MaRo

Today, after a series of limbering exercices, I followed again the "Pancake moving sequence" (I love this sequence). Although I don't use a wide straddle - my legs are about 90° apart - I have the problem of my knees falling inward. I have to tense some muscles on the side/back of my thigs to prevent this. I don't know the reason of this. It is difficult to combine the movement of releasing my inner thigh/adductors and holding the knees up (=keeping the knees more or less straight) Altough there is no big difference in the pancake itself so far there was quite a difference in some side movments today, when I placet the elbow in front of my inner tigh and lent sidewards, other arm above my head. This was surprising and a very nice feeling! I keep feeling a strain on the inside of the right leg which I got months ago. I guess it is on gracilis, but I am not totally sure. It is a bit like a "wandering strain", it is not always on exactly the same spot. I don't really know how to confront this (I already tried to rest for a couple of weeks but it is still there).

I am still exploring new movments... I really have to take care not to get too sore. Genereally, I don't have big left/right differences in my body (they are everywhere, but not significant), but there is a big difference in the adductors as far as I feel. All right side hip work feels more restricted, but I feel that the tightes part is in the adductors. But there are so many muscles involved in hips, maybe I'm wrong..

Kit, thanks so much for this input! I will certainly read this. I think I know a bit about the relaxation aspect - although I did not learn it as part of the stretchtherapy program which is certainly an enhancement. Since last may, the biggest part of my stretching program was about relaxing the muscle, relaxing into the stretch. I did it by doing pretty long passive stretches. As I had quite a bit of time (Corona...) I really had time. I was spending around an hour or more per day for stretching which allowed me to learn a lot about my body. I learned to feel how the muscles relax. This was when I felt I can improve my flexiblity for the first time. It's tiny steps, though... and I feel that I don't want to leave it there. I tried adding PNF, but I can not handle it good, it gets quickly too intense. So I think Stretchtherapy might lead me the way using contract-relax in a helpful way (beside everything else). At the moment, when I play around with the pancake stretches, I spend most of the time remainig at a short part of a certain stretch (eg. one side of wide elephant walk) just trying to relax into it, doing tiny movements (hard to explain). I hope this is a good way approaching it. I am still "feeling into it". And I have to take care not to do too much, not to get too sore and to spend days with low intensity- "not doing days". As far as I know me, I will get at a point where I feel I can not get any further and then I will go a step back, maybe squat - and later on to expand onto the whole body for which I think I'll go back to the basic programm. Maybe not the best way working with a programm, but one the keeps me motivated.

Thanks so much for your input, Markus. I think, I have to overcome the thought that I remain inflexible for the rest of my life and that there won*t be ayn progress. Unfortunately, this is what I experienced nearly my whole life so far... I've tried working on my flexiblity for many years. Normally (if there is no shutdown) I face my limited range of motion every day as I am a coach. I do not sit there and think "oh , poor me, I am so inflexible, how sad", but I face the fact (e.g.) that I can not do a back handspring because it impacts too much on my wirsts because I am not able to open my arm-torso angle enough and bend my wrists enough. It does not help ignoring this, it's potentially dangerous. So I rather face the reality that I need more range of motion, which means I have to improve my flexiblity. And I do enjoy my stretching, especially now in shutdown again. But to be honest, there has to be some improvement in the long sight at least. All my life long, I have tried all kinds of "stretching" and I never got anywhere with it which is really disappointing, I've nearly given up. As long as I feel some liberation when stretching, I am really, really motivated. Please respect that I am working on my flexiblity already for a long time and that I am certainly not expecting something like a 4-weeks-wonder. It begun getting better when I started doing more fascial and flexiblity work and when I started doing really long passive stretches. But slowy, slowly I did start now with Pancake because I feel that I really need "Hip-Input" . I play around with the different stretches and try to find out how they impact on my body. I mostly did the L-stretches so far. I did the Tailor E-Stretch because I think I have some experience with this position. I did all the tailor session sitting a bit elevated because otherwise I cannot sit with my back straight.

Thank you, Nathan, for your input and additional information about the programms. Adductors are certainly one of my thightest spots - but there is a lot to work on everywhere. Yes, I agree, that I stretch best when the muscles are warm. Eg I like stretching of the shoulder area most after about an hour of leisure bouldering (means not super though work, just like climbing along). Then the muscles are warm and "used", but not completely tired. But after running, it does not really work for ma to agood benefit. I'll try Livs "whole body stretching class" on vimeo to learn more about the stretchtherapy and how I feel about my knowledge.

