Kit_L

Completely normal (have a look at the anatomy of trapezius). Try stretching those cramping muscles at the back by holding your arm horizontal and reaching the arm as far off the body towards the front as you can before you try that movement you're describing. Nice going.

Likely both—remember that the anterior tibialis is working hard, in its contracted range of movement, to hold the shins forward, against whatever ankle flexibility limitations are there. Try doing a bent-knee calf stretch before you squat, and see if this helps. And that muscle tiring in that position will definitely make it stronger, in time. All good, here, and thanks to @Matt Chung for quoting me (sounds a bit harsh on re-reading, but sadly is 100% accurate!). :)

Congratulations on this milestone, Matt. Excellent.

The numbering system is somewhat confused, but in fact https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2016-KL-YogaNidra-sensations-BUBS.mp3 and https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2016-KL-YogaNidraDay-BUBS.mp3 are a pair, in this order, and are not explicitly connected with the first four. If you like them, they can be done any time. The first of these (the one with "sensations" in the name) is an attempt to reinforce the lessons of the first four days. I can expand on this if needed.

Those are good YT videos, and you will have seen my comment on the first one. And the 'Barefoot Professor' runs softly and beautifully. The slo-mo footage of how he lands makes the key points perfectly, and his knees are never straight. And as I mentioned in my comment there, on my toe shoes (Vibram Five Fingers), the little toe pocket wears out first, and now I know why.

This is true for the vast majority of people I have taught this to, @Ned. And when you're more relaxed (which always happens to some extent if the sensations are weaker) then you can feel more. Thanks for commenting, too; between you and @Matt Chung, readers are really getting a feeling of what these positions and practises should feel like. Thank you.

I am sure that will be the case! But—no problem. Much more realistic, too. Most people interact with reality via a model of it—but why not deal with it directly, when it's right there! Not 'normal', of course, but infinitely more interesting and as you say, more enjoyable, too.

That, my friend, was a fascial adhesion, which has now let go. This is the science behind that gracilis release you've no doubt seen on that YT video. Fascia has many extraordinary capacities, one of which is it can adhere to adjacent sheets of fascia if there is insufficient movement to maintain the inherent slipperiness. Slipperiness is another magical quality of this substance—some of you might remember the wonderful Jim Carrey line (from Ace Ventura Pet Detective, from memory) where he says, "it is the mucus that binds us." Well, it is. Like so many things in life, these attributes come in pairs; in this case the tendency to adhere and the capacity to slide. And no less than Dr Robert Schleip told me on a workshop once, "you'll love this Kit," he said, "we ran a series of experiments on hydration regimes and facial slipperiness – and there is no relation between these things we found. The only thing that keeps fascia supple and slippery is movement." Robert runs the Fascia Research Unit at Ulm University. My guess is that this change will be permanent, assuming you use that range of movement from time to time. What you've experienced IS the method, doing what it should. So many, too many, people stop before this happens and will tell themselves that stretching just doesn't work for them or the method doesn't work for them. We have had plenty of them here on the Forums. Great work, @Matt Chung.

'Very yes' to stretching (used in the way I define it in this article) done later in the day/evening. Limbering/mobility is good to do in the morning, but as I wrote elsewhere, my morning routine is all about having coffee and sitting still and writing. Once I've done those things, then I can do whatever mobility I want to do that day, or not. Stretching done in the evening is always more productive in terms of increases in range of movement which of course is how we use the term. And stretching after working out (or dance classes or any other kind of exercise) is far and away the best timing for this activity – again as I've written about extensively elsewhere. The best warmup for stretching is serious weight training. But dance classes and anything else that makes you hot will do just as well. This is also the reason I recommend wearing warm garments on the lower half of the body; again something I've written about elsewhere.

From p. 35, Overcome neck & back pain (4th edition): "The third reflex in the P&F approach is the one we have called the Apprehension Reflex (AR). This term describes the increased capacity to stretch if the person stretching has one part of their body limiting further stretching of one of the joints involved in the movement. For example, a standard stretch for the hamstrings is to bend forward over straight legs. We have found that if the person stretching places a rolled mat between trunk and thighs—so the brain can feel the position of the thighs in relation to the body— usable flexibility increases immediately. On questioning, students reply that the position ‘feels safer’—they feel that the tension in the muscles has reduced, and that they can stretch further as a result."

We call that the "apprehension reflex" as you probably know. I named this in the third, or fourth, edition of Overcome neck & back pain, IIRC. It's a real thing. And welcome to the Forums!

Hahahahahaha! The balance board is perfect for that. One more thing: before you get into any kind of serious calf muscle stretch, use the external rotators in the hip joint to try to turn the leg outward (external rotation) in the hip joint and the ankle joint, so whole leg) and watch what happens to the shape of the arch as well as where you feel the stretch. It's essential to bring this rotation on before the stretch is too strong otherwise you won't be able to move the leg at all. This dimension gives you more angles to play with, and different ways of moving the stretch around the calf muscles.

Yes! I have written pretty extensively on this. Usually the limitation is in the fascia (posterior chain) and while you may feel the restriction there (in the calves), loosening the fascia in the mid-back (or wherever that's stuck in you), can change that feeling forever: https://stretchtherapy.net/rollstretch-for-thoracic-fascial-release/ There's more though. In every stretching class where hamstrings are going to be a focus, we would always do some kind of straight leg calf stretch as well – gastrocnemius and the sciatic nerve itself are the main limitations to flexion at the hip. And your comments about the single leg dog pose, above – do take your time with that one and I don't think you'll loose enough yet to do that with your hands on the floor, so use the wall instead or even a high support like the seat of a chair (with the back of it up against the wall so it can't slide) or something like that, you'll find that the pose is far more powerful and effective in the straight leg version of it even if your hands are not on the floor. This is the maximum stretch for the whole posterior chain. If you look at the photograph that accompanies the article that I sent you above, you'll see that I have my head on the ground with a perfectly straight back and the heel is on the ground as well. Once you master this pose, you will own the posterior chain! It takes most people years to master this pose, and that's the reason why the two leg downward dog pose (as it's called in Yoga) is usually very poorly done. Mastering the single leg dog pose first is absolutely the key to that pose as the article discusses. The single leg dog pose is one of our better inventions I believe.

Where is this discourse; if you have any good sources, please link. I walk on concrete and asphalt every day. But, and this is a big but, I do not heel strike, and I am silent. This is one of the best ways to re-learn how to walk, or run: make no sound. The first time you try jogging silently, you'll find your knees are slightly bent all the time (have you seen how Groucho Marx walks?). https://media1.tenor.com/m/nZmK2TfTwXQAAAAd/groucho-treat.gif (might have to copy this into another window to see) The quads are doing all the work (his movement of course is exaggerated; yours will be a fraction of this, and each leg will be bent slightly but unnoticeably differently). There will be no strain on the rest of the body as a result. If you're worried about your feet getting dirty, wear Vibram Five Fingers, or thin zero-drop shoes with toe socks. Re. the kind of vertical load bearing you are doing in the movement class: no problem at all, both for the reason you adduce, and because your whole body is involved, and you're paying attention to distribute the load and (another big and) it's dynamic.

Very poor connection today, so will be v. brief. If what you show above is not painful, don't give it a thought. I am sure your intuition is correct (tension somewhere). No one in my experience is symmetrical. I think that as you keep going, this will likely change too.