Kit_L

This is exactly what the ST system is about. My emphasis—you can't feed it what it wants and needs without playing/trying/tinkering. What you write is precisely what we try to teach all students ("play with this; what does that feel like; how can that feeling be moved or changed; and so on"). This is a deep insight, and it will be impossible to hold you back now! Keep going. Tinkering is the key word.

Try the floor lunge version that includes folding the back leg up—it's the stretching of both ends of rectus femoris at the same time that makes the wall quad–HF version so strong. Here's a follow-along version: It's not the same, but it's more intense than the version that does not fold the leg. Try both and please report back.

For most exercising, one day exercising and two days off is a very good place to start the process of calibration – and what that involves is to determine what you feel like after that day's exercise. These things are not rigid; they're not set in stone; and they change constantly. Learning how to feel what's happening in your body is a great gift to give yourself.

It's everything, including the lying relaxations! I did original research, as a logician, in something called supervenience theory. Supervenience, the term, describes one simple relationship: no change at one level in any complex system without commensurate change at another (and other levels) in the system. By doing all the different things that you have been doing, and without being able to understand the causal relationships among the many things that you have been doing at the same time, all we know is that once the system itself changes sufficiently in a particular direction, then other things that are attendant upon the state of that system also change. Without doubt. Well done.

You're asking the wrong question. What stretches does your body need?

Excellent. Have two days off, instead of one. I wonder if rolling the back of the knee in the seated position before and after the stretch could help? Keel going!

Just uploaded a quick image of my own knee hypertension, which when I measured it (although I couldn't take a photograph of it at the same time), was about 30–35 mm, so well over an inch. If you're talking about hyper-extension at the knee joint, no. And it's not about hamstrings or other muscles, necessarily – the knee itself, in its capacity to hyperextend can have ligamentous and other limitations (why I mentioned popliteus above). This is why I have suggested to James that he try that technique to improve hypertension, just a bit. And don't forget that it's easy to have too much hypertension – many young dancers who have been poorly trained have too much hyperextension, and that definitely can weaken the knee joint.

I am sure that you are tired of hearing me say this, but stick your butt out even more. Your lumber lordosis is flattening and then slightly flexes towards the end of the exercise position. Only go as deep as you can keep that lumber lordosis. However, truly excellent compared to your first attempt.

This is tricky James without actually being able to help you hands-on. I did design a brachialis stretch for a friend while on a workshop, and I will link to that below, but my suggestion would be to ask someone to help you stretch the back of the knee by putting your heel on a book of about an inch or so height. Sit on the floor for a moment and hyperextend your knee on the 'good leg' side. I imagine that your heel comes off the ground about 2 inches. This is the normal amount of hyperextension – and when I say normal I also mean it normative sense – that this amount is desirable. The problem leg will be much less, I suspect. Have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xajg71NUg6s What my student did there was do a contraction in the fully straight position – at least it's as straight as he could get that arm – and then while straightening his arm himself, I leant on the back of his elbow to help that final position. The change was immediate. I suggest that you try something similar, but use the hamstring and the calf muscle to try to bend the leg from whatever straight position you can get into. Relax completely. Then use your quadriceps muscle to try to hyperextend the back of the knee a little bit, and see how that feels. Then as a second movement, and on a second breath in and out, ask your friend to lean on your thigh, not on the kneecap but just above the knee and use the quadriceps to try and get a bit more straightening to happen. Now you'll have to be careful here, and make sure you go slowly and gently and make sure that your partner doesn't lean too much weight too quickly, but you should feel something strong and interesting behind the knee and this could loosen up whatever facial restriction you have to the gliding of the nerve. Something else to try would be single leg standing calf raise machine stretches – use as much weight as you can handle to do very small contractions in the fully stretch position, and make sure that your knee is pressed as straight as you can get it, and then use the weight to let the heel be pressed down as far as possible. Again allow that relaxation and stretch to occur slowly so that you're on the complete control of it and try to keep the knee completely straight. This two will work on that same tissue area behind the knee including a small muscle called popliteus. If you consult your anatomy text, you will see that the sciatic nerve bifurcates above the knee and facial adhesions can occur anywhere there. Speaking more generally now, providing the nervous sensation that you get is not too painful and too uncomfortable, there is no doubt that the only way to get that nerve to glide more is to do what you've been doing and just keep going. These things take quite awhile to change if you think about it – you've spent your whole life getting to this point. We can't expect massive change quickly, nor is that desirable in my view. Perhaps you could take a picture of both legs in the hyperextended position – that is sit on the floor with your legs out in front of you and straightening both legs as much as you can and let's see the difference between the two sides. Some, yes, but sometimes it can be really hard to distinguish between a new awareness in an area and what you are calling discomfort. Try what I suggest and get back to us.

