Matt's Movement Log

[Kit_L]

13 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

I'm finding myself at times like (lack of a better word) semi unconscious. It's like ... I'm asleep but awake at the same time.

You are (asleep and awake at the same time). When you become aware of someone near you snoring, that will be the first disassociation. As the first time I heard myself snoring during a practice I was so shocked I woke up, because I knew I was alone in the room! This happens every time I practice now, within 30" or so of starting. Deep relaxation is learned and in time is simply a new habit.

I don't want to analyse this too much*, but it is perfectly possible for the body to fall asleep and the mind to stay awake and clear. That is desirable, and many things can happen in this state. When the body falls asleep, and the mind is awake, the body is repairing itself, and faster than normal sleep, we think, too.

[*because the essence is found in the practise, not conversations about it—and only the one practising can experience these insights.]

Edited January 31 by Kit_L

[Matt Chung]

Day 265 of stretching and flexibility journey

Summary

• Performed (2) two consecutive days of lying relaxation practice
• Seems as though every 5 or so days, my mind begins to race and I still struggle / resist relaxation practice despite being able to continue limbering
• I'm still focusing on my painful areas: (L) shoulder, (R) knee
• When I deliberate supinate my (R) ankle, I find that I can reproduce the sharp knee pain so I'm on to something here
• Sent a colleague of mine the popular foot sequence post by Kit and he asked me a solid question that I'm unsure of the answer:
  • "If walking on uneven pebbles helps resolves plantar fasciitis by resetting the proprioceptors, is it not treating the underlying cause and if not, what's the long term solution cause surely it's not just continue walking barefoot on pebbles forever?'
  • Though my plantar fasciitis is very close to being FULLY resolved (SO GRATEFUL), is foot strengthening exercises resolving the underlying root cause (i.e. weak feet)? I recall Kit sharing a story about one of his students who, despite performing foot strengthening exercises did not resolve her plantar fasciitis until a year of walking on pebbles
• Considering creating a new program since a bit of structure tends to help me stay consistent with the stretching practice

 

Stretching and Flexibility Workshop in London (February 03, 2025)

• Took a 1 hour hip opening and hamstring exercise (received a targeted Instagram ad a few months ago)
• Though I really enjoyed a few of the hip opening exercises (similar to monkey gym) found the approach to hamstring stretching unsafe
• Wished that the instructor would've elaborated, qualified, and applied a bit more nuance when stating "just because something is painful doesn't mean it's bad"
• One take away from me was that I felt more confident listening to my own body and when I was asked to straighten my knee and felt sciatic nerve pain behind the knee, I acknowledged her request and at the same time, continued with bending my knee as much as possible to avoid sciatic nerve pain (much thanks to all the work and awareness gained from stretch therapy)
• One big take away is that during hip strengthening exercises, I noticed while I have the range of motion, I lack the strength (like when laterally lifting the leg to the side) in my glutes
• Another big take away is that my calves and/or ankles are really tight which was restricting me from performing the forward fold with straight legs
• At one point, I felt really concerned for another (and only other) man in the class who was forcing his body into certain positions that was not ready for and at one point, found himself stuck in hip flexor lunge position and could not get out of it and the teacher simply (to assist him) pushed him over which I felt was very dangerous given his body was tense and in a very compromising position
• In short, would not recommend this class and would not return

 

[Matt Chung]

To clarify, the sharp knee pain can be brought on by when (sitting crossed legged) I apply pressure in the similar fashion to the way Kit does so in his "Working the outside ankle (inversion; supination)" YouTube clip. So again, I think for my body I am on to something about working my (R) ankle to reduce my knee pain. Just a hunch. Will continue experimenting over next couple weeks.

