Matt Chung

This morning, sat down to reflect what caused me to fall off the stretching band wagon and looking back, I more or less stopped “stretching” (still limber every day, a habit I am grateful for establishing) around November, when I tore my hamstring tendon (rectus femoris). After tearing the tendon, getting into many positions on the ground (e.g. getting into a laying position, squatting) was so painful that, despite rehabbing and repairing the tendon, I stopped completely. And while I am still … at about 80% recovery of the hamstring tendon (after visiting the osteopath a couple weeks ago, the ultra sound reveals that there’s still some, what he called tendinopathy, going on), I will continue to persevere (there’s some topic on this forum, might even be this one, where Kit talks about the importance of perseverance, of perhaps unavoidable process of falling and getting back up) and today, plan on hitting the gym and ease my way back into stretching my lower body: quads, hamstrings, ankles. Separately, been more or less (what Oliver Burkeman calls) dailyish doing breath counts.

> I hope this doesn't sound too cryptic, but the root of all suffering is the deep wish that reality be something different to what it is. Not to hi-jack this thread but learning to accept things as they are in something I'm actively working on, specifically regarding to interpersonal relationships. I'm getting curious about the dialectics of having empathy for someone (which some times borders making up what some consider "excuses" for them), extending compassion, and while at the same time, seeing people's behaviors for what they are. That is, I've been told (by a number of trusted friends and family) that a blind spot of mine is "extending too much grace" to the point of delusion and through some life circumstances this past year, I'm practicing seeing people/behavior for what they are and in many ways, has reduced my suffering (while increasing disappointment). Anyways, finding a lot of the relaxation practices bleeding into my day to day life.

> the location looks like the same spot that literally everyone holds tension in: the lower fibres of levator scapulae. Once the soreness settles down, you can test this by carefully taking the head forwards with a neutral thoracic spine, then taking the head to the side (while maintaining the forwardness). You'll soon know if it's LS @Kit_L bang on. It's been 7 days (first 5-6 days, was in so much pain) and pain has settled and I just tested the above (i.e. head forwards, turn head to side) and boom: it appears to be the LS. Will start on strengthening the shrugging muscles and appreciate you reminding me of not to overthink. These muscles are ones I've neglected and will be curious how strengthening will begin feeling in my body because this area has repeatedly caused me grief last couple years. Excited to experiment. Thanks again.

> And I have found that only doing the kind of bouncing that you do when skipping is the right kind of stress to heal this, at least for a while. No amount of strengthening the calves seems to have any effect on this weakness Hey @Kit_L very interesting! As part of my rigorous dance training, one of my coaches has us "jumping up and down" in place for minutes at a time. When I first started doing this a couple months ago, I could barely last a few seconds, before my calves felt like they were going to explode / cramp. However, half a year later, I can sustain this sort of movement in the order of minutes. With this in mind, I just noticed over the last couple weeks that my plantar fasciitis has (fingers crossed) disappeared completely and wonder if this exercise / stress of bouncing up and down, has contributed to the recovery.

Day 613 of Stretching and Flexibility Journey Exactly 7 days ago, I once again injured my (I think) Rhomboid minor/major - Looking back through this journal from 1.5 years ago, this affected area tends to flare up a couple times, resulting in me being unable to roll in and out of bed without excruciating pain. More specifically, this time around — this instance, lasted about 7 days, each day the pain abating a little more — I was completely unable to lift my head off the pillow. Unsure what triggered the Rhomboid minor/major pain - Although I'm not 100% sure, I think the contributing factor to this (according to some research) "inhibitory guarding" was me stretching my neck too much. The day before the injury began, I had start with limbering my neck, opening my jaw wide and tilting my head back; however, I think I may have pushed the limits. Not sure. Will start looking into strengthening and increasing flexibility in this area Repeated injury as commented back in August 2024 (see here):

> I have never been very flexible, but as I enter my mid-30s I want to be a good steward of the mobility I have now while hopefully getting closer to ability like touching my toes, squatting with my heels on the ground, and moving my shoulders more freely. And I recognize that this will take real focus and patience. So I appreciate the space I have here to talk about how this goes! Welcome! Similar to you, I started stretch therapy May 2024, when I turned 35, and had similar intentions. Looking forward to your log.

