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Showing results for tags 'transformation'.
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Following on from my first post here in Feb 2018 I started and maintained a consistent workout which consists of the Daily Five (replacing exercise 2, which my elbow tendonits couldn't stand, with Kit's sitting-in-chair stretch from the Back Pain book) followed my ten of the exercises from Master The Squat. While this set of exercises has improved my flexibility in general in the entire mid and lower body, the ultimate aim is to get my right dorsiflexion much closer to my left dorsiflexion range. Following a full Achilles tear in mid 2013 and restorative surgery I tore the same tendon again 80% and decided to restore it myself without surgery. Two specialist surgeons' advice given to me here in Germany was surgery using the tendon from the big toe and run it along over the Achilles tendon as a tissue renewal. I wasn't having any of that, after having spend a few weeks in the library of University of Cologne researching experience around diverse areas of the world with non-surgical recovery. It seems until this very day that I am only the second person on the entire internet who made this decision. And I am very glad that I did. Over that period since then I have been basically able to once again do everything I could before the injury, albeit with a right calf still only 90% as strong as the left and a still thick, taut right Achilles tendon. While this is immeasurably better than having a tendon that is too long, it often produces tension (both medially and laterally) in the knee as a result. My knee-to-wall in squatting position shows 130 mm space between the front of the left foot and the wall, and less than 100 mm for the right foot. This is however some 15 mm better than three years ago therefore it is heading in the right direction, but has reached some point over the last six months or so where it has remained the same. All the other exercises have gradually improved all areas of the hips and my previously very tight/short hamstrings, and together with Bulgarian squats have improved overall knee function quite markedly. Squatting in bare feet without some elevation is however still not something I have achieved, or at least not for more than a minute or two. Any repetition of this minute or two for a few days then leads to tension in the knee, which forces me to leave that exercise for a week or so (otherwise cycling, my only form of transport, is impaired). There is however something perhaps more important than any of these matters mentioned above, and which very definitely confirms something which Kit has consistently emphasised in many of his podcast interviews. That is, that you will be a transformed person after two years. Until recently I had experienced not much change over many months, yet happily kept going with my every-fourth-day system with C-R and on the second day doing the same exercises as more of a limbering without C-R. It seems to work best, because limbering every day seems to lead to tension which is still present on the C-R day. In recent times an ever so subtle yet important loss of tension developed in the core, particularly around the hip flexor and bottom of the pelvis. It all resulted in a state of relaxation and ease, of being able to more easily allowing stress-carrying activities and situations around me to simply slide off of me or around me, without it changing even my positive mood. Then, following one social meet-up with a particular family of kindred spirits here in Germany, my 45-year nail-biting habit, which had defied all attempts to stop it, simply melted away over a couple of days, so absolutely that it was not even perceptible. Some four weeks later everything is still the same. My mood is permanently positive or highly self-confident, despite constant tension and stress in my household. Some sort of inherent tension, kept within my body since early childhood, I would guess since age four, simply isn't there any more. Yet my body is nowhere near as flexible as I want it to be. I can still only barely hold my fingers on my toes with straight legs for a minute. Perhaps more importantly, my body has generally become more soft, while also being more muscular. I'll return specifically to my exercises and workout in a future post, but just felt it more important to pass on this experience about losing tension and transformation, and hope that it might encourage or inform even one other person embarking on the stretch-therapy experience, and who might be doubting how successful or far-reaching and beneficial it all can be.