Dexter

Once again I am back to this exercise to help get the last bits of ROM for my front splits, always thought I had enough hamstring flexibility for the splits as I had an easy full pike, but the lunge hamstring still exposes a nice tight line in my hamstrings which I didn’t focus on enough. It’s like all these time I had this gem of an exercise, but I still kept playing with full pike and head to toe for hamstring flexibility. I am now entirely sure when I master this exercise that my front splits will see some nice improvements as well. I tried doing 6 of the contractions back to back, it was not fun ?.

You can try stretching your calves before doing the stretch. Also the hamstring crosses the knee joint so you also can feel it behind the knee.

I have always wondered about this myself, whether or not to keep it as an active hang to feel 'safe' in the position. But I have been playing with just fully relaxing in the end position, as I feel a way better stretch than trying to keep active. I think it is just up to whether you are able to feel good in the end position fully relaxed, as for some people that might be too intense therefore the advice to protract the shoulders. In the end I would say to just follow the oldest trick in the book; listen to your body .

Man times flies, last updated this log back in October last year! Going to share some realizations from training over the months: 1)Used to have to warmup quite a bit before I start practicing my press handstands for the day as I feel they help me get into better positions, but over the months of practicing I now don't really even stretch my hips and could still get some quality reps of press handstands in. Simply by using the position daily during the press really helped reinforce the position I feel. However shoulder mobility is still lacking, still not satisfied with my line, just can't seem to open up that last bit of shoulder flexion. 2)Also felt the need to release my TFL every single time before I stretch for middle splits and pancake, but after taking a break from those 2 elements, I think the TFL has calmed down. Retested horse stance after all these months, and happy that 7 step is still very manageable, though the back has to lean forward a certain amount, so not perfectly vertical at 7 step width. Middle splits has regressed a bit, but I'm fairly certain it would come back rather quickly when I do get back on it. Full middle splits are one of the goals for the year. 3)Full front splits with hips squared also one of the goals for this year. I'm getting close to full touchdown soon(hips not perfectly squared), with once a week training. I enjoy doing daily ballistic stretching for most body parts I want to get flexible at, but with time issues I stuck to once a week stretching for front splits and could still feel progress so that's cool. 4)Full bridge on floor is what I REALLY want this year. I'm wondering the level of hip extension needed to do a bridge comfortably on the floor. If I could do full front splits, would it mean I have enough hip extension to do a full bridge from the floor? Lastly, I'm contemplating whether to again start head to toe for at least 45 days, the last time I finished that cycle, my calves got super flexible for months, up to the point where I could do SLDP and feel almost nothing from the calves. I stopped around the level of legs elevated to hip level for head to toe the last time, maybe I can try for head to toe with one leg elevated above the head this time?

@dannyg Your suggestion about body awareness is spot on! I like to remind my students to feel what their bodies are giving them on a day to day basis. Also thank you on the timeline to resume activities, I did suggest for my student to talk with her doctor and only start with light gentle movements when she gets the green light to go ahead.

Hi guys, I recently started teaching ST (November of 2017) and am slowly building up my number of regular students. One student in particular (lady in her 50s) who is now a regular, as she enjoys the stretches and helps her relieve pain has a question regarding how soon can she start stretching again after surgery. She is scheduled to have a surgery for inguinal hernia. I am wondering if anyone on the forums have experience with having a surgery, and how long before they can resume their normal activities after. To be fair, this would of course vary depending on the scale of the surgery and the speed of their recovery. Would like to hear your thoughts, thank you in advance!

I own a few of the mastery series and also the front split prep. I started using ST from the free Youtube videos, and then getting the Stretching and flexibility book after that followed by joining my first workshop back in 2016. Same as @Nathan I do not use the VOD materials enough . Part of the reason I think is because the first workshop I joined gave me enough tools to unlock the patterns of flexibility that I wanted at the time. Now that I started teaching ST, I do actually watch the videos more, as they are important to learn how to effectively present the material to my students, and now I actually need more tools to cater to the needs of different people. I'm also looking into getting more programs soon, like slow-flow, and the follow along classes, for more ideas on how to present a good class.

