Matt Chung

Day 403 of stretching and flexibility journey Summary: While still falling back onto my bottom while reaching the end range of motion during the pistol squat / single leg squat, still making pretty promising forward progress. I'm adding minor modifications to the progressions program that I'm following with an emphasis of doing more eccentric holds at the bottom. I'm suddenly starting to feel my glute engage while performing the weighted "march" (i.e. raise knee towards chest) - normally, I almost always feel the stretch exclusively in the hip flexor but last week, I felt the OPPOSITE glute engage (i.e. if I am raising my left knee, I feel my right glute firing off). Even more interesting is that the awareness (or ability to engage the glute) happens on one side; that is, I can only engage my left glute, but not my right glute More and more recently, I am enjoying engaging my hamstrings while doing every day normal / mundane activities like picking a pen off the floor, or tie my shoe. What used to feel stiff and painful has become a source of joy. Tiny victory My left shoulder that I'm rehabbing has experienced a sudden leap in repair. As mentioned over the past months, whenever I perform the puppy pose, the pain in my left shoulder was excruciating. I've noticed that while in the puppy pose, instead of laying palms flat against the floor, if spread my fingers, I can directly target the pain and increase the pain substantially. So over last 2 weeks, I will very slow and incrementally increase the pain in the shoulder and just breath breath breath and I'd now say I'm about 90% recovered in the shoulder. Of course, the repair of my left shoulder has taken about 4x times as long as the right shoulder and ... it's not a race, just me being a bit impatient.

> @Matt Chung: your dance video now adorns our Home page on YouTube for people who are not subscribed – so all new visitors to the site. It is just such a marvellous introduction to our work, I feel, and deserves to be widely publicised! That's amazing Kit. Thanks so much for sharing the video - much appreciated it. And if it can inspire even just one person to sign up for ST, then that's music to my ears. Somewhat relatedly, I was at a dance studio in London this past weekend, taking a dance + yoga class, and a random person I had never met before said "Hey...do you make videos? I saw your '2 year dance journey video' pop up on my feed. So inspiring." (I) never truly know what will or will not resonate with people and glad that this particular video did and again, much love and appreciation to this little corner of the internet, the ST group. Heading to gym now for week 10 of single leg squat variations! Oh, by the way @Kit_L, after posting weekly (on my instagram) from day 1 of trying pistol squats, I've had a number of people ask me how the hell I progressed in 10 weeks and have been circulating your YouTube videos. So, thanks again for that (and many others) free resources!

> 2) though, but the way I've obtained that experience just involved giving myself hamstring cramps trying until they eventually went away, so there are probably more pleasant ways I don't know about that would get a similar resullts @Ned still 1/4 way reading through your message but had to share that I burst out laughing when I read "probably more pleasant ways" [other than giving oneself hamstring cramps] because I immediately visualized myself in what some may call "the pain cave." Okay ... reading the rest of your message now. > One is standing (one leg at a time, like a quad stretch without the hand to hold the ankle), depending on how far forward or back the knee is changes the intensity quite a bit. This!!! I haven't tried it in a while but I used to be able to (sometime within the last year) be to almost immediately (while standing) trigger a cramp in the hamstring simply by (like you said) standing on one leg and performing the quad stretch (without the hand holding the ankle). I've also been able to bring on this same sensation/cramp by getting into the lunge position — which I normally position myself to stretch hip extension – and while in that position performing this same movement. > It's worth mentioning the standing knee lifts (E4) from the squat mastery course as well since those work the hip flexors nicely and higher than waist height, but your kettlebell hanging from the foot lifts from a few posts back are similar. Thanks for reminded me that there are other existing variations (from the squat mastery course) of the exercise(s) I am currently exploring. Heading to gym in a few and will test some of your suggestions out: thank you!

Day 383 of stretching and flexibility journey Summary: Single leg squat variations (week 9), core compression exercise (hooray: I can just a tad lift my legs off the ground now) and ending session stretch: hamstrings, hip extension. Then last night, restarted (for the 1000th time) my lying relaxation practice (LRP) Single Leg Squat variations Continues to be one of my favorite exercises Feeling more and more stable on the way down Was able to for the first time (with Kettlebell) able to get back up on my weak leg (left leg) Still major discrepancy between each side but no problem here Starting to feel sore in areas I've never felt sore before, specifically hip adductors Was unable to perform single leg squat without kettle bell (last week was an outlier where I was able to do a single repetition) - non linear growth, it happens Hip flexor and quad stretch at same time Second time I tried performing both the hip flexor and quad stretch AT THE SAME TIME. Last week I cramped in my hamstring (though I had anticipated I would've cramped in my quads) when I perform knee flexion during the hip extension (I've read multiple times throughout the forum that combining these two stretches tends to limit range of motion) First time experimenting with new exercise intended to (I hope) help me transition from sit to squat Drew inspiration from @Ned suggestion above. Been wanting to work on this movement and so grabbed a kettlebell to help assist me with going from sit to squat. In my body, I feel that 1) weakness in my hip flexors prevent me from tilting my pelvis forward and 2) weakness in hamstrings prevent me from drawing the heels of my feet close to my butt