[Matt Chung]

Oh a couple more observations about lying relaxation practice. The guided scripts that I like the most tend to have cues and reminders for:

• Pulling the chin back to lengthen the neck - didn't realize how much my chin protrudes out, probably causing unnecessary neck tension
• Tilt the pelvis and lightly contract glutes to relax lower back against the floor - I'm finding ... about 2 weeks into regularly performing lying relaxation practice that when I lay down and get into the starting position, my lower back is inching closer and closer to the ground whereas before there was a considerable gap between the mat an d lower back

[Matt Chung]

Day 268 of stretching and flexibility

Summary: Experimenting with foam rolling hamstrings (Gracilis, Semitendinosous) and Quads (Vasus Medialias) and (top of) calves

• Though I don't quite understand how to incorporate foam rolling into the long term, I do know that after foam rolling problematic areas, I feel relief in the crossed legged position and squat
• For example, I've shared on this forum that I've had pain around the knee but I've learned that with the foam roller, I can bring on the painful sensation and by doing so, helps me pinpoint the elusive, hard to reach tight muscles
• I'd like to do some light research / minor reading on foam rolling but my intuition tells me that I'm loosening up the fascia
• I find that I can hit certain spots that are stiff that I haven't quite been able to access with stretching
• I'd like to continue experimenting with both foam rolling and try to find some exercises that can target these same tender areas

[Kit_L]

In addition to a roller, try hard balls, too. We have found that the ones that are hard enough to resist deformation (like Lacrosse balls or anything similar) all work well.

[Matt Chung]

Was watching comedy show "The Office" and thought this clip was both hilarious and reminded me of ST forum given how much emphasis there is on flexing the glutes, especially after reading Jim Pickle's comment:

"...I strongly suggest that you clench up the glutes as much as possible (feel with your fingers, to check that all the muscles around the back of the buttock - inner as well as outer sides - are clenched as tightly as possible). This will help relax and open up the front of the hip"

 

[Matt Chung]

Day 271 of stretching and flexibility

Yesterday, focused on repairing different parts of both shoulders

• Extended Puppy targets my left shoulder pain
• Strap targets my right shoulder pain

With stretching (and other parts of life) I'm constantly learning and relearning the same lesson, repeatedly. There's this delicate balance between focusing on healing a particular muscles with targeted exercises that induce the pain/sensation to an uncomfortable yet tolerable level. At the same time, I recognize that healing takes place during periods of rest. So often, I get laser focused on "solving the problem" — obsession if you will — and recognize that — like other parts healed with my body over the last year — there will be a day when I get myself into a position for the nth time, only to experience less or no pain.

So this is more or less a reminder for self: just keep going and trust the process. I'm gaining more and more confidence in my ability to repair my body.

 

[Kit_L]

Dear @Matt Chung: this thread is so long now that I can't remember! Are you hanging from that bar for time every day? It only needs to be 30 seconds to a minute. A great many mystery shoulder pains disappear once you're strong enough to actually be able to relax completely in that hanging position for at least 30 seconds. Before you get to that point though, you need to do active hanging. If you're not sure what that is, just ask and I'll describe it. Great work, great insights, keep going.

[Matt Chung]

Hey @Kit_L not hanging on it every day however I recently started using it (about twice a week) to rehab my left shoulder. Although I have some intuition about what you mean by active hanging — perhaps using legs mounted on the ground so that I can fully relax my shoulders — I'm hoping you could describe it and/or point me to an existing video if you already have one! Thank you

[Matt Chung]

Day 271 of stretching and flexibility

Summary: It's been WEEKS since I've done a serious hamstring, quad, hip flexor, pirriformis and calves routine that includes C-R

Observations

• During hamstring stretch, placed less emphasis on pushing front leg out and more focus on driving hips back (that seemed to bring on a very strong sensation in the hamstring)
• Discovered I can really feel the calve stretch by increasing the height of the block (in this case, my foam roller) to rest my toe on. I noticed that after this type of calf stretch, I feel a little bit more relief in my plantar fasciitis (we're still at about 90% recovery but not fully there yet)
• Can notice much more difficulty getting into right pirriformis stretch when compared to left side
• Felt EXHAUSTED (in a good way) not only that night, but the following day; properly sore in hamstrings and hip flexors so I definitely pushed pretty close to my limit

Also, every day at the London underground station I take, there lives a whiteboard that contains a "thought of the day" and today's seem relevant not only to life, but especially to those who are on this stretching and flexibility journey

 

[Matt Chung]

Day 286 of stretching and flexibility

Have been a bit absent from the ST forum over the last couple weeks and miss it a bit.

