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Hello everyone. I hope this is the shape of things to come: my Vimeo on Demand channel begins today Adding @Nathan's Cheat Sheet: https://kitlaughlin.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=811 Once the ST for GST programs are ready to go, this will be the format (but as a "Series" rather than one-off programs, as this one is). A series contains a number of 'programs'; this term will be replaced by exercises in our usage, like this: The Master the Pike Series contains 13 'programs' (exercises); you will be able to buy the series or individual exercises. Maximum flexibility for all. The program How to sit for Meditation can be rented or bought outright, for the princely sum of $3.49! And, adding here courtesy of AndrewL: A cheat sheet if anyone is interested. I have printed this and stuck to my wall, maybe will help others... How to sit for meditation limbering Slow gentle awareness inside body Elephant walk Squat, side to side, knee circles, adduction, rotation Burmese, side with tiny rotation, pelvis trunk walk forward rest, up then either side. Hook thumbs, pull forward again. Change legs over & repeat. Tailor, small contractions, pelvis forward. Stronger balance version. Seated piriformis one leg extended, then bent, breathe into inside of hip Instep, move calf, weight on hip, relieve cramp Quadricep: hold and move opposite leg. then opposite leg on stretched leg CR Lunge sequence, then bent leg, feel what the body needs, gentle, boxing compass Elbow cobra backbend, pull elbows back chest forward, sideways bends Piriformis pigeon Side bend girl seiza with lats pulling arm down Cat/dog just feel what they feel like, no particular effort, follow line around floor seeking tail bending spine. Then with hands pull push/tuck arch. Arms forward, extend reaching hands on floor, then stretch muscles under arms by grabbing one arm. Passive backbend over support (eg rolled towel or cushion), back on support, tuck tail to straighten lower back, support head, gently lower head, reach arms actively, lower tail to ground. To come out put fingers under head, tuck chin, raise head, roll off. Hands clasped behind knees forward bend, leg straightening rotations & head to mid thigh Badly done forward bend lower back via leg straightening Sit and feel Neck rotation Neck sideways, pulling down with lats, roll forward stretch lift head up. Shrug shoulders Head forward, turn look at other leg Seated spinal rotation, shoulder back and down bent elbow. Sit on sit bones, lean forward straight spine, bottom out, lean back, back forward relax tummy, hold hands, lift chest slightly, head back very slightly, side to side feeling where I am front back side to side, relax tummy relax completely, relax shoulders. Ready to sit Sincere thanks, AL

Hello everyone, I have a simple question: does the body guide you sometimes; because I get the impression the body tells me where I should be stretching by activating certain parts after I've worked some other parts, now my particular situation is that I was stretching, or working, the piriformis and the adductors. And, what was happening was that after working my left adductor, all of a sudden, it stopped working. It wouldn't do anything anymore, and I had to switch to the other adductor, to then be able to come back to the first adductor. And it'd be working again. When I say working I mean it would stretch. It would loosen up. So, in working with these adductors I had to continually swtich between the two, as if they were telling me, no now that's enough switch to the other side or else we'll have an imbalance. Then all of a sudden it stopped working with the adductors and I had to switch to my left piriformis. I felt it activated. Like I had fallen. To the ground. And I was left with a little bump on it. And it wasn't there before. Now - just now - I've finished with my left piriformis. Or better said, I should say it stopped working. And now I'm thinking it must be like with the adductor business, and I'm supposed to switch, between the two, like it had been the case with the adductors like I said. Is that something that happens? Because I'm just a beginner; I don't know anything; but, what I've experienced, made me think, of what Kit said in one of his videos - on Youtube. I think it was one with the pancake training. And he was explaining that the body or the mind would stop you from doing the pancake, the full pancake, for some safety measure. That you might be able to stretch full each leg, by the side. But the brain stops you from doing so with both legs at the same time; although no connection, muscular connection, exists between the two legs. So you should be able to do it. So It made me think. The body, like in everything, is looking for balance, and is actively trying to keep you from imbalancing yourself, and will guide you - if you listen to it. Hey buddy you might want to look on the other side or else you'll end up Casimodo. Here's the video in question:

Dear all, I'm really enjoying the E1 Advanced Piriformis stretch in Master the pike. Unfortunately, I have torn ligaments in my superior tibiofibular joint (that little bony bump on the side of your knee), in my right knee, which means it is painful to do this stretch on my right side, as rotation or lateral movement in that knee is sore. As such, I am doing the advanced piriformis exercise on my left side, but on my right side I am doing E5A. Seated Piriformis from Master the Squat as this seems to be the only piriformis exercise I can tolerate, as I grab the knee/quad so there is no rotation/lateral force in the knee joint. I am wondering if I am opening myself up to left/right imbalances by doing this? Thanks!