Day 380 of stretching of flexibility On the topics of cold starts ... Yesterday, somehow unexpectedly performed my first ever pistol squat on right leg, with no kettle bell. Totally surprised, given next week will be week number 09 of the pistol squat journey. Lots of joy. Was chatting with a friend (who can actually perform multiple pistol squats and go from sit to squat with no hands, a move I really am excited to work on) and he had asked about how my progress was going so instead of telling him, I decided to just give it a crack and somehow miraculously completed a single repetition. Tomorrow (Monday) will be gym day and excited to continuing building strength in my legs and really want to take a similar approach — leveraging weights/kettle bells — for some hip work as well since I feel my hip flexors are starting to (well probably always was, just sensing it more and more lately) are very weak and the muscle group preventing me from transitioning from sit to squat (without hands).

> It's been a couple months so it makes sense that my tightest spots have changed I can relate so much to this statement. I'm also aware others on the forum have suggested that if a particular movement or stretch feels overly painful, then move on and sometime down the line return to the stretch and though I initially struggled with the idea (i.e. not pushing through), it makes perfect sense in light of what you said: the tight spots tend to change. Constant tweaking.

> Don't worry; this is completely normal. Anyone who has ever tried compression work feels completely hopeless at first... "What?! I can't move my legs at all!" But this is still an isometric contraction, and isometrics are a powerful tool. Just keep going - I promise it gets better, and the results are worth it Thanks @Nathanfor the compassion there! And feeling somewhat hopeful that others have shared similar experiences of "WTF. I can't move my legs at all" > Précisement. What a wonderful result. And now here's the thing: as soon as your body learns the experience, the feeling of being able to use your strength in that position – all to do with balance, range of movement coordination etc., etc., – you will be able to do this very soon without the kettlebell. And anyway the kettlebell is just a bit of extra resistance. All will get you stronger. Excellent. Thanks for sharing @Kit_L. I recognize that the kettlebell is helping me with (counter) balancing and at the same time, I was like: "surely its helping with the strengthening right, since there's more load." And at the same time, I wondered "wonder how my body will adapt to performing the squat without the kettlebell." But as you mentioned, I think my body is slowly learning to (lack of better word) trust its ability to remain balanced without extending arms out while holding extra weight.

Day 374 of stretching and flexibility (reporting on day 376) Up until now, I felt that practicing for the pancake stretch was premature, the movement too far out of reach due to my flexibility limitations. And that was probably the right choice for this past year; instead, I would work on indirect stretches that contribute towards achieving the pancake. However, had the thought a couple days ago to simply sit my butt down on the ground (well, a comfy bolster) and actually just directly try move and I was quite surprised that I could hold myself up while sitting AND even ever so slightly lean forwards. As mentioned in a recent previous post, a year ago, I was unable to sit on the ground without a massive curve in my spine (likely tight hamstrings. But now I can somewhat comfortable sit on the ground with my legs stretched out. In any case, some reflections: One of my dogs kept on shaking her tail (literally) in front of me and I ended up wrapping my arms around her body and leveraging her as a prop assistance, her sturdiness helping me push my chest upwards and forwards during pancake attempt I can surprisingly someone tilt my pelvis (had the thought I wouldn't be able to at all) forward (i.e. anterior pelvic tilt) recurring lesson: my toe touch hamstring / elephant walk stretch sensation FEELS the same (that is, rather stiff) as a year ago but looking at the footage, I was very surprised of the progress. one big difference is that I'm now able to drive by hips backwards (may be a cause or effect or both the hamstrings loosening) Constant balance between working DIRECTLY on the movement and working INDIRECTLY on all the ancillary movements. Actually, as I type this out, it's both, not mutually exclusive. Limbering a bit inspired by the following sequence