Summary

Though I am still slowly and now non obsessively (more on this below) increasing overall body range of motion, my attention over the past 3 weeks has been on addressing the areas that are painful: right ankle, left shoulder, right neck / trap. Though the focus is on rehabbing these areas (daily limbering and every couple days of C-R) I still am once a week dedicating sessions to doing an "intense" stretch session for my hip flexors, hamstrings, piriformis, quads (see video recap below).

Reflecting over the last few months, after taking my foot off the pedal a bit with stretching, I feel that I was a bit obsessed with stretching. Not necessarily a bad thing. I am continually calibrating to increase the odds that stretching continues to be part of my life in the long run; I’m aware of my “all or nothing” tendencies.

Continuing to trust the process and journey ...

Right ankle / Right Foot

• Right ankle instability and weakness and sharp (excruciating) pain when driving heel into the ground, sharp pain in achilles heel
• The above may have some other knock on effects like right knee pain, right foot plantar fasciitis
• Over past 2 weeks, but applying strong pressure (i.e. driving heel into the ground), incrementally increasing intensity "conscious suffering"

Left Shoulder

• Continuing to do extended puppy
• Bring on the "pain cave" (i.e. conscious suffering) by using my pull bar (still interested in having @Kit_L elaborate on what he called "active hanging")

Right Trap / Neck

• Discomfort that impacts my dancing, when I tilt my head to the right
• This discomfort has existed for some time now but I've been neglecting it until now
• Motivation is now because head tilts is a particular movement I've been doing more and more often in my dance and this pain restricts my movement

 

[Kit_L]

@Matt Chung: passive hanging (the names are not accurate in absolute terms, but are relative—you'll always have to grip the bar!) is when you let your body's weight pull your shoulders up as far as your ROM allows (the shoulders will press on the ears when you're loose enough).

Active hanging is when you activate the lats to pull the shoulders down (either partially, so the shoulders are roughly level, with the collarbones roughly horizontal, while keeping the arms straight at the elbows, or fully, where the shoulders are in the fully depressed position—where if you pulled any harder, your elbows would have to bend and you'd be in the first part of the pull-up).

Speaking generally now, if you have any kind of shoulder problem, you should learn how to do the active hang first – all the stabilising muscles are activated this way. In time, when your grip strength and the sensations in the shoulder tell you that you're strong enough to relax completely in that position (apart from the hands gripping the bar of course), then let yourself slowly slowly go down between your shoulders as far as possible and you will have one of the best lat stretches of your life.

As well it's a very good exercise to go from the full hang to the shoulders fully depressed position active hang – there is more ROM available there than you might think. I have done these partial movements with 60 kg around my waist, back in the old days. If doing body weight only, aim for sets of 15 or so; the exact numbers are not important—accessing maximum ROM is. 

For most people, grip strength will be the limiting factor. Once you can hang passively for two minutes, then you can try practising partial one arm hangs – you hang from one arm, and the other hand either holding a band over the bar or the frame of the door next to you in a big pinch group, take some of your body's weight. One-arm hanging is the goal, in time.

[Matt Chung]

Day 290 of stretching and flexibility

Lying relaxation practice (LRP), single leg romanian dead lifts and active hanging

Yesterday was the first time I heard "someone" snoring while I was performing the LRP and that "someone" was me. Fascinating experience.

First attempts at Single Leg Romanian Dead Lift (no weights)

See this thread for instruction

• Started trying this exercise out last week and somewhat embarrassingly I'm gassed after 2 repetitions with no weights
• Last week I could honestly only perform a single repetition each leg while maintaining strict form
• Makes me wonder how weak my glutes and hamstrings are
• I might try to add some weight in a few weeks but just performing right not w/ out is plenty
• Lately, while walking and dancing (and just moving in general) I noticed how inactive my hamstrings are and often will need to mentally bring my awareness to those muscles to engage them
• Been thinking about this quote often "A muscle can be as strong as possible, but if it doesn’t fire at the right time, it’s useless" (see this thread)