Talking about the advanced piriformis exercise, I think what most anatomists don't get is that the medial attachment of p. extends from the top to the bottom of the midline of the sacrum, so spanning 2+ inches, and can be considered one side of a triangle; the greater trochanter attachment, by comparison, can be considered a 'point', in thinking about this in terms of complex, 3D movement. To get the leg into the starting position requires both flexion and external rotation of the femur in the hip joint, I believe. What makes the real difference between this p. exercise and all others is that the sacrum is moved ~90 degrees (if you can do it completely, as in lie on your front foot), in comparison to the p. exercises where the femur is moved across the body to the opposite shoulder, because in this latter movement, the 'point' attachment pulls more or less evenly on the whole muscle. In the advanced movement, in comparison, the upper fibres of p. are stretched more than the lower fibres (because WRT to the greater trochanter point, the top part of the sacrum moves so much further than the bottom part in the exercise's movement), so that the shortening that external rotation necessitates in the first instance is completely overcome by the whole movement, and the movement becomes a serious stretch (as everyone who has tried the movement knows!). And (this is a separate important part) anyone with p. syndrome has the muscle pierced by one or more nerves—and it is this differential stretching effect between the upper fibres and the lower fibres that provides the tangible relief to this problem, I believe. Of course, this is a massive simplification and does not take any possible fascial adhesions into account, but it does provide a new way of considering from which process the indisputable therapeutic effects arise. And for all exercises requiring movement of the pelvis WRT the femurs (sitting for meditation, sitting cross legged, tailor pose) where hamstring and adductor tension are not a major limitation to moving the pelvis (because the knees are bent), any resistance to movement of the pelvis is compensated by lumbar flexion. This is because p. is limiting the pelvis movement through the identical mechanism (upper fibres will not allow anterior pelvis tilt. I see this on every retreat: beginners who simply can't sit upright. And this effect is compounded by tight hamstrings and adductors when sitting in the starting position of the pancake and the pike—and we see this in all the beginner's photographs posted here—again (though with additional limiting factors) they cannot sit upright. I feel that sieging p. and experiencing pelvic movement (as Olivia has been suggesting for years) is a fundamental part of the acquisition of pike and pancake, through the experience of the movement of the pelvis in its least restricted position. Once this has been felt, the same movement can be more easily acquired in the more difficult movements.

Hi, I''m new to this forum, my name is Claude borel I've been following kit's channel for some time now and I haven't found better stretches anywhere else, they are all excellent. My objective is to have the best posture possible and I feel that I need to master the forward bend. When I try the forward bend I get a calf tightness so to fix this I tried the "single legged dog pose", fantastic stretch but I can't seem to progress anymore. I look like this guy: http://zmoore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Andy-G-toe-touch.jpg In another post Kit once said that the main obstacles to the forward bend were calf tightness and piriformis tightness so I also tried the piriformis stretches. The only one that was effectve for me was the "easy version on youtube" but I have some sort of hip inpingement when I do it. The position sort of squeezes a nerve or something on the front part of the hip. What should I do? Thx for your replys

Here's a variant of the Floor Piriformis Stretch - now in Video form (there are pictures and notes in my 'Autumn Training' log a few forums adjacent to this one..).

Hi, I've been doing the floor piriformis stretch from the daily 5 as detailed in , and unsurprisingly one side is much more flexible than the other.However, I'm confused over which side of my body is the real culprit and hence which side to repeat twice. When I stretch my right hip, I'm able to put my left leg flat on the floor as in the video and place my right ankle on my thigh while keeping both sit bones on the floor. I can't do the same with the opposite side without putting my right foot way out in front of me with its knee off the floor, or alternatively having the right leg fully straight in front of me flat on the ground. Is this a restriction in something to do with getting my right leg on the floor (maybe even nothing to do with the piriformis), or is it as simple as repeating the difficult side ('left hip') twice? The more I think about it, the more confused I get!

Hi I'm new to this forum so I'm going to start by giving a short summary of who I am and what I do:) 24 year old Norwegian master student in Engineering Background: -Did powerlifting type training for about 2 years -Got involved in crossfit for 0.5-1year -Is now focusing on gymnastics (doing the foundation series of gymnasticbodies, so I'm one of the guys looking forward to you pancake-stretch program) twice a week, olympic style squatting three times a week and a general fooling around day once a week where I do what I feel like (mostly gymnastics, and recently some boulderign). All heavily influenced by the works of Ido Portal Back pain story: -Last spring/summer - Mild back pain acting up from time to time - Immediately solved by stretching the hip flexors -Last fall, severe back pain - Physician said it was a disc protrusion - Did a lot of stretching and stabilization exercises for the spine that gradually "fixed it" -When the pain that was supposedly from a disc protrusion acted up, I noticed that by either releasing the tensor fascia latae, the gluteus medius/piriformis, or both, my aching back would let go completely. I did this using a lacrosse ball, and would be fine for the rest of the day, and sometimes even throughout the next one too. As an extra piece of information, I have no problem squatting all the way down to the point where my hamstrings meet my calves without rounding the lower back. Now to the point of this post: Having read through a lot of these posts, and read some of your written work, it seems like the piriformis plays a key role to achieve good form on a lot of lower body stretches. I have previously read a lot on stretching and back pain, and from my "studies" I have suspected that piriformis syndrom might have played a significant role in my back pain history. Whenever I have had a stiff lower back, releasing the piriformis and/or the tfl always seem to be the answer. For that reason I tried out your newest piriformis stretch as a means for a more permanent solution. When doing it, and for some time afterwards, my back tightened up severly. It would have to be described as hip/lower back numbness and discomfort. My piriformis seemed tight as well, as if trying to resist the stretch (even after stretching). Does my suspected diagnosis seem reasonable, and how would the best approach for me be to handle that pesky piriformis? I have no intention of aggravating more back again, though neither do I intent on letting the piriformis and tfl keeping tightening up like they do. I have a lot of stuff regarding stretching that I'd like to discuss further with the forum members (hint: loaded stretching, strength and mobility, and the works of Thomas Kurz for those who are familiar with it), but that will be for another post:)