DavidGrey

Could it be that you are just not taking in enough calories after cutting out the foods that contain those things?

I found Sapiens to be both incredible and incredibly depressing!

Do you not think that one can work on improving both at the same time @Kit_L ?

Hi Jelena, Don’t guess! Has a scan confirmed that you have structural kyphosis? Until it has, I would treat it as if you don’t. I have seen people with a MUCH worse “posture” and bridge than you display & they have made drastic improvements on both! TO open the chest, you won’t find better than the “crossbow”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mPbEggRY_k&t=385s You will also need some passive backward bending. If you don’t have a “whale” then a couch will do. You can actually target some of the problem vertebra and see if you can get some movement there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaRt2WML3LA I suspect your hip flexors are also very tight if you are feeling your bridge in your lower back. This is the best HF stretch you will find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtsQTfAwE4Y This should be more than enough to get you started but any/all of the other Stretch Therapy work would be great to check out!

Yes! @Emmet Louis

@Emmet Louis I can’t say I have noticed the obliques being either good or bad. How would you suggest I check? Suitcase carries for anti rotation? Anything to train rotation?

I’ve been a little quiet on here recently, mostly because my training hasn’t been particularly interesting of late. Been doing plenty of stretching and everything is coming on pretty nicely. However, one thing that has been bothering me for ages and I haven’t been able to figure it out is knee pain on my left side. It comes on in almost all legs apart movements. Things like sitting cross legged, tailor pose, frog stretch, horse stance or just sitting cross legged on the floor. It doesn’t need to be in my end ROM and can come on at the beginning of the movement. I also have a torn lateral meniscus on that side. The thing is, there was never one moment when it tore. It just crept up on me. I have been putting this knee pain down to tightness in the adductors and quads but as they get more flexible the pain has not decreased. I think that while i have been focussing upstream of the knee, I may have missing something downstream and I am starting to think that the culprit may be external rotation of the tibia. I have a few reasons for this: something doesn’t look right from my POV looking down at that side doing any single leg work. The shin doesn’t seem to be in line with the foot and knee. When I use hip ER in a squat, then my foot raises (or wants to raise) off the floor on the medial side The lateral meniscus degeneration My left glute won’t seem to work no matter what I do. It is always the hamstrings. Of course, this may be a chicken & egg situation with the glute and tibia (which came first & messed everything else up) but I feel like the glute won’t kick back in until this has been sorted When doing a floor piriformis stretch I often get pain in the lateral knee and attachments of the tib anterior. But, I figured out today that when I slightly traction the shin away from the knee, most of the uncomfortable sensation goes away.. I would love some input here from anyone who knows what they are talking about. @Dave @Kit_L @Emmet Louis - Sorry to tag you guys but i’m really getting frustrated with this knee and would love some help...

@anteriorankle You could also consider adding some weight. Like using a belt or your feet to hang a light dumbbell off. Your max hold will be shorter but it will introduce a new stimulus that may help in bridging the gap between two arm hangs and one arm hangs.

Just sitting in a figure 4 position will help with internal rotation of the back leg (and external rotation of the front). Then you can also play with 4 position lifts (video below). It is vital that the rotation is being driven by the hip and not the knee. Discontinue or regress the practice immediately if you feel any knee pain or discomfort. Work on any or all of Kit’s stretches for the muscles around your hips also (Hip flexors, adductors, quads, piriformis etc)....

I finally got/made the time to sit down and reflect on 2016 & have a think about what I would like for 2017. 2016: It was a really big year for me. The first time in my life that I haven’t played either Gaelic Football or Hurling & the first time in about 10 years that I have had a break from sport for more than a month. It was difficult at times but my body was breaking down completely and something needed to be done. Upon reflection, I think my body/mind went through a few phases over the 12 months.... Phase 1 - Chronic & debilitating pain. A 6ft man caught in a 5ft 7” body. Working on specific areas did nothing for me. The pain went away when I forgot about anatomy, injuries and limitations & just started to move more throughout the day... Phase 2 - Finally I could feel something that wasn’t pain. But that just turned out to be tension, lots and lots of tension! Everything just felt tight. It was around then that I began ST. “Focus on your tightest areas” was the message. For me that was/is HF, adductors, Pecs & T-spine. I started to see and feel some auspicious changes around 4 months in. Usually stretching every 7-12 days & “moving" every other day for a couple of hours. Phase 3 - Once these areas began to get a little more mobile & pretty big re-patterning began & continues to happen. New ROM, increased proprioception of areas that lay seemingly dormant (Glutes, lower abs & VMO). Constant twitches & what feels like small releases in the quads, HF, adductors & Jaw. Phase 4 - Relaxation. I am just scratching the surface here, but it feels like I am starting to be able to interpret tension in different parts of the body, & then consciously let it go - mostly through breathing into the area. Of course, I am still in & go through each of these phases on a weekly basis. I am hoping that I will be spending more time in phase 3 & 4. I have no idea if/what any further phases will be like but hopefully I can find out! For 2017 some of my goals/intentions are: Spend a minimum of 5 minutes every day doing lying relaxation. ( I am setting an easy target of 5 mins but would like to do at least 20 mins) Flexibility. I would like to see big improvements in all ranges and in particular in my HF, adductors, spine & shoulders. Spend a lot more time learning from @Dave & PA! Attend more workshops and meet more interesting & knowledgeable people. (ST for Performance in Sydney in March is booked!) Get my body to a point where I could maybe return to sport in 2018 if I wished. This means solving a lot of problems in the lower body! Begin to learn some type of bodywork. I am not fussed as to the type but more interested in the teacher. I want to learn it to learn it, not for a piece of paper, so finding someone good who can show me the ropes 1-1 would be great. Obviously it will be a big challenge to find someone willing... A press handstand. It would be really nice but not at the expense of any of my other goals. At the moment, I can hit 30 seconds but very inconsistently....

Thanks @MarkTN for the excellent response! I cautiously approached the stretch again today and it was much more bearable and I felt like I could actually dissolve some tension this time around! I will play around with this and report back!

Something interesting happened today while playing with Kit’s lying scalenes stretch. I had my shoulders just slightly elevated so my neck went into extension. However, I got the idea to keep the ribs down as you would in a “dish shape”. This didn’t change much about the stretch itself, but when I inhaled, it brought on one of the most intense feelings I have ever experienced. My whole jaw, inside my mouth, teeth and the areas under and behind my chin honestly felt like they might explode. I tried to relax as much as possible but each inhale would bring a very similar feeling as long as I kept my ribs down. I am not very well versed on breathing mechanics or the neck, face/jaw areas. My understanding - which could be way off track - is, that when you have a kyphotic posture (which I do) & poor breathing mechanics (which I do) then the scalenes play a much bigger role than they should in lifting the ribs on the inhale. If this is the case, then why would keeping the ribs down when stretching the scalenes and breathing deeply cause such an effect elsewhere in the face & jaw etc? I would love some thoughts on this because i’m not sure whether to pursue this variation & try to clear the tension which could be a really big thing for my posture, or if a feeling that intense is telling me to steer clear. @Kit_L any thoughts would be great?

Very true!

Regarding feeling the glutes, may I suggest this from @Dave. I have found it incredible and don’t think you will find much better in terms of activation... You could do 1 warm-up set to failure on each side as a “glute activation” before deadlifting. I’m willing to bet you will feel your glutes after that. Equally, you could just do a set of this after stretching your HF on another day & it should still help with feeling the glutes on DL day.

Holy crap! That is a lot! As I was reading it I was thinking...”hyperextension is fine.... if you have a range, use it and get strong in it”. But then I saw the picture...