Clip below is sped up (original repetition took about 40 seconds cause I'm struggling to stay balanced)

Active hanging

• Testing this exercise out to complement my puppy pose stretch that very effectively targets pain in my left shoulder
• Although I didn't post all (4) repetitions, I noticed that after each active stretch (when I'm in the position where my elbows are about to bend), I can sink further and further into the "passive" hang
• Cannot hit the 15 repetition set right now so will split up repetitions into multiple sets
• Will be interesting to see how this impact shoulders although the puppy pose stretch tends to be the only one right now that fires up problematic area in my shoulder

 

[Kit_L]

Re. single-leg Romanian deadlift: really emphasise tail untuck (IOW, stick your butt out in the beginning position), and only go as far forward as you can maintain this lumbar lordosis—see how your back is bending forward in the last parts of your video? Any lumbar spine flattening > flexion loses some of the intended effect. If you do this as instructed, you should feel the major affect in the hamstrings high underneath the glute on the working leg. And struggling with balance is also to be expected when you start! 

As well, notice the foot that you are balancing on – you'll find that it's working much harder than you think it should be and that is the virtue of any single-arm or single-leg exercise: the proportion of effort used in balancing is much greater than in any two-arm or two-leg movement. This is also why it's a sensational hamstring rehab rehabilitation exercise – no two repetitions are the same if you pay attention. Good work.

Re. the active hang: press the elbows straight deliberately. And in time, in the lowest position, press the bar away from you. This activates the traps, and in time those shoulders will be pressing the ears hard! Excellent.

[Matt Chung]

Day 298 of stretching and flexibility

Summary

• Single leg Romanian dead lift - no weights still. Improved the technique (based on @Kit_L feedback above, the sticking butt out) and able to now hit 4 repetitions (per leg) before being fully gassed
• Slow motion butt kicks (sure there is a better/accurate name for this exercise) - in the GIF below, all I am trying to do is to slowly kick my butt to engage the hamstring and last week, I had discovered that on the first repetition, I started cramping in my hamstring. Must mean I'm working at end range of motion. Anyways, seems like my body is asking me to work this muscle at this range of motion so been doing repetitions of this every few days. Similar to above, now able to get to about 4 repetitions before cramping kicks in.
• Puppy pose yoga position - discovered when in this position, and I try to lift my butt in the sky, that helps bring on even a deeper stretch in only my left shoulder  that is "painful" but I know will (soon enough, perhaps in weeks or months) will vanish
• Right head tilt - although still painful in the trap and along right side of neck, substantial increase range of motion. Still stiff but I can sense huge improvements over the last 2 weeks

[Kit_L]

I am sure that you are tired of hearing me say this, but stick your butt out even more. Your lumber lordosis is flattening and then slightly flexes towards the end of the exercise position. Only go as deep as you can keep that lumber lordosis. However, truly excellent compared to your first attempt.

[Matt Chung]

> I am sure that you are tired of hearing me say this, but stick your butt out even more. Your lumber lordosis is flattening and then slightly flexes towards the end of the exercise position. Only go as deep as you can keep that lumber lordosis. However, truly excellent compared to your first attempt.

Not at all! You're absolutely right @Kit_L. I tried a couple the other day and realized that I could actually stick my butt out further, several inches in fact. Gonna hit the gym and try the single leg dead lift plus some variations (early progressions) of the single leg squat progressions (inspired by your YouTube video)

On a separate note, as of last week — after what seems like 3 months — I just realized that my plantar fasciitis has completely disappeared. I cannot explain what specific exercises — if it was the stone walking, calve raises, heel drops — contributed to the healing process (I think they all served as stimulus) but I think the most important thing for me was resting. I haven't been as active on this forum because lately been mainly limbering, not full on stretching stretching, but in a way, I think I was certainly overly pushing my nervous system despite all the flexibility gains.

I'm returning back to the practice and hoping to find a new equilibrium for my body.

[Kit_L]

15 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

I just realized that my plantar fasciitis has completely disappeared.