Day 343 of stretching and flexibility journey Hit the gym yesterday experienced some serendipitous joy after unexpectedly performing my first pistol squat / single legged squat fully (though still holding a 4KG kettle bell). Previously, when in the bottom position of the single legged squat, the base leg lacked the strength to push me back up. All that is to say: body is getting stronger. Also, as described below, pleasantly surprised to see that over the past year, my hamstrings have become looser to allow me to sit on the floor with legs shooting out in front, without being stuck / leaning on my tail bone. No victory too small: sitting with legs straight in front without curved back / on tail bone - In the past, (i.e. all my adult years leading up to now) when sitting down in the position bracing for the L-Sit, my back would be curved and more or less (likely due to tight hamstrings) could not shift my torso weight forward, unable to even ever so slightly tilt my pelvis forward. While I still have a long way to go, I felt a moment in joy. Regarding this exercise, thanks @Nathan for recommending the compression exercises but (apparently) my core compression is very very (very very) weak (i.e. couldn't even lift my two legs off the ground even a millimeter during one of the exercises) Observation: nagging left hip flexor pain (i.e. when drawing knees towards chest) reduced AFTER performing single legged squat exercises as well as core compression exercises - not sure what this means (yet) all I know is that the (most painful of all my aches in my body) left hip flexor pain feels more relaxed, less pain, after these exercises. On the right path and reminds me of Kit's quote: "most people have found that one repetition of the right stretch provides immediate relief—if this is your experience, you know you’re on the right track" During single legged Romanian dead lift (RDL), able to cue myself to stick butt out more -the more my pelvis tilts anteriorly, the more I feel the stretch in my glute

Just a few additional thoughts. Though I find certain movements very cool (e.g. L-Sit, V-Sit, Pistol Squat) and certainly that's one motivation to work on them, I'm finding them quite useful as diagnostic tools. That is, in the process of obtaining the moves — via their progressions — I'm discovering weaknesses in the body and most importantly, I have some faith at the moment that strengthening the muscles (not only but in addition to stretching + CR) will reduce/eliminate the pain. More specifically, in addition to the pistol squat / single legged squat I am working on, I think I'll also start working on the L-Sit (I really really the article that Nathan provided here) and suspect (and perhaps hope) that some of my (L) hip flexor pain will reduce.

Day 370 of stretching and flexibility Learning about the benefits of non-obsessive practice/training - Though it feels "normal" to me, I've been told that I have a tendency to get hyper focused on whatever it is I am interested in (which I think can be normal). With that being said, about 7 weeks ago, I started working on single legged squats (i.e. pistol squats) as a way to both identify and strengthen weaknesses in my body (and boy do I have them). However, unlike stretching and other goals, where I can become fixated on the results, I go to the gym only about once a week and only once a week, do I spend time on the pistol squat variations. And to my surprise, growth is happening: last week, I felt myself able to both drop further into the squat but in both my legs, I'm able to hold certain positions that I was previously I felt very unstable in. All that is to say, non-obsessiveness and not being so goal oriented is paying dividends and FEELS more sustainable in ways, and pleasurable too I can almost "see" my hip flexors stretching and "see" (in my minds eye) fascia moving - probably sounds a bit "woo woo" but recently, with my increase awareness of sensations in my body, when I'm closing my eyes during a stretch, I can almost visualize the muscle stretching in my body. More specifically, my painful (but becoming less painful) left hip flexor. When I am in the lunge position, it's as if I can see the point where my femur connects to the hip trying its best to loosen at that point of contact Though I initially wanted to do C-R on hamstring, I only limbered - listened to body instead of pushing myself. however, I'm realizing (and learning the same lesson over again) that sometimes, limbering (for me) actually increases my flexibility. C-R (for me) is not always necessary.

> L-Sit Hold Progression: 6 Steps to Rock Solid Core Stability @Nathan that article is gold (along with links to other parts of his blog). I really like how he breaks down the progressions and also provide ways for one to self-assess what additional supplemental exercises they may need.

> Your consistency and progress have both been very inspiring for me (and kept me going when I first started and hadn't yet learned that stretching was something other than just holding a position). Thanks so much for the kind words. Mutual inspiration for sure. And upon reflection, I think some of the early days of my ST journey were driven by multiple factors, one of which was fear: "you privately fear yourself to be at the core: prone to backsliding at the first opportunity"[1]. And ironically, though I am less consistent than I was during the initial days ST journey, I have less fear. Moreover, my life situation has changed dramatically (I'm now working; had taken multiple months off in the midst of a challenging divorce and had luckily harnessed that time to explore stretching). > The more I've stretched, the more I recognize just how significant this insight is Agree with you. I'm aware that this is a lesson that I learn and continue to relearn over and over. [1] From Oliver Burkeman's Meditation for Mortals

> hat line may have come from my film, The Comeback (1980). You can find a ripped-off and renamed copy, "Total Rebuild", as well as the original, on YT. The ripped copy still has the original titles, and I am listed as writer, producer, and director. I was curiously mainly about how someone could rip an entire video while still giving credit ... at this risk of misinterpreting the situation, I can imagine how frustrated I would be if I created a documentary and someone blatantly ripped it.

