prop you need is legitimate, I feel. And, this might not be obvious, but in fact some people (simply because of their proportion) cannot get the centre of gravity far enough forward even with very flexible ankles (long legs, especially lower legs, and short trunks). The key muscle you didn't mention is glutes; these are what gets you out of the bottom position. WRT the video, if you can do pistol squats with a small lift under your heel, then do it that way – you don't need to do the deck squats which is what the video above begins with.

Sounds perfect!

I have never heard of latissimus dorsi cramping while under stretch—in my experience, and the experience of the thousands of students we have worked with over the years, hanging always relieves a cramp—this is fundamental to how the body works. Contractions, whether part of something else, or the first part of the pull of a chin up, can cause the muscles to cramp, but letting the body relax in that position and letting the body's weight stretch the same muscles and always relieves the cramp. Cramping is an involuntary contraction of the majority of the muscle fibres of a muscle involved, and only lengthening that muscle can relieve a cramp. It may be that the sensation you're feeling in your body are not a cramp. I'm going to outline the exercise I am recommending once more. Get a good grip of the bar, with your feet still on the ground, and then slowly bend your knees so more and more of your weight comes on your arms and hands gently, so you can adjust to the sensation. Before the full weight of your body comes on (so while your feet are still lightly touching the ground), and with your elbows pressed completely straight using your triceps, gently pull up just an inch or two – hold that for a few seconds then take a breath in and let your body's weight stretch your lats so your shoulders come up closer to your ears. Repeat this three or four times, concentrating on letting yourself go down lower after each small contraction. The elbows must stay straight during this to ensure that only latissimus dorsi works in the small pulling part. That is all I would do for the first week or so. And then, as a separate action on another occasion, after you do the small contraction, and let yourself hang down experiencing your full body's weight, that's when you think about pressing the bar up away from you. This activates trapezius – and the activation of trapezius in this position inhibits latissimus dorsi. Inhibit here means that the nervous system sends a message to latissimus dorsi to relax so that trapezius can activate – this happens at the same time. This is called the reciprocal inhibition reflex – you can look it up. Trapezius elevates the shoulder girdle; latissimus dorsi depresses it; they do the opposite movements. All muscles in the body are paired in this way except the tongue. When one of the pair activates, the other is inhibited and we have used this fact of how the body is organised as a very powerful method of stretching – it is one of the three reflexes we work with all the time. And when you do make the time to do the hanging side bend, I think you will find out just how tight your latissimus dorsi are—and loosening these will have a major beneficial effect on your swing. Both exercises are essential for you. Stop doing the piano stool stretch for now; Olivia will be chiming in with a gentler suggestion.

And have you started the hanging practice yet? This too stretches latissimus dorsi. Combined with the exercise linked to immediately above, the piano stool exercises will be able to be done, in time.

Do please report back with what the dentist suggests. And now your symptoms are suggesting Thoracic Outlet Compression Syndrome (TOCS). Try this: https://stretchtherapy.net/shoulder-pull-down/ If that is too intense, there's a floor version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ko2hjOo_4& These two have helped many people.

Most definitely. Running definitely made me less flexible (and why I started what I do now!). Keep going.

Without see you try to do this, I cannot. Too many variables. Before trying the same exercise the next time, do this one immediately before: https://stretchtherapy.net/hanging-side-bend-variations-for-trunk-pain-relief/ And I request that you try any new exercises for at least two weeks before asking for assistance again—trying anything for the first time is likely to produce anomalies. Please experiment with angles and load, and see if you can work out a way through, that makes the exercise doable. You are trying to remake a lifetime of existing patterns, and this does not happen with one, or twenty, attempts.

Yes, definitely. Once you get used to doing it (and do it a few times each session, with contractions every second session), you can add a tail tuck (roll the top of the pelvis back to first flatten, then in time flex the lumbar spine), and this will enhance this effect. In time, you'll be able to rotate the shoulders about 90° in relation to the pelvis, and you'll be a lot more flexible than most people. Your swing will improve, for sure.

Patrick, I checked with a number of authoritative sites before writing this, but the golf swing does not require extreme lateral flexion—what it does require is good thoracic rotation (without over-rotating the lumbar spine) and good thoracic extension, which most aging males have lost years ago. Start here, where the most important cue is to lift the chest (the start of thoracic extension) before you try to rotate the shoulders. If you do not, all the rotation will be in the lumbar spine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwpSMCenE4Q Do you mean Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), or something else? Not uncommon—none of us is symmetrical. The secret here is to bend away from the R side two or three times before trying to bend to the right and (this is important) breathe in deeply and lift your ribs up in the process before you've bend to the right – some people's ribs actually jam against the top of the pelvis in this movement and lifting the chest up can allow the ribs to clear the top of the ischial tuberosity, as it's called. And if it is not that but something else, bending away from that side before you try to bend to that side will stretch it out and relax whatever muscles are cramping. For a golfer, one of the critical parts of this exercise is to genuinely try to reach your fingers as far away up end of the ceiling and away from the hip as you can once you've gone as far as you can to the side – in this additional movement, the trapezius muscles are actually stretching latissimus dorsi, and this provides an effective stretch. Tight latissimus dorsi is the number one reason people do not have good thoracic extension. Another effective way of stretching the same muscles (and something that is good for the whole body and tends to straighten it) is to simply hang from a bar as relaxedly as you can – and once you think you've relaxed fully then think about "how do I press the bar up away from me even higher?" – that engages the trapezius muscles in the same way and you'll get a much stronger stretch in the lats as a result. And the best way to improve thoracic extension (in addition to hanging as mentioned above) is to use an exercise that targets everyone's stiffest part of the thoracic spine. This is easy to find: all you have to do is try this exercise: https://stretchtherapy.net/piano-stool-back-bend/ You may not have a piano stool handy, but if you have access to a gym, then all you do is duplicate the same movement over any padded bench, putting the edge of the bench on the stiffest part of the thoracic spine – and bringing the stretch on by lowering the hips. Most people will try to bend in their lumbar spine, which you don't want – that edge of the bench has to be placed on the stiffest part of the back and you need to use a little tail tucking movement – flexing the lumbar spine slightly, – to keep the stretch out of the lumbar spine. That way the weight of the legs will bend the thoracic spine backward rather than the lumbar spine. And in the process, you simply position the bench away from something that you can hang onto so that you can duplicate what Olivia is doing. If you cannot duplicate that movement with the equipment you have access to, please comment and I will come up with something else.

It can simply be a habit, too; no problem, once you realise this. One of my teachers said to me, the illusion of having control is one of the most destructive delusions – in reality we have very little control over the big events that occur to us in our lives (being born, where you're born, the language you speak, your partner, your daughter, your work, your passion for dance), but we have every capacity to control how we react to what happens. This is a much more subtle skill and a lifetime skill as well. You have made a massive contribution to this forum – let me say that publicly. And we use that little film that you made about your progress in dance as the first thing that people see if they're visiting the Stretch Therapy homepage in YouTube for the first time. It is brilliant. And your contributions here have been truly excellent, and your contributions were the springboard for many of my comments, too. Sincere thanks.