It's everything, including the lying relaxations! I did original research, as a logician, in something called supervenience theory. Supervenience, the term, describes one simple relationship: no change at one level in any complex system without commensurate change at another (and other levels) in the system. By doing all the different things that you have been doing, and without being able to understand the causal relationships among the many things that you have been doing at the same time, all we know is that once the system itself changes sufficiently in a particular direction, then other things that are attendant upon the state of that system also change. 

16 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

I think I was certainly overly pushing my nervous system despite all the flexibility gains.

Without doubt. Well done.

[Matt Chung]

> supervenience theory

Thanks for sharing this term. With no previous encounter of the term, my curiosity let me down some light research on the concept and (at a high level) sounds like a form of dependency, but stricter.

[Matt Chung]

Day 303 of stretching and flexibility

On forging my own path

There's been a subtle and radical shift – not perceivable to anyone really from the outside– in how I am generally approaching life, which includes subtle changes current movement practices (dance and stretching included). I am leaning more into exploring and tinkering my own body and feed it what it wants and needs versus exclusively striving for external measures of success (e.g. increased range of motion etc). In sum, I'm learning how to forge my own path and building trust in myself and my own experiences.

Of course, though nothing wrong with seeking help and guidance from others, from mentors and more seasoned movers (I would not be here with the ST program, community members, encouragement, suggestions, more), I've come to learn that I've been (a little bit unaware) trying to (overly) control the outcomes and as a result, have spend less time just experimenting, exploring, tinkering, avoidant of these out of worry that it will stunt my growth and progression.

Related to the notion of forging my own path, my private dance instructor recently suggested and encouraged me to take some time to pause our intense training sessions and suggests that I devote some additional time forging my own path because she believes that I'm equipped with all the tools and techniques etc; though she (along with myself and others) observed tremendous growth in my dance, her thoughts are not that she does not want our training to develop into a handicap, where I'm unable to advance my own dance journey.

Yesterday's Stretching and Strengthening Session

• Crawled around on all fours to just explore, with no set agenda - Something I haven't done since starting my own movement practice, getting on all fours, moving away, and just increasing awareness of stiffness in my body, increasing awareness of weaknesses in my own body.

• Cramped in hip flexors (rectus femoris) while trying pistol squat progression – whenever I try to straighten my leg and perform a leg lift, I immediately cramp (rectus femoris). As such, I reverted to initial progression (i.e. rolling on back and then rolling into squat position), which was a serious struggle; I had initially jumped to the third progression (in the YouTube video), over estimating my abilities. As a result of the cramping, I suspect that over time, the cramping will stop the more I practice this specific movement so I did a few sets of just straight leg lifts.

• Cossack Squat Exploration - feels very different when I place my intention on lengthening my spine and staying up right (less ROM) versus allowing my body to lean over. Neither is better or worst but definitely hits different muscles

• Attempted pancake stretch by elevating self (sitting on two plates) and trying to just lean forward - I've been avoiding even attempting / starting pancake stretch because I felt I needed to first increase ROM and strength in the underlying, individual muscles first, not wanting to take a "brute force" (i.e. less optimal) approach to stretching but I also feel that I've over-indexed on the reductionist approach (for me) and I'm reminded of a quote I had read on this forum: "The test is the exercise; the exercise is the test". I'm constantly balancing between directly practicing the X (where X can be any movement) versus all the other number things that may help perform X. Another example is, my mind sometime says, "do all these things to improve the squat" but I never end up just practicing the squat itself. Reminding myself that there's no strict dependency and that I can do BOTH, practice some move (X) directly as well as all the smaller movements that make up X.

 

 

[Kit_L]

On 3/17/2025 at 5:31 AM, Matt Chung said:

I am leaning more into exploring and tinkering my own body and feed it what it wants and needs versus exclusively striving for external measures of success (e.g. increased range of motion etc).

This is exactly what the ST system is about. My emphasis—you can't feed it what it wants and needs without playing/trying/tinkering.

What you write is precisely what we try to teach all students ("play with this; what does that feel like; how can that feeling be moved or changed; and so on"). This is a deep insight, and it will be impossible to hold you back now!