Day 365 of stretching and flexibility / 1 year anniversary of Stretch Therapy (ST) First and foremost, want to say thanks to everyone (especially Kit) on the forum. I appreciate both the feedback, comments, and I also draw lots of inspiration from your comments and your own posts and other threads. It's been quite a year and though I'm no where near where I'd like to be in terms of flexibility and strength, I am proud of my own consistency this past year despite numerous (failed) attempts over the past 15-20 years. Though today marks day 368, I recorded the above on my 1 year anniversary of Stretch Therapy Most intense pain (right now) continues to be my left hip flexor, when I draw my knee towards my chest. This is the same pain (described below) sensation I more or less wake up with every day. Though I believe I am healing this part of my body, I'm less confident compared to other parts of my body parts healing since the left hip flexor pain has been lingering the longest (more details on this below) From an outside perspective, some of the positions I'm in may seem like I'm doing much (e.g. right leg out, toes pointed upwards) and to me that's not as important as the internal sensations that I'm experiencing (e.g. excruciating ankle pain that's slowly healing, that I'm sure) I'm more confident in tinkering around. Though some of the exercises draw inspiration from others (including ST starter course), some positions I find myself holding come from tinkering and becoming aware (in that moment) of a painful sensation or restriction. A few other things on the top of my mind > If you have not been doing remedial stretching, limbering, and relaxing, please don't be surprised to wake up one day to find that you've got a pain in some part of your body For me, this hits homes because I feel lately because though I am significantly more loose and flexible than 1 year ago, I feel and more aware of my pain — especially in my (order of pain from highest to lowest) left hip flexor, right ankle — in my body. Despite working my hip flexors and waking up everyday with somewhat excruciating left hip flexor pain (including today), I belief that in time, the pain will be something of the past; even more so because I remember Kit mentioning in some post (or an email) that it was year(s) he would wake up with lower back pain, which caused him to more or less crawl out of bed, despite his consistent stretching, strengthening, relaxing. That anecdote plays a role in me continuing to persevere despite my current frustration.

Day 362 of stretching and flexibility journey Summary: Hit the gym yesterday and worked on single leg squat variations. Played with position of pelvis to see how I can balance between using my quads vs hip flexors. Less cramping than 4 weeks ago (from what I can remember) in the rectus femoris. Also, because I've been (seems like more recently) waking up with left hip flexor pain, and since its been nagging for a while, in addition to the stretches I've been doing, I'm exploring strengthening exercises (using kettle bell and performing weighted hip flexion). Discovered (again, a reminder I suppose) that my left leg is much weaker than right - I can smoothly single leg squat with my right leg but with my left, there are certain positions within the range where I feel my left leg unable to sustain the squat and I've up until now have had a tendency to quickly move past those positions of instability and now trying to, when reaching those position, HOLD it for as long as possible Played around with leaning forwards and backwards during single leg squat - I think last couple weeks, I was so focused on engaging the hamstrings so in order to engage the posterior chain, would lean back. But I cannot balance myself (without the Kettlebell) when over emphasizing the hamstring engagement (part of it has to do with the fact I now know how to feel and engage the hamstring). But realize I was to also, after talking with a friend who can single leg squat, equally engage the quads. As such, leaning forward more and leveraging the ankle mobility Attempted "couch stretch" - boy, my quads are tight (as well as weak, I think) and during the exercise, the mind had the thought/urge to "cheat" the position to make it seem as though I could actually obtain a further range of motion (ROM) than I actually could but reminded myself "why am I doing this?" and then when I tail tucked, my ROM significantly reduced but I could FEEL the stretch sensation deeply

