Kit_L

IMHO, they are not directly related, but in fact are caused by anterior pelvic tilt (which can switch off the glutes as I have written about elsewhere) and the kyphosis is exacerbated by this (and the fact that everyone spends so much time at the computer, on their phone, or on their tablets – always held at waist level). Look up all of the bent leg hamstring stretches – they're all on our YouTube channel and try all of them. If your hip flexors are already tight, and we know that they are, then it makes stretching the hamstrings even more difficult. Another point is that if the hip flexes are really tight, just being in the lung position puts them under stretch, and that sensation can be so strong that you can't feel what's happening in the hamstrings. As a general rule, we can only feel one feel strong sensation from one part of the body at a time. But this does not mean that the hamstring muscles are not being stretched. All this will take time – but it can be done.

SiW, have a look at these: they definitely work the glutes. I have done 40 of these in a single set, two months ago: The longer you can hold the nonworking leg off the ground, the deeper down you can go on one leg – so you're actually doing single leg negatives. Try to keep the bottom as close to the heel of the working leg as possible in the bottom position. To come out of the bottom position simply lean forward and press the floor away from you as hard as possible, emphasising a press through the heel. It is this part of the range of moving that absolutely shreds the glutes. The other thing I've been working on – and this is because I've been working on a boat where many parts of the boat are not accessible in a standing position, is moving around in a below–half–squat position – and when I say "below half squat", I mean the hip crease is below the knee, often well below the knee as in three to six inches. This is glute and quad work to the max. I do intend to make a video on this – it's like a duck walk except a bit higher. And the duck walk can be done using tendon energy only and so in my view it's not as good as strengthening exercise. Do please try either of these and report back.

That's simply a slight lack of flexibility in the bent leg's ankle, that's all. It's perfectly okay – even desirable – to hang onto something while you complete that movement. In my opinion it's better to work on getting deeper and deeper rather than trying to get your bodies weight further forward to keep balance; this will happen in time. In the meantime, when you're in any version of the squat, you can hold onto something and use the elbow of one arm to push one knee forward, while keeping the heel on the ground. This is definitely the way to increase the ankle flexibility needed in either the Cossack squat or Skandasana. Excellent.

@CharlieG: when I wrote about "less is more", I was speaking more to intermediate–advanced students who are trying to get over a stretching plateau. The direction that I give in the Starter Course is to calibrate the frequency of your stretching by the soreness of your body – if you have no soreness or you have recovered completely from the previous workout with that was one day before or five days before, then it's fine to go ahead and stretch with contractions on that day. The same guideline applies to incorporating any other stretches into the days workout: how does your body feel? If you feel that you can do more, then do more; if you feel that you've done too much then stop. These decisions can only be calibrated by you, and with experience in the system. If I were trying to loosen a particularly stubborn part, and let's use piriformis as an example, then I would do all the stretches that I know for that muscle group on the one day – and then see how you feel the next day and the day after. Calibrating the intensity and the frequency can only be done by what your body is telling you in the subsequent days. The last point is that these are guidelines, or heuristics – they are not set in stone. Everyone's body is different and only you can find out what works for your own body. In the beginning, as for example in the Starter Course, follow along with what the instructors are doing, but feel free to add any other stretches that you might want to. You can repeat any of the modules; any of the parts of the modules which are particularly effective for you, but you must do all of what the program offers. There are many reasons for this, and I do talk about these in the articles that we recommended you read when we first got in contact with each other.

Nowhere near as much as doing the arch strengthening exercise I recommended in an earlier response. Tibialis posterior activation and strengthening is the key. Please go back and re-read the article I recommended to you. The strengthening effect in T. posterior is much more powerful WRT properly forming the arch than piriformis' capacity to externally rotate the leg. The strengthening exercise also wakes up the proprioceptors in the feet which is the reasons why piriformis does not externally rotate the leg in your case. When you wake up the soles of your feet, then piriformis can act this way. It is not possible to put the cart before the horse and expect decent results. This is also the reason I recommend doing some of your running training in bare feet. There's more but I'm tired and I have to sleep.

If this is any kind of encouragement, I did not have any idea what I was put on earth here to do until I was about 43 – in between I've been a truck driver, plant operator, stage hand, standby propsman on location and in the studio, television director, commercial photographer, film producer and director, trained in oriental medicine in Japan over a four year apprenticeship, and about 10,000 other things. Only then did I go to university. You are uniquely qualified, I would say, to practice in a niche area in law. Go out there and find it – it's waiting there for you.

Much more common than you might think, and one of the reasons why we strongly recommend unilateral leg training, which you're doing. Don't worry about activating that glue: the pistol work that you're doing will do that in time. In fact to get out of the bottom position, you have to have your glue activated – this apparent paradox is resolved by suggesting that it might just be that you can't feel it being activated. Carry on!

Congratulations on defending your thesis. In Australia, a bachelor of law degree does not have include theses to defend. Were you doing a Masters by any chance? And sorry to hear about your family misfortunes – we have had six people die in our immediate family since Covid, so we do understand this. Best wishes from over here.

Sorry to take so long to reply to this @Wes Clawson: my boat sank offshore as you may have read, and was a total loss and I was rescued. And now I'm up in Queensland rebuilding the next boat. The short answer to your question: have you tried tying your feet together, to stop them turning out, in that stretch? That way you don't have to use an internal rotation force in the hip joints in order to hold the legs in position. I think that might be worth a try. The inner thigh muscles are not really worked in this position. It could be the structure of your hip joints that is causing the external rotation, or something else. Have you tried doing standing side splits, with the feet parallel? The result of that could be an interesting information point too. This is more likely to be an adhesion between gracilis and the inner hamstring – we have written about this extensively here. If you search on gracilis, you should find many discussions. And there is a YouTube video showing me doing a manual release technique on the inner size of someone who is stuck at a particular angle in the pancake and who then was able to hold herself flat onto the ground immediately after: Anyhow, sorry to be so slow in getting back to you!

And this is why we stress repetition and feeling so much. Every time you do a stretch, if you're paying enough attention, there will be something that will feel slightly different and something that will need repositioning or readjusting. This is the reason why the 'sets and reps' approach just does not work for flexibility – you need to embody the work as you're already doing and this is the reason why. It is knowledge that only you can gain about yourself, and it's the body telling you, not the other way about! All great insights.

The secret here is to extend the arms as high up and as far off the body as possible before you load the palms up with your body's weight. Reaching the arms off the body reduces the compression sensation in the shoulders hugely, if you reach actively enough. And you won't be able to get to the maximum reach position if you try to elevate your shoulders once you're in the position – you need to do this before you load it.

Try to do the partner hip flexor stretch once a week, and have two or three goes on each side. That will loosen the hip flexors up quicker than anything else you can do. You could use the same wall quad hip flexor stretch as a warmup for that and perhaps just do a single repetition if you can find a partner. Heavier is better, speaking from experience. Don't worry about the partner being too heavy on the back leg – you can push back with your hands if things get too intense very easily. And don't do the partner version before race day! It can take two or three days to recover from a strong session. But in the end, it will definitely be worth it.

Simple: put your hands on a support that's high enough to allow you to straighten your back—right now, you are not flexible enough in the front legs hip to straighten your back, that's all. And in the beginning, it's very common to feel quite a strong stretch in the back of the front leg as well, up near the glute. Once everything settles down, then you use your hands to pull yourself forward while trying to lift your chest to straighten the upper back, and that will make the stretch go into the top of the back leg. Let us know how you go.

It always will be! What you wrote is the summation of Eckhart Tolle's whole book, The power of now.

Best not to try to go faster than the body wants. Re. twice a week? Short answer: yes.