Thanks for your reply, Jim. In Butterfly, I concentrate on the "leaning forward" and try to just let the knees fall. You're completely right, it is actually stretching in two differen ways. But I also do a variety of stretches for different parts of my hips: The work on the knees approaching the ground I do sitting and here I try contract-relax or so said PNF, but I struggle with the amount and rhythm of it. It already got better, though. I also do "frog" stretching (I don't know if ths expression is common - it is legs angled like in Butterfly ,but lying belly down on the floor) - which I feel does not lead to anything at the moment. And I do kind of "straddle" stretching, lying on my back, legs up on a wall 90° and let them sink to left and right into a "straddle" position (which I am far away from). Here, I feel some relaxation of the aductors, but my biggest problem is that the knees "fall inwards". I am very thight in the adductors and I don't know where this comes from. Then, I do pike stretching, just leaning forward with legs straight. Here I got a lot of improvement, I can hold my feet easily now after a couple of minutes. But I feel that I don't work with my pelvis, it "hangs backward". I also work my piriformis in "Thread the needle", lying and sitting as well as work in pigeon pose. There is still a lot of work to do, but I don't feel lost. The same for work in a deep lunge position, very hard, but I think I feel how I can keep work on this. I also do a leaning forward stretch with legs apart, siting elevated, but this is really hard for me. My knees keep falling inwards, I am hardly able to keep legs straight at an about 90° angle. I feel that here I don't get anywhere and I think, here a stretchtherapy approach could help me the most (this is why I thought about the "Master the pancake" serie). For the problem with the knees falling inward (which I have since childhood, also while walking) I hope I get the chance to work with the approach of "Spiraldynamik", I have a good coach, but I can not geht hold of her at the moment (Corona). I am not sure about the getting the muscles tired and stretching then. When I go running, I absolutely have to stretch afterwards. My muscles tend to tighten up after this - it is very hard to relax them. For me, not the best moment for stretching, although absolutely necessary.

Hi Nathan Thanks so much for your reply I do the butterfly stretching sitting on a block. The pictures taken are only the progression pictures which I take sitting flat on the floor for comparability. I will have a look at the starter course. As far as I understood, mostly the principles are explained which I think I have basically understood. Not that I don't think I can learn more about them - I am convinced I would learn! You´re certainly right that there is not one correct answer ore guideline about how to work or which program to pick, it is just that it can be very helpful reading others' thoughts. I agree that consistency is important, this is why I don't just pick "something" because I want to feel on a good path when I stick to something.

Hi, I am new to this forum, new to stretchtherapy, but not new to stretching at all. I’ve read a lot in the forum and finally registered. I was labeled “not flexible” as a child. I’m a professional ski instructor and also working as a coach for leisure artistic gymnastics for all ages. I feel that my inflexiblitiy impacts on my joints and restricts my gymnastics – a problem at 48 years! I always tried every stretching trend – to no results. About three years ago, I started doing “mobility” with the help of a PT, which opened some range for me. At first shutdown last spring, I started yoga-based long passive stretching. It improved my flexibility a bit. Now on next shutdown (gyms closed, skiing closed) I am on a platform. I tried PNF stretching, but I get too sore, I have to add it more carefully. Screening youtube/vimeo, I found videos by Kit and Olivia and tried “pancake”, hamstrings and piriformis follow-alongs. I like this “exploring” kind of stretching where I recognized the “relaxing into the stretch” which I know from the long passive holds, aspects of my flexibility exercises as well as the PNF concept, here as contract-relax. I guess I could find useful input for me in stretchtherapy. As much as I love a strict exercise plan (it is so easy when someone just tells me what to do), I completely understand the “open approach” of the stretchtherapy concept. The biggest problems I have is the “spilitability” of my legs (I don’t need the splits, but more angle eg. in the roundoff). My hips are pretty tight. I can hardly sit straight up in “pancake”. I improved on butterfly, but seem to be on a platform. I work on piriformis (thanks Olivia for the great session on youtube), but I need more variety. What do you think, is it recommendable, to dive into the “pancake” program? Or what shall I do? I do work on shoulders, they need work, but there I am not stuck yet. Every comments are very welcome. I feel a bit alone with all this, my skiing friends don’t care about flexibility and in gymnastics, most of the people are kind of naturally flexible. Thanks in advance. Picture: my butterfly progression since may to august, stuck there since