Day 608 of stretching and flexibility journey Yesterday Follow up session with osteopath for checkup on my torn bicep femoris tendon that has yet to fully recover (after 3 months) - although I am back to fairly vigorous training, some positions — where the hamstring is fully loaded — are still quite painful. During the ultra scan, while the original problematic area has fully healed, it turns out that I'm missing some collagen at the bottom of the bicep femoris, right around tibialis, which makes sense since this is the area that lights up when I am flexed at the hips and I try to draw my (right) knee towards my chest. Going to do some research and/or start working with a rehab physical therapist who specializes in hamstring rehab On lying relaxation practice For multiple factors, I think, I've been able to consistently practice LRP for 4 days in a row (probably the longest consecutive days) Counting the breathes (thanks @oliviaa for sharing the article) so far seems to be pretty effective at reducing the aversion I had the thought that some of the previous resistance to the LRP was the time (despite short amount) spent setting up the audio recorded session etc whereas right now, I just flop on the ground and start counting breathes Perhaps throughout this process, I may return to recorded sessions however, the breathe counting is currently working and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." and at the same time, curious if I streamline playing the recorded sessions if that reduces resistance to using audio clips During my LRP practice, I'm finding the elapsed time between each breathe hold steadily increases and at around 20 something breathe count, it feels (not sure, since I'm not keeping track) as if there's like 20 seconds between each breathe Finding myself (outside of LRP) counting breathes throughout the day

> Each time I do this, I think that I should probably do it more frequently That just about sums up how I feel about stretching and LRP.

@Kit_L thanks for the reminder of breathe counting, which, upon reflection of the times I found the relaxation more tolerable — and dare I say, somewhat enjoyable — was when I was breathe counting. Although I will likely try, once again, the pre-recorded LRP, I'm often trying to be mindful of difference between: persevering through difficult activities in life finding a different / easier approach The two, of course, are not mutually exclusive. However, I'm aware of my own tendencies of the former, my own biases against the latter, sometimes unnecessarily powering things when there are alternate paths. Last night, set a timer for a short 10 minutes (despite being exhausted and beautiful day of parenting) for my lying relaxation practice. Tonight, will (re)visit breathe counting. As an aside, I'm finding Kit's previous correspondence quite interesting. I've never heard of "the five hindrances" nor "three poisons".

> A Zen roshi once remarked to me, "Ah the mind: a worthy opponent". @Kit_L I chuckled when I read this quote. So true. > So, next time, sink into it and experience this deluge with your whole heart—this can't hurt you. As you see the thoughts and feel the emotions, simply relax more. The mind (actually, what Western psychology calls "the ego") is running the show, and it does not want to be seen (revealed) Roger that. This advice — of sinking into it — strikes similarity to an expert in a book I read recently — either 4,000 weeks or Meditation for Mortals — which (paraphrasing here) shared an anecdote of new monk undergoing training and how every day, he'd have to stand under freezing cold water poured over his head and long story short, the lesson was that the more he leaned into the "pain" — instead of trying to disassociate — the easier it was to tolerate, ironic as it sounds. > Precisely, what you report here is what the practise is designed to change, permanently, in time Some further elaboration on my part. Something I had failed to mention earlier, and probably perhaps (for me) one of the more significant factors that add to "the resistance", is still in line with experiencing "negative" emotions: in particular, boredom. As someone who (like many others) has high physical activity needs, during lying relaxation practice, boredom tends to be the primary emotion I experience. And personally, this specific emotion, I find, struggle the most to sit with, to (as you) sink into, and an emotion I am actively trying to not only experience daily, but increase my tolerance / duration of experiencing. This inability to sustain the feeling of boredom, often bleeds into my every day life of continually context switching, the urge to move fast (which from a societal perspective, often gets reinforced because doing things "fast" is often interpreted to others as a positive attribute), novelty seeking. Sparing details and not wanted to distract, the topic of experiencing boredom — and the implied challenges of not experiencing it — something I've been learning more and more about through various authors (e.g. Oliver Burkeman).

Day 597 of stretching and flexibility journey Yesterday, I was reminded how much I actually enjoy this stretching journey. After my tearing my bicep femoris tendon a couple months ago, I more or less completely stopped stretching my lower body out of fear of triggering the pain and I now realize that some level of discomfort actually is conducive to the healing process. What I did yesterday Also, while at the gym (I recently signed up for), I saw this machine in the stretching area: At first, seeing the machine from a distance, I was intimidated by this piece equipment and initially unsure what to do with it however it became clear that it could be used as a hip flexor stretch or hamstring stretch, depending on which way you face. So I gave it a crack yesterday and boy, did I really feel the hamstring stretch. I properly enjoyed using this equipment. I felt I could more easily add "load" to the hamstring with the piece of equipment, less effort required to sliding the foot out and more control (and felt more safe being able to grip on to the bars).

