“Discharging” the hip flexors — unusual reactions

[jaja]

Since my girlfriend wishes to gain some mobility and she also carries quite a bit of tension in her body, I've introduced her to the ST method. Of course the first thing I made her try was the hip flexors stretch. Not a crazy variation, just the standard one featured in the ABSS.

The first time she tried it, right after the C-R fase, her body started shaking lightly and she began laughing. She didn't know why, as she obv wasn't having fun. She did her best to keep breathing into the lower abdomen, trying to relax everything, then she came out of the pose. She laid face-up on the ground and started crying for no reason. I've witnessed people having emotional releases after a strong stretch, but never after what I consider to be a really basic one! Anyway, I hugged her and told her it was all right, it's something that can happen.

Fast foreword a week, she tries again the lounge HF stretch. This time the shaking is absent on the left side and minimal on the right one; even the laugher is hugely reduced. Progress, right? Well…almost. Shortly after the C-R fase on the right leg, she worryingly says she needs to come out. She put herself in fetal position on the ground and says: “I'm sorry…I felt like I was going to die”.

Is this something to be expected on some individuals? Is it something to be concerned about? What should I do to assist her?

[Pat (pogo69)]

While I wouldn't go so far as to call it expected, I don't consider it unexpected.  Not, at least, with respect to the hip flexors.

There is something "special" about the hip flexors for many of us.

I've felt rather a extreme fear/anxiety response from hip flexor stretching.  Quite profound sometimes, when going deep as in the partner stretch.  But I've also felt extreme anxiety from something as seemingly innocuous as lying backward over a yoga/fit ball.

Should you be concerned?  Only, I think, if it concerns your girlfriend.  Her reactions (and mine above) are all variations of fear response, that won't be helping with the goal of teaching one's body that the practise is safe.

Go gently, particularly with the C-R.  Allow the body time to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.  While the sensations aren't pleasant, they are a pretty good sign that her hips (and mine) will benefit from improved mobility.

[Igor]

It looks like she activated psoases on a deep level and that triggered so called 'spontaneous movements' or zi fa gong in Chinese. General advice on SM is to let them run their course but not become attached to them and don't try to reproduce them. The whole point is they have to be spontaneous. BTW, assuming and holding a fetal pose is a 'spontaneous movement' also. When the blockages accumulated inside are released/removed , the movements will disappear.

But this is just one of the possible explanations.

[Kit_L]

@jaja: two thoughtful replies here: excellent, both of them. Also, working with one's partner is always potentially a little problematic; all sorts of aspects of the relationship can get projected/entangled. Keep going, and back off on the intensity. If you are doing the sitting partner one, use the kneeling version we did on the workshop (less intensity).

[jaja]

She's not ready yet for partner work: the standard stretch is intense enough for her, which says something about the tightness she holds in her body.