Shared! And sadly designing is not one of my strong suits

I found out that a good partner, and also the capacity to relax is important in this stretch. If you're not able to relax, there wouldn't be much depression and so you wouldn't feel it as much. Positioning is also crucial, I went from barely feeling anything to really feeling the stretch when some adjustments was made by my partner upon Kit's cueing. Maybe post a picture or short video of you in the stretch, more helpful that way.

I agree with @Nathan. The programs are already the cheapest in the market and of very high quality. Personally it wouldn't change how hard I would push the new programs. Highly resonate with this. The people pushing the programs now are the ones who truly believes in it and also why I love ST! But I also do think the affiliate/referral system could be an incentive for those outside the system to push ST to their audiences.

I believe this thread would continue to be a good source of ideas as I slowly progress. I have just only started after all. I only run two classes on every Saturday right now as I am currently still working a full time desk job. The challenge in retaining and attracting more customers would come when I start doing fitness/ST classes full time.

This can never be repeated enough but this forum is a goldmine of information! And thank you @Olga for starting this thread, it has given me some really good ideas as I am also now walking down this road in promoting ST which is completely unheard of in Brunei where I come from. I conducted my first two official ST classes just last Saturday and the response was actually pretty good. I think the attendees also enjoyed the class so the classes for next week are already filling up as we speak. I think promotion by word of mouth for a small community like Brunei really works well if not the best.

I do feel that IG is a very powerful platform for reaching new audiences, but there are also many other pages that advertise their stretches/programs. The challenge here would be how to convince the audiences that Stretch therapy is a better system. Often these pages show stretches, but I feel that the 1 minute limit for videos on IG is not enough to showcase the finer details for stretches in the ST system. I also think IG/FB works well on a local level, I have gotten a bit of inquiries when my friend shared my ST page, but these are the people that are willing to try a brand new system. I also have friends who I strongly suggest them to try my classes, they themselves know they need to stretch more, but still are unwilling to start. Another would be the time commitment, I feel that many would not be willing to commit to 45 minutes of stretching, especially when doing it alone. Most of the time they only want to stretch the area where they directly feel the discomfort/tightness/pain. These are my thoughts for now, hope they are relevant and did not go off topic!

I'm going to shamelessly use myself as an example here .. I found this forum sometime last year and started stretching only then.. starting point was that I could not even comfortably touch my toes.. fast forward to today I've improved my flexibility in every part of my body. Check out my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dexter.goh/. I am currently still working a desk job.. I sit even longer than you do from 7am to 6pm, some training at night and more sitting afterwards watching a show or something . So long story short, its definitely possible to become flexible even when sitting for long hours! I don't really stretch during office hours, but I should really start as I do enjoy doing some hip rotations and some lunges in the toilet during breaks from time to time. You mentioned you get super sore after your loaded stretching, and stretch again 5 days later? Do you limber around during the break in between the days? That would also be helpful.

Life has been busy, but training still goes on! An interesting observation I made lately, I noticed my right hip is again giving me a bit of issues when training leg apart movements like pancake. If I warm up into it, my straddle on the floor is really wide, but trying to open them when cold is just so uncomfortable even at just half the ROM. The might be an issue with the tilting of the pelvis when sitting down on the floor when cold, as doing a standing good morning where I fold at the hips have no issues whatsoever. With that being said, piriformis still feels as tight as ever. Might be the case where it is working hard in sidesplits and pancake all the time that it doesn't really get the chance to loosen up. Another observation is that after training leg apart movements, I think my piriformis on the right side gets so uncomfortable that I cannot get into a pike without feeling the discomfort. Have been a bit of annoyance as I'm currently training for press handstands, so I'm actively straddling and piking all the time. And some good news, after a year of stretching hip flexors, they seem to be finally getting somewhere . Here's a pic of me doing the long lunge that I saw from Emmet's youtube page. I also got certified as a Stretch therapy teacher back in Singapore just last month! Working on trying to introduce ST to Brunei where I come from. There will be some limitations on how this will work out as it is a Muslim country. Physical contact between the different genders is not allowed so it will be very important in getting an equal amount of males and females when I start introducing partner work. But no point worrying in things that has not happened yet, for now I am looking to rent a place in studios to start my very first class. The challenge will be to convince people to signup for weekly classes as almost no one has heard of ST before around here. Checkout my FB page for ST Brunei: https://www.facebook.com/stretchtherapybrunei/. Any feedback would be appreciated :).