Matt's Movement Log

[Matt Chung]

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.

[Matt Chung]

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:

 

[Kit_L]

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).

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! There is no doubt you can hear the state of relaxation of anyone if you listen to their voice, too, and I wonder if anyone else has noticed this.

[Matt Chung]

> 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.

[Kit_L]

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.

And the change in your voice is HUGE. And your voice has a lovely quality, too—have you thought of getting some training?

[Matt Chung]

> 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?!

[Kit_L]

12 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

wait — have you done voice training yourself?!

Yeh, nah (as the infamous OzzyMan loves to say). But I think you could, and it might be worth trying. And your clip is playing on our channel now and there are some nice comments there:

Go Matt!

[Rik]

Hey matt, wanted to chime in and thought this progress is looking awesome! Keep it up

[Kit_L]

Yes, pretty amazing changes for such a relatively short time. Keep going!

[Gareth O Connor]

Good going

[Matt Chung]

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

 

 

[Kit_L]

13 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

It never ends.

No, it doesn't—and isn't that great?

13 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

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.

Yes, I have been trying to get this point across to students for about 30 years now – actually it's probably closer to 40. What you feel in your body is what constructs the reality that you experience. When you're stronger you can do more of everything.

[Matt Chung]

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

 

[Matt Chung]

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

[Matt Chung]

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.

 

[Ned]

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).

8 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

to me that's not as important as the internal sensations that I'm experiencing

The more I've stretched, the more I recognize just how significant this insight is [I wanted to refer to that particular insight in a plural way, because I keep catching it in different ways and deepening my understanding of it, but it read a little too strangely].  That and Kit's "Breathe and Relax" have taken on much more significance than I ever would have suspected when I first heard it.  

[Matt Chung]

> 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

[Matt Chung]

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.

 

[Matt Chung]

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.

[Nathan]

L-sit is a lot of fun, and it's actually not too hard to achieve. One thing that the GMB article doesn't touch on too much is compression, which can make a huge difference, especially if you intend to progress toward V-sit, etc. This video from Tom Merrick seems to cover it pretty well: Core Compression (L-Sit, V-Sit) | Do It Right! You probably won't need to think about compression in the beginning, though, so feel free to just file it away in the back of your brain for later

[Kit_L]

15 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

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.

Hallelujah, brother! It is all from the same cloth: simply different kinds of movement.

I have said this many times before, but movement is as necessary to the body as food and drink – even if you don't need it as often. Literally everything, all of the key reactions in the body, are driven by movement. Movement solves problems in the body (and the mind!).

[Kit_L]

15 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

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.

There's nothing "woo woo" about what you write here. In fact ,I think I would rephrase this as, 'I can see my hip flexors stretching and see fascia moving. I visualise the muscle stretching in my body.'

Arnold used to say, "you have to put your mind in the muscle". Because the mind, the muscles, and the fascia are all connected to each other in real time via the neural system, and any imagination or visualisation supervenes over these systems, what I write here is 100% accurate. Brilliant insights my young friend and you're going well. Keep going.

[Gareth O Connor]

The mind-muscle connection

[Matt Chung]

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

 

[Kit_L]

14 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

All that is to say: body is getting stronger.

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.