The Cossack squats are a remarkably effective and very powerful exercise, even if only done with body weight. If it's any consolation for you, this week about four days ago I did a couple of sets of 10 Cossack squats (so five a side) and then the working set of 20, onshore, off the boat. Those 20 Cossack squats left me sore for three days – most people don't realise that the adductors are extensors of the hip when you're in that deep squat position on the working leg. They are an absolutely fantastic exercise, and spending time in the bottom position (as you did) will stretch a large number of very practical things. Keep going, the body will adapt. And, you might care to try this, the exercise is substantially easier if you are standing on a slope that's facing down away from you – even a few degrees makes a difference and gives you additional ankle flexibility (the slope moves your balance point further forward than flat ground) making holding the bottom position much easier. A note for readers of this blog – the DOMS that you will feel after your first big set of Cossack squats will be mostly in the glutes, then hamstrings and adductors, and there'll be some quad effect as well – but it's mostly the posterior chain muscles. Getting these active and strong is gold. As for that recalcitrant little toe, just keep gently pulling it to the side whenever you think about it and at some point you will regain control over that movement. In my case it took years!

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/@KitLaughlin/search?query=hamstring All the bent-to-straight leg hamstring exercises will feel quite different to what you've been doing, I suspect. The conventional straight knee hamstring stretches are the least effective way to loosen this muscle and the associated nerves. And read this: https://stretchtherapy.net/email-newsletter-50/ and try the single-leg dog pose; it is intense, and effective. It is the maximum stretch for the calf muscle and the sciatic nerve. Do read the article and watch the video in the article linked to the article before trying. The short answer is that the sciatic nerve begins in the spinal cord, runs down the back of the leg, is tethered to the tibial plateau with a ligament loop (after splitting in two just above the knee), crosses behind the ankle, and ends in the toes. There a number of potential restrictions to the sliding of this nerve in its sheet and the sheath within its various constraints. All need to be loosened. The calf muscle is the most common area of restriction. This is why we recommend stretching this muscle with the knee held straight before doing any straight-leg hamstring stretches. There is a chapter in Stretching & Flexibility where this is explored more deeply. Do let us know how you go. And welcome!

!00% agree with @Jim Pickles here—with a particular mindset, nothing that you see in this world can't be used for stretching something. The end of a couch is particularly good for what you want to do – and then you'll want something smaller and with a tighter bend, in time. Also, we have found the more stable object you bending over, the more you can relax. Yoga wheels are the opposite of stable!

Re. single-leg Romanian deadlift: really emphasise tail untuck (IOW, stick your butt out in the beginning position), and only go as far forward as you can maintain this lumbar lordosis—see how your back is bending forward in the last parts of your video? Any lumbar spine flattening > flexion loses some of the intended effect. If you do this as instructed, you should feel the major affect in the hamstrings high underneath the glute on the working leg. And struggling with balance is also to be expected when you start! As well, notice the foot that you are balancing on – you'll find that it's working much harder than you think it should be and that is the virtue of any single-arm or single-leg exercise: the proportion of effort used in balancing is much greater than in any two-arm or two-leg movement. This is also why it's a sensational hamstring rehab rehabilitation exercise – no two repetitions are the same if you pay attention. Good work. Re. the active hang: press the elbows straight deliberately. And in time, in the lowest position, press the bar away from you. This activates the traps, and in time those shoulders will be pressing the ears hard! Excellent.

@Matt Chung: passive hanging (the names are not accurate in absolute terms, but are relative—you'll always have to grip the bar!) is when you let your body's weight pull your shoulders up as far as your ROM allows (the shoulders will press on the ears when you're loose enough). Active hanging is when you activate the lats to pull the shoulders down (either partially, so the shoulders are roughly level, with the collarbones roughly horizontal, while keeping the arms straight at the elbows, or fully, where the shoulders are in the fully depressed position—where if you pulled any harder, your elbows would have to bend and you'd be in the first part of the pull-up). Speaking generally now, if you have any kind of shoulder problem, you should learn how to do the active hang first – all the stabilising muscles are activated this way. In time, when your grip strength and the sensations in the shoulder tell you that you're strong enough to relax completely in that position (apart from the hands gripping the bar of course), then let yourself slowly slowly go down between your shoulders as far as possible and you will have one of the best lat stretches of your life. As well it's a very good exercise to go from the full hang to the shoulders fully depressed position active hang – there is more ROM available there than you might think. I have done these partial movements with 60 kg around my waist, back in the old days. If doing body weight only, aim for sets of 15 or so; the exact numbers are not important—accessing maximum ROM is. For most people, grip strength will be the limiting factor. Once you can hang passively for two minutes, then you can try practising partial one arm hangs – you hang from one arm, and the other hand either holding a band over the bar or the frame of the door next to you in a big pinch group, take some of your body's weight. One-arm hanging is the goal, in time.

This is one of the best tutorials you'll ever watch: And if all the cues are followed, all of the posterior chain muscles (including the glutes and hamstrings, and all the large and small spinal muscles @Jim Pickles mentions can be felt, and isolated if necessary. For me personally, for the middle and upper back, I found that lifting the chest forward along the floor cue to be extremely effective – just do it incrementally.