> can you please, both of you, describe as well as you can what you think the source of this resistance is? I have some ideas on the subject, but I want to hear from you @Kit_L This is such a great question because I myself have yet too much much thought into it. I'm going to attempt to answer this from two perspectives: 1) what do I think causes the resistance and 2) what the resistance against lying relaxation practice serves (I recently started reading "The Courage to be disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga and just discovered another branch of psychology, known as Alderian psychology, which from my current limited understanding focuses on the function or purpose of certain behaviors). One thought that sprung to mind is that (for me), the benefits of lying relaxation practice — unlike stretching — seems less tangible. Whereas in stretching confers an observable increase range in motion, LRP seems less "visible" from an outsider's view. I can more confidently say the behavior, as an example, of "tying my shoes with less struggle than before" is an effect of consistently stretching my hamstrings and calves and back etc. But as I type this paragraph out, I recognize that lying relaxation practice does (as I've been told) confer the same benefits... Another thought I have is that, quite simply, while I've improved over the years, I struggle with physical inactivity. With stretching, there's an element of movement, albeit at times slow and subtle; there's the sensation of muscle or tendon or joint activation. When I am stretching, I am telling myself to "relax" and concentrating. With lying relaxation practice, I'm simply laying still and this inactivity, I'm left with a whirlwind of my own thoughts. This brings to me to, what I think avoidance of lying relaxation practice serves: not having solely sit with (potential) negative emotions and thoughts. The act of lying relaxation practice is subtly different than stretching in the sense that during stretching, my mind and thoughts and feelings are all directed towards the physical sensation of a particular muscle(s); I noticed less (positive or negative) thoughts during stretching sessions. But with lying relaxation practice, quite the opposite: a deluge of thoughts and emotions. In short, I think that following may contribute to resistance of lying relaxation practice: 1) less visible feedback loop 2) protection from experiencing negative emotions and thoughts Ironically, I've gone through lying relaxation practice 3 days in a row and observing one predominant benefit ncluding: sleeping earlier, ability to remain asleep throughout the night. I'm reluctant to contribute these two solely to the practice since I've made some systematic changes in my life, among which include leaving my phone plugged in the kitchen (instead of doom scrolling in bed). Finally, the above is not super thought out and I wanted to, in spirit of sharing, send something out otherwise I find myself procrastinating and overthinking a response.

> I'm not sure if it helps, but anecdotally I find there is quite a difference in how relaxed I am through the days when I'm consistent with it compared to when I'm not. Thanks for sharing Ned. I have zero doubts that consistency in LRP confers so many benefits, among which is being relaxed throughout the day. > It always makes me happy to read this (not that it's a struggle, but that you come back to it despite that) Such a struggle. Like some others, I recognize the importance of the LRP, the huge benefits, and still I somehow manage to get through the entire day avoiding the practice. And I wonder how much of this avoidance relates to the difficulty in laying still, with oneself (and emotions etc) and in spirit of reducing overthinking, just going to hopefully continue flopping myself out on the mat and restarting the practice and (fingers crossed) becomes a habit that I will (as Oliver Burkeman puts it) do it "dailyish".

Day 596 of stretching and flexibility journey Last night Lying relaxation practice (finally) for a short 8 minutes - continues to be the biggest struggle for me and yet, I persevere Single leg RDL (with opposite leg directly below, per Kit's suggestion) Deep lunges while holding weights - very stiff / weak line for me and feel like it's my tendon (not muscle) that's stretching through the my quad / hip Narrow stance lunges while holding weights - I stumbled on this exercise and discovered that narrow stance lunges tend to effectively target my bicep femoris in the lowest position, when my knee is close to touching the ground Today Experienced the difference between the seated vs lying leg curl - the seated leg curl machine tends to (for me) really target the bicep femoris, in a way that feels much more conducive to my torn bicep femoris tendon. When performing the lying leg curl, my hamstring can eccentrically load about 20kg whereas when seated, I can barely eccentrically load 5kg. All that is to say, I'll be tinkering much more with seated leg curl along this journey of rehabbing my torn tendon Tinkering with spinal rotation using this machine - as part of my dance, I've been trying to incorporate more spinal rotation and decided to try out this new (to me) exercise (though I'm sure others would prescribe this exercise, I happened to arrive at it on my own while at the gym) IMG_8211.MOV

> All good. If you have access to the gym – I can't remember that detail – you may consider putting relatively heavy dumbbells on your knees and lifting them rather than doing contractions statically. Increasing strength in this particular line usually allows the muscles to relax relatively quickly. Definitely worth trying I think. Such a great idea and something I'll likely experiment with as well. Not to hi-jack this thread, but I'm finding more and more that incorporating weights / resistance bands etc have been conducive to increase range of motion (ROM). Thanks for the tips Thanks for sharing Ned (the LRP king).