Day 361 of stretching and flexibility Most recently, having been doing heavy stretch sessions but predominately daily limbering. I would like to devote more time moving forwards however recent life changes (e.g. going back to work) have made it a tad more challenging logistics wise. Yesterday was fantastic. My dance instructor friend in London recently started teaching a class that combines both dance and yoga. The first house is (relatively) vigorous exercise for 60 minutes followed by 30 minutes of yoga. I typically struggle with just doing yoga only classes because it often takes a bit for my body to warm up and I'm finding that my body responds very well to heavy dance before yoga. Reflections Halasana Pose - I was surprised how much further my legs could extend over my head however even though I felt I could reach my legs further since I didn't feel restriction in my hamstrings (like I normally do) but it was my actual neck that I felt unsafe about Hamstring activation - this may be obvious to others on the forum but for me, I'm finding that I can FINALLY (after about a year of stretching) really FEEL and ENGAGE my hamstrings and this has much to do with DRIVING the hips backwards

Was thinking about this thread recently. When I first discovered (just under a year ago) ST community, I was going through the beginning stages of (what many would consider, including myself, a very contentious and painful) divorce and I had made the choice during the summer of 2024 to temporarily stop working (i.e. wind down my consulting business) in order to single parent my daughter. This period of no work planted a seed in my brain: what if I can (financially) afford taking a few years off for a mini sabbatical. Anyways, during that stretch of time (of a few months), on the days I didn't have my daughter, I doubled down on the ST starter course and drummed up fantasies of my own version of "the great escape": taking 1-2 years off of "work", become a barista, raise my daughter, and explore dancing and stretching and other activities that I've wanted to do for a long time. Long story short, that version of the great escape did not manifest for reasons beyond my control. However ... I am living a slightly modified version. Whereas before (and many many years) I was working 40-60 hours per week, I am now consulting for 20 hours a week, the remainder of time I devote to raising my daughter and in community with other movement practitioners and feeling particular grateful for this different version. Anyways, hope folks are still exploring or living their great escape.

Day 355 of stretching and flexibility journey Had the thought recently that with stretching and flexibility, like other aspects of life, there's no endpoint, no finite destination, but constant tweaking. It never ends. Spent a few minutes this morning searching for a thread / quote that Kit had contributed to and finally stumbled on it: > The deeper reality that is at work here is that until the body feels that it's strong enough to feel completely safe in the full side splits position, no matter where that is for you, the apprehension reflex* will stop you from relaxing fully in the end position. When you're strong enough, then you'll be able to relax fully. The reason I've been thinking about this is because started 2 months ago, I started hitting the gym once a week and strength training my legs (and the entire posterior chain) with single leg dead lifts, and the variations for the single leg squat (below). And recently, almost a year lately, I'm getting pretty darn close to being able to being able to touch my toes (just under a year ago, could barely reach passed my knees) in a RELAXED state. And to me it feels that recently, I've experienced a leap in flexibility (particularly around the hamstrings) and suspect it's both a combination of the cumulative stretching over the past year AND last couple months of strength training. It feels as though the stronger I get (using weights or calisthenics), the more my body TRUSTS me to both transition into a certain position and hold it. Areas I'm still working on Rehabbing my left shoulder - puppy pose still hurts and uncomfortable quite a bit but I believe (similar to right shoulder) that it will be a matter of time before things just melt into place. Also continuing to do (about 30 second) pull up bar hangs Rehabbing my right ankle - while resting the heel of my foot on the floor, if I drive my foot down towards the ground, I get excruciating pain around achilles heel (I believe this is the same ankle I sprang and snapped years ago) however over the past 3-4 months, the intensity of the pain has reduced. Unsure how long it will take before this ankle heals fully but again, relegating control here and continuing to do the exercises. Trust Experimentation with single legged squats For the first time in my life, my hamstrings feel sore. Historically, it's always been my quadriceps so something is changing here. During single legged squats, and the variations, I am playing around with shifting my hips back (which activates my hamstrings and glutes). However, I think I've over-corrected a bit because most recently, when attempting single legged squats, it feels as though I'm no longer leveraging my quads. Will keep playing here

> And done. It will go live at 12:00 on the 30th (this is a brand-new YT thing—I wanted it to go live now, but some automated process got in between us!). As soon as it's live on YT, I will advise here. And email me the address of your channel, and I will add that to the description. Today I learned that YT has a scheduled video feature (that's actually quite cool and something I"ll look into). I've never done this sort of collaboration before so this is exciting! Re: Contact YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@memattchung Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memattchung > And the change in your voice is HUGE. And your voice has a lovely quality, too—have you thought of getting some training? Kit, you are right 100%. Post you sharing this, I (again) watched some videos from both last couple years and even ones from further down (5-10 years) and it is quite interesting how different the voice sounds. I've only taken singing lessons (for about 2.5 years back in 2019-2021) but no specific voice training but have considered it. Appreciate the kind feedback; wait — have you done voice training yourself?!

