Mick

Thanks for the link, Kit. Actually, I was hoping for a training partner where we could support each other rather than going for a lesson. But I do appreciate your post. I haven't linked up with anyone yet. Any Novocastrians - I'm still around!

Hi all, I'm now living in and around Newcastle. I'm looking for a training partner to meet, say, once per week to do some partner-assisted C-R sessions. Saturday would be best for me but I'd possibly be able to make time on a Wednesday or Friday, too, if either were more suitable. I've attended a ST teacher training course a few years ago but never completed the teaching hours. So I have an idea of the general approach. I don't have massive ROM but I have succeeded in drastically reducing the imbalances in my body, left to right, and am eager to now extend my ROM with a training partner with whom we can keep each other accountable. Anyway, if anyone's slightly interested please get in touch and we could just try a session or two and go from there, without expectation or obligation to continue for whatever reason! Cheers, Mick

I flew from Izmir, Turkey to Scone, Australia from Thursday morning until Friday evening. I ended up doing my next stretching session at 3am on Saturday... Session #6 5 sets x 1:00 for side-split position (3 deep breaths while holding static stretch after each set; last set held for about 90 seconds). Afterward, relaxed floor piriformis stretch (90 secs left/right) and downward-dog for 90 seconds. ----- I've been doing neck stretches at random throughout the day. Just moving my head around until I find a strong line of tension and slowly going through the whole 360 degree axis. That feels quite good. Still doing a short passive stretch session each morning --- hip-flexor lung stretch (both sides), frog stretch, floor piriformis (both sides), downward-dog --- then 12 minutes of meditation. Today I pulled weeds out of Mum's garden for about 3 hours. I was conscious of hinging at the hips while bending down, trying to feel my glutes and hamstrings taking the load of the bend. Not feeling any discomfort now (I would have in the past) which is good because there is probably another 10 hours or so worth of weed-pulling to go!

New round of Van Zandt protocol: 3 x 10 sets of 20kg kettlebell swings Hot shower, then... Session #5 5 sets x 0:45 for side-split position After around 90-second relaxed hold after 5th set, relaxed floor piriformis stretch (90 secs left/right) and downward-dog for 90 seconds. Finished with Elephant walk for about 60 seconds. Soon I'm gonna have to start stretching diagonally on my carpet because my feet are almost reaching both ends. Next session will be 60-second contraction holds.

New round of Van Zandt protocol: (From last night...) Session #4 5 sets x 0:45 for side-split position After 60 second relaxed hold after 5th set, Elephant walk for about 90 seconds. Then finished with relaxed floor piriformis stretch (90 secs left/right) and downward-dog for 90 seconds. Exploring the Elephant walk has much more freedom immediately after the set of side-split stretches.

New round of Van Zandt protocol: Session #3 5 sets x 0:45 for side-split position After 60 second relaxed hold after 5th set, Elephant walk for about 90 seconds. Then finished with relaxed floor piriformis stretch (90 secs left/right) and downward-dog for 90 seconds. Last couple of days I've been limbering for about 10 minutes in the morning. Compared with maybe a year or two ago, I can feel my muscles with a softer quality first thing in the mornings. This makes it more enjoyable. I'm back at work tomorrow after about 2 weeks of sickness hanging around our house. So my challenge is to keep at my stretching despite the unwanted schedule.

New round of Van Zandt protocol: Session #2 5 sets x 0:45 for side-split position After 60 second relaxed hold after 5th set, morphed into Elephant walk for about a minute. Then finished with relaxed floor piriformis stretch (90 secs left/right). This photo is me after the session so I'm pretty much at my full ROM. That's my (new) starting point!

