Kit_L

Yes, me! Stretch piriformis first is the best way, I find; doing this usually results in less cramping, and then stretching again after SS will be easier, too. These tissues (all the external rotators) are trying to help you spread the legs further (hence the cramping, like when you point your foot), and they are also squashed in between the grater trochanter and the ilia when side splitting. Side, but relevant note: turnout can reduce this impingement; and the structure of one's hips determines whether hyperextension of lumbar spine or turnout will give you the easiest wide-leg position.

I was not aware that Lorimer Mosley was a physiotherapist, and I will listen to his TED talk. The profession you are in the process of entering (physiotherapy,) of all the disciplines of modern medicine, seems to me to be stuck in a mostly biomechanical model of cause and effect, both with respect to dysfunction, and pain. As with all professions, though, there is a broad range of views within it, too, and many embrace wider models privately. I will report back here once I have listened to the talk. Consider your whole journey here: as I mentioned a few pages ago, you are a different person to the one who first posted here. Please tell us what you learned on the Mosley workshop that you can put into practise now. My point in asking this is that theoretical perspectives abound, and as you say above, "pain science is an area full of mainly opinions, not facts". This is precisely why I am no longer an academic: I chose to deal with, explore, and refine the world of experience, and leave the world of concepts for others to argue about. If you learned somethings, or some things, that you can actualise now, then I am interested. My experience in helping others to move past their experience of pain is all practical; in the moments of the consultation, their perception of the problem and their direct experience of it is changed; that is the core of the ST method, in fact. Becoming more flexible is a small part of this story.

Please do some serious reading in this area, and come back. Revisit your much earlier comments (regarding Sherrington's laws) about not wanting a history lesson. With sincere respect, the fact is you simply do not have a wide or deep enough understanding yet about the matters you pronounce upon. No problem, either, for me. On the other hand, if you want to go deeper into this, turn up at a workshop some time and keep an open mind (and heart). Not everything "evolves around reducing pain", as you claim.

I began my academic career in medical anthropology, Alexander, that part of academia that construction the theoretical base of Lorimer's work—and a paper I wrote there in 1988 (Low back pain: review and prescription) was radical, then. Outside of physiotherapy, the bio-psycho-social model of medicine generally (Kleinman) has held sway for a very long time now. I am familiar with the literature, but science and the current narrow "evidence-based medicine" are blunt tools that do not look at the lived, subjective experience of being a human being—and that's where our present work sheds real light. Pain is simply one aspect. You have heard me mention "pain is a sensation' suffering is the story we tell ourselves about it": this is how any experience is constructed. The whole of one's life is similar in this regard. Can you link to his book please; I could not find it on Amazon.

This is exactly how this happened for me, SD. When you start out, it feels like nothing will move, but if you persevere, a kind of yielding happens that you do not usually feel. I think it's deep warming of the fascia. For this reason, FS and SS are done on leg day!

It is a love–hate relationship in the beginning, to be sure! A perfect antidote to anyone working on a computer.

Don't listen to it. Instead, move your awareness out of the head (where it is involved with the monologue) to sensations in the body—feeling what's happing in the body, right now. Repeat as necessary! What did the guy with the 5lb glass sphere say? Six months minimum to get anything going? Meditation is the same. Of course you can't stick with it—your mind does not want that (actually, does not want to be seen). As for "I should be doing more climbing..."—there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, etc. Same for everyone. You can't do everything, so decide what you want the most, and devote your time to that. The metaphor is perfect: if you are juggling too many balls, put one or two down. Thanks for posting; it's lovely to read, and it is the modern dilemma.

Yes, probably. Apart from myself, I have only ever worked with one person who can feel the contraction, then the stretch, in subscap. itself; most people only feel referred pain down the front of the arm being externally rotated. It is not difficult to stretch the scalenes, my young friend: that video I referred you to has helped literally thousands of people. If it did not work for you, I am betting you did not follow at least one of the instructions! Please try again, and try to listen to the instructions as though you had nor heard them before. The other exercise that (above) you said did not work for you, which I described on p.1 of this thread. Stretching is the only effective way of discharging tension from this (or any) problem area; the supercharged approach is to do strength work for this area (weighted shrugs) then stretch using the method described.

This often happens to me teaching workshops. Hahahahaha! Hurts like Hell, too. Usually a pike or a strong forward bend where I forget to relax my abs completely, and the abs try to help. Don't forget the rule: "any muscle asked to do work in the contracted end of of its ROM is liable to spasm". Doesn't matter how long you've been doing this, either!

Welcome Czon. I had a really sore R hamstring for over two years; I kept doing all the things I do and one day, on a workshop, I was able to do the standing Y pose perfectly on both legs—and zero transition from really sore to moving well. I cannot explain it, but time and work does seem to fix everything.

Czon—hello there. I had a student do the same stretch (wall biceps) and her thumb went numb and stayed that way for more than three weeks, then suddenly came good. With any luck, it should come good soon.

The point is that if you do bend your knees sufficiently, then you can position the pelvis perfectly. Then, while holding that position, straightening (or, if you are strict, trying to straighten) the leg accesses the reciprocal inhibition reflex (RIR); and contractions access the post-contraction inhibition reflex (PCIR)... and everything changes.

@Jonas W: yes, that's the one. @Nathan's comment is critical, and many people have delayed their acquisition of the pancake by years by ignoring it: unless you can feel exactly where your pelvis is, as soon as the adductors and hamstrings run out of available length, the spine flexes, and that's the kind of round-backed pancake we see every day. Really bending the knees (up to 90°, in some cases) is necessary to get that movement happening; once you feel the stretch under your glutes, you're getting there. As well, check out this YT clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jJsNuznWM&t=10s This was super helpful for me.

@MarkTN: we did not take images of the DWB workshop—just a room full of people doing nothing! Re. sitting and kneeling: in my experience, far and away the most important aspect of your sitting is the quality of awareness that you bring to the activity. The Buddha spoke of the "four postures of meditation" (lying, sitting, walking, and standing) and in his day, that would have covered all possible activities)—so I assume the directions for the First Satipatthana (foundation of mindfullness, in the Satipatthana Sutra) are that they be followed at all times one is in any of these postures. Accordingly, the idea of being present all the time (or as much of it as you can!) arises, and the concept of yoga in daily life. In the Buddhist world (in Theravada, anyway) practitioners are called 'yogis' even if they do no yoga. I recommend that you use both positions, as you are, and remind yourself at various times, "What's happening now?" as my learned colleague Patrick likes to remind students. This way a widened awareness can affect all aspects of daily life, rather than being a practise one engages in when sitting.

@Jonas W: do you have the video program the PDF refers to?