Keep going. Tinkering is the key word.

[Matt Chung]

Day 314 of stretching and flexibility journey

As someone who has a tendency to overdo things, a lesson that I continue learning and relearning: longer I permit my body to rest between sessions, I feel stronger, I feel more flexible, and I find that when I return to the workout, the pain (e.g. shoulders) are reduced.

Summary

Over the past couple weeks, I introduced strengthening of lower body into my routine and I'm finding that every day activities — like bending over to pick something up — "feels" different. I'm able to now sense more of my hamstring and glutes engaging. In short, stretching for flexibility and strengthening (for me) with some lights seem to go hand in hand with one another.

The single leg squat / pistol squat is a movement I've always wanted to do and while I will achieve it along the way, I'm finding the real benefit for me is that my legs (hamstrings and glutes) just feel stronger for every day activities (mentioned above).

• Slow ramp up for strengthening sessions - Starting with once a week at the gym (may increase to twice a week)
• L-sit exercises - less cramping in my rectus femoris than last week and able to do about (2) sets of 8 repetitions per side
• Ending workout with stretching and flexibility - Ended the session with hamstrings (C-R) and hip flexors (C-R)
• Single leg squat progression (i.e. pistol squat) - the initial progression (i.e. roll onto back and roll back into squat position with two feet) feels much easier than the week before, my hip flexors feel stronger. This week tried the second progress (i.e. squat on single leg and then roll onto back) was feasible, about 6 repetitions per leg. However, attempted the third progression (i.e. squat on single leg and roll back onto single leg) was not possible, my legs and hip flexors etc lacking strength to perform even a single repetition.
• Single leg dead lift - sticking my butt out more and more and feeling the stretch more in my glute

 

[Kit_L]

Keep going. All perfect. Your pistol progressions look excellent to me, and that cramping in rectus femoris will go away, in time. I developed the pistol squat variations which are all on YouTube for me personally to get over exactly the same problem: cramping in rectus femoris. Definitely a weakness in my body. But any of the variations will develop strength in the legs and hips – so if you find that the cramping is stopping you, then do one of the other variations. All of these can be weighted as well and you’ll only need a few kilograms.

[Matt Chung]

Day 319 of stretching and flexibility

Summary

Profound experience of sensing the somatic difference between loading the quads vs hamstrings during single leg squat, the difference between driving (loading) knee backwards (i.e. posterior chain) vs forwards.

Tiny victory

Woke up this morning and the neck pain felt when tilting head to right side towards shoulder has vanished overnight. Over the past 2 months, I’ve been only fairly lightly (no C-R at all) limbering my neck (due to so much pain felt while dancing and performing “head isolations"). Was quite pleasant surprise to initiate the stretch in my neck — expecting stiffness and pain— only for that sensation to be "gone" Though I experienced the overnight disappearance of pain in my right shoulder, I still experience joy when another muscle stops being in pain.

Some additional observations

•  For the first time, I experienced what others on the forum have called pelvic instability - I tried performing the skater variation (i.e. the bending knee receives partial support from the opposite leg resting on the ground) and was unable to even do this variation on my left side. That is, I could not stabilize my hips when shifting all my body weight to my left leg. No problem here. Although I had the urge to brute force the exercise, in the moment, I accepted my current limitation and instead, settled on even an easier variation. I know over time, my left leg will gain strength and then I’ll eventually move on to the next variation.
• Single leg squat (i.e. pistol squat) progression - Often, I’d roll onto my back and when transitioning into the bottom squat position, I find myself stuck there, my hip flexors tensing but insufficiently strong enough (for now) to transition me into a standing position. When this happens, during the next attempt, I would generate a tiny little more momentum to get me up. Overtime, I imagine I will reduce the amount of inertia needed, similar to how my (now 5 years old) daughter can from a sitting position, simply stand up without using her hands and without generating any momentum.
• I’m my teens up until early 20s, I was a gym rat but focused strictly on upper body but now directing attention towards lower body - I was “ripped” back then (some friends of mine even asked if I was taking steroids, which I wasn’t) but find it somewhat comical that I was "more muscular" but less aware.