> Outstanding. Does Youtube have any capacity to cross-post—I would really like to feature your video on our channel. Or you could send the original to me and I can upload it on our channel and credit you (of course). I'm unsure about YouTube's cross-posting capabilities and seems like the closest thing is a "remix". Appreciate the thought Kit and share it with you via Google Drive (here). > Has anybody commented on the change in the tone of your voice? It sounds so relaxed and confident at the same time, and the audio quality is excellent on that video. Congratulations! Not yet you are the first! And it's funny that you pointed this out because then I went down a rabbit hole of watching old videos of mine, where i narrate, and there is a pretty significant difference but I honestly had not noticed it until you pointed it out. I'm coming up on almost 365 days of stretching (I re-started LRP again, for like the 100th time, a few days ago) and I have no doubts that stretching / relaxation has impacted me in both subtle and obvious ways.

Day 346 of stretching and flexibility Today, did a class that combines my two loves: dancing and yoga. Did an LRP yesterday and today as well. Mind constantly racing while performing LRP and continue to feel the resistance every time. But we continue. Also, though I don't typically post Instagram / social media related stuff in this post, I am re-posting my 2 year dance journey because I had quoted something @Kit_L had shared on the forum, around progress being imperceptible. Anyways, the video I had posted has (for me) gone viral on Instagram (6000+ views in the last couple days), 500+ interactions, ~100 comments. All that to say is that my dance, and my life, are linked to this stretching journey too:

> All of the adaptation occurs when you're not stretching, and you have to give the body time to recover. As well, use as many of the mobility exercises as you can on your resting days > (any muscle used in its shortened end of the range of movement is likely to spasm) Though I've read the above statements written slightly throughout the forum, every time I read them they serve as reminders and reflect what I've experienced first hand through (just under a year) stretching and flexibility journey. I myself have a tendency to over-do things and recognize that sprinkling in more rest time allows the adaptions to kick in.

Day 339 of stretching and flexibility journey Quick short post. Flew from London to Seattle and visited the states for about 2 weeks to see friends and family. So more or less was disconnected from this platform but miss the frequent posts and reading of threads. While in the states, I would limber pretty much every day, my nieces and daughter following along since they are in gymnastics and enjoyed showing off their new moves to me (I felt really inspired). I did hit the gym once while I was there and continued working on the single leg dead lift and pistol squat variations. I was surprised to find that I can squat deeper (on a single leg) and was able to do more repetitions. Strength training, as others have said on this thread, seems to be more "straight forward" (in terms of gains and progressions) than compared to flexibility. Something I've mentioned here before but when I wake up in the morning, my left rectus femoris (and potentially another one or more hip muscles connecting at the hip) is so tight and painful and before I even fully gain consciousness, when I'm half asleep, I find myself drawing my left knee towards my chest in the morning, tensing at the hip, to get my hip to relax. After about 10-15 minutes post waking up, my hip hurts less. At first, I had thoughts of how I am sleeping at night (my left leg tends to sleep in the squashed frog like position) but wonder if it's the reverse: I am sleeping that way because I am stiff. Unsure for now. Regardless, will continue with stretching etc.

> As regards no tangible progress,what are you looking to get out of stretching? Not the OP and will be curious as to how they respond. However, I have found myself asking this question about my own (stretching) practice lately and I think my relationship has evolved (and will continue to evolve) overtime. A little under a year ago, my interest in stretching was sparked by witnessing a dancer (ex of mine, now friend) move with such ease and grace and she had encouraged me to explore stretching and Pilates. My intention with stretching started off as a means to an end: move my limbs in a way that I found beautiful, floorwork, etc. Almost immediately after starting my journey, I quickly recognized that my body was in quite a bit of pain — probably for many years – from a stiff neck, restricted shoulder, and more. And so, the goal shifted away from obtaining skills for performing flashy movements but to healing my body. Repairing my body and nervous system still plays a big role however my relationship with stretching is both a tool for introspection, a spiritual practice ... and .... I recently learned, after reading Oliver Burkeman's 4,000 weeks, of the term "atelic activity": the value isn't derived from its telos, or ultimate aim. Long story short, as someone who has been goal oriented and future focused for most of my life (and still aware of those tendencies as of late), I'm finding that stretching itself can be an atelic activity, that you can do it for its own sake. Nothing more.