Morning 20kg kettlebell swings - 1 x 10 ---------- Late afternoon New round of Van Zandt protocol: Session #1 5 sets x 0:45 for side-split position Finished with relaxed floor piriformis stretch (left/right) + downward-dog. ---------- Evening 30 minutes of lying meditation

Happy new year to all! I thought it prudent to give an update to my log. From 25th August to 20th October I engaged in Van Zandt's split progression [I have listed specific details of my efforts below.] Before the 25th August and since my last post, I was basically limbering each day. After the 20th October I have done very little. Having said that, my experience with the Van Zandt protocol was very positive. I approached it with the perspective and understanding that reps/sets approach is not the ultimate solution. I listened to a podcast recently where a person was describing their creative process and they said, "Structure serves spirit." This was kind of my thinking in applying the reps/sets approach of Van Zandt's protocol. I was following it but I wasn't attached to it. My facility to persist with the program while pushing past range of motion thresholds (without "wrecking" my muscles and having to give my body a break, like I've had to do in the past) was solely due to my best efforts to apply what I have learned from Kit and Olivia; in particular, listening to my body and being aware of what I feel during and after a stretch. This is why I probably had more rest days than what Van Zandt would recommend. The biggest take away for me was a realization. That is, there is no physical barrier to increasing my flexibility. My body is capable of doing the splits. I started to feel that as I push into new ranges of motion, as my flexibility changes, I am changing. My thoughts, emotions, beliefs and perspective of who I am changes. With that, there is a part of me who doesn't want to let go. I could come up with any number of excuses as to why I stopped following the protocol on 20th October, however, I believe the real reason is my habituated self didn't want to be left behind. Please don't misunderstand, I didn't see massive gains in range of motion. But it was enough for me (and my body) to accept that increases in range of motion is just a matter of patience and persistence. I was going to start the protocol again on 1st January, however my wife tested positive to Covid on New Year's eve and I started feeling the same symptoms, although my test came back negative. We are still not back to 100% however when I feel clear, I will start with the protocol again. Anyway, for record-keeping's sake here is what I did: * SS - side-split; DD - downward-dog; FS - front-split (which was more of a hip-flexor stretch, especially in the begin). * After each session I was spending around 90 seconds in a relaxed modified floor piriformis stretch (my back leg was bent at 90 degrees) on each side. Normally I'd do a bolstered piriformis but I was usually stretching down on the seaside so didn't have cushions. * When I stopped doing the downward-dog stretch as part of the contraction sets, I also added it to the end of the sessions as a relaxed stretch for 90 seconds. 1 set x 0:30 25/8 (SS + FS) 2 sets x 0:30 27/8 (SS + FS + DD) 3 sets x 0:30 30/8 (SS + FS + DD) 4 sets x 0:30 1/9 (SS + FS + DD) 5 sets x 0:30 4/9 (SS + FS + DD) 5 sets x 0:45 7/9 (DD + SS + FS) 10/9 (DD + SS + FS) 12/9 (DD + SS + FS) 14/7 (DD + SS + FS) 17/9 (DD + SS + FS) 20/9 (FS + SS) 6 sets x 1:00 22/9 (FS + SS) 25/9 (FS + SS) 28/9 (FS + SS) 2/10 (FS + SS) 8/10 (FS + SS) 11/10 (FS + SS) *At this stage, the length of the holds was becoming too much (time and stretching-energy wise) to do the front and side stretches. Van Zandt recommends just picking one to start with anyway. 5 sets x 1:15 14/10 SS 18/10 SS 20/10 SS Edit: I forgot to mention that after the 5th set in each session I was holding the stretch for approximately 60-90 seconds with the intent to relax in that end ROM. I think the fact that I stopped here shortly after I felt that trying to do front and side stretches was too much tells me that when I start again in the next week or so, I will just focus on the side-splits. As you can see, I didn't actually get very far through the whole protocol! Thankfully, as I already mentioned, I didn't have to stop because of any injury or part-injury. And I actually did more continued intensive stretching within this 2 months than I ever have in my life. This gives me hope and awareness of the potential for change when I get at it again. That's it!

In Turkish, we say "Geçmiş olsun" ---- Get well soon!

Thanks, I tried this yesterday evening. I found with the breathe-and-relax part that by internally rotating my arms I could wedge my fingers, with my palms facing upward, underneath my calf muscles. This allowed me to fully relax my torso, hips and legs in the position. If my hips were sufficiently rolling forward I'm guessing this 'hands under the legs' wouldn't be necessary. Having said that, compared with previous attempts, there was a little more space to explore in my hips. I did the series of C-R you suggested twice through with a small break in between. When I got up I thought maybe I had pushed it a little too much for my 'precious hamstrings' and, coupled with the fact I hadn't had the reassurance of my torso resting on my thigh, as in the lunge hamstring stretch, was anxious about how I'd feel today. However, so far, my hamstrings are just a little fatigued and don't feel incapacitated like they usually would in the past. After the pancake, when I got home I didn't do any more hamstring C-R stretches. But I did the following with C-R: Bolstered piriformis (left, right) Wall quad/hip-flexor (left, right) Frog Tailor I finished with a static modified plough. Earlier in the morning I did quite a decent limbering session, including SL RDL with 20kg kettlebell, and assisted Cossack.

The first and second day was a tiny bit tender but it's more like I imagined it should be, more like just needing time/rest to recover. If I had pushed as hard as this in the past, my hamstrings would have been incapacitated for at least 4-5 days. But, for example, it's now the 3rd day after the C-R session and there is no noticeable lingering fatigue. I'd say this is probably due to more awareness of resting my torso on my upper thigh in, say, the lunge hamstring stretch which allows me to engage and relax the upper hamstring/under-butt on cue... I think in the past I didn't really have this facility so my inner hamstrings were taking the load. Still more work to do with this. Yes, I remember you mentioning this at Greenwell Point! I wasn't planning to do any C-R but then I was feeling a little more freedom in my hips. I wasn't sure which contraction to do exactly, so I just squeezed my glutes first with ankles flexed then with toes pointed. This seemed to work okay.

Yesterday I did mini C-R sessions spread throughout the day. In the morning I started with: - SL RDL, 2x7 left & right - Lunge hamstring/hip-flexor limbering - Soleus calf stretch limbering Then after a couple of online lessons I started C-R: - (Assisted Cossack limbering) - Lunge hamstring (left, right, left, right) - Bolstered piriformis (left, right) - Soleus calf (left, right) In the afternoon while walking the dog: - Pancake with C-R on a grass incline In the evening: - Side-split position with C-R - Sitting piriformis from Daily 5 with C-R (left, right) I finished with some relaxed limbering in downward-dog.

Today I did another C-R session. Started with: Limbering with soleus calf, lunge for hip-flexor and hamstring, floating piriformis Assisted Cossack squat SL RDL with 20kg kettlebell (L+R x 7/8) Then moved into stretching: Bent-leg lunge hamstring (L, R, L, R) Supported advanced piriformis (L, R, L) Wall quad/hip-flexor (L, R) Soleus calf (L, R) Bent-leg hamstring (L, R) Still limbering every day, although less since the last C-R as I'm trying to give my body sufficient rest between C-R sessions. I could be doing SL RDLs more frequently, I think. A little bit complacent in this regard.

Today I did another C-R session. Started with: Single leg RDL with kettlebell 5 minutes of squat with kettlebell Then moved into stretching: Wall quad/hip-flexor (left, right) Lunge hamstring (left, right, left, right) Bolstered piriformis (left straight after 2nd left hamstring stretch, right straight after 2nd right hamstring) Lunge hamstring (left) Bolstered piriformis (left) Frog Pancake with cushion (actually wasn't C-R, just tried rolling hips forward & back, with slightly bent knees) Soleus calf (left, right) I finished with a kind of modified plough, resting my feet on the 3rd bar of my stall bars. This seems to let me relax my hips & legs while lightly stretching the hamstrings. Since the last C-R session which I posted about I did some limbering every day, as always.