Matt's Movement Log

[Matt Chung]

15 hours ago, oliviaa said:

Hi Matt

Kit asked me to post to say that his computer is out of action (drowned by salt water coming in a window of the boat in big seas – the computer that is, not Kit) and he cannot respond, but if he could, he would say great work!

Cheers, Olivia

Thanks @oliviaa. You and @Kit_Ldedication to the building community here on the forum is on another level. The fact that his laptop drowned and still had the thought to respond to say great work is very much appreciated. And glad you clarified that it was the laptop, not Kit, that drowned 😆

[Matt Chung]

Day 145 of Stretching and Flexibility Journey

Today I experienced something that I don't quite understand ... how did flexing my hamstring while sitting in the squat position make "IT Band pain" disappear?

To elaborate ...

As usual, when I'm in sat in squat position and shift my weight towards my right leg, I experience a (almost sharp) pain around my right knee, towards the top of the hamstring. Nothing new here. Similar sensation as IT band that more or less stopped me from running for about a decade.

But today, I happened to experiment with the sensation and while still in the squat position, I concentrated on flexing the hamstring — that is, tried driving my right heel (that's pressed against the floor) backwards — and the pain (which I often report that it feels "IT Band" pain) disappeared, so as long as the hamstring is flexed. Thinking to myself: is it possible that the pain that I've been feeling have to do with lack of strength in the hamstring, lack of the ability to contract the hamstring? Though the squat position is one of rest (for the Asian world), I wonder if people squatting actively engage their hamstrings while in that position. I had previously thought that that's not the case, otherwise, how does a person sit in the squatting position for minutes at a time? Wouldn't their hamstring become fatigued?!

Similarly, as soon as I relaxed the contraction, the sharp pain returned. I know this is some sort of clue and may be obvious to others what's going on, but I find it interesting and worth continuing exploring.

 

[Nathan]

Congrats! 🥳

Edit: In reply to the no pain milestone

[Matt Chung]

> Similarly, as soon as I relaxed the contraction, the sharp pain returned. I know this is some sort of clue and may be obvious to others what's going on, but I find it interesting and worth continuing exploring.

Was chatting offline with another ST therapist, discussing the pain around the knee when squatting; also provided another observation: when sitting crossed legged (photo below), same pain occurs; she had asked me where the pain was located and so I recorded this (about 10 second) clip to help her pinpoint. Based on this, she suspects that the pain stems from a tight (right) calve and or (lack of) ankle mobility and suggested the following:

1. Hero yoga position - I tested this position out and similar areas light up as the video below
2. Calve stretches - I think she's on to something here because yesterday I had stretched the calve muscles and when I recorded the video below for her, I had noticed that while the sensation was still around/behind the knee, it felt less intense (perhaps due to calf stretches from the day before)

 

 

Edited October 10 by Matt Chung
Removed duplicate photo

[Matt Chung]

Day 148 of Stretching and Flexibility Journey

Today I repeated Monday's routine: shoulders and pectoralis. Also, experimented with "seated hero pose" (with block variation) and "calve" stretch, both exercises which helped alleviate the pain that I've been feeling when sitting in the squat position, leaned towards my right leg. To recap from this past week, here are some observations around the knee pain:

• Flexing the right hamstring reduces the pain
• Stretching the right calve helps reduce the pain
• Relaxing in the "seated hero pose" helps reduce the pain

Today's tiny victory: This past week, noticed that I'm able to comfortably sit crossed leg while typing at the computer.

Summary of today

Leading up to the joy I experienced this morning, I had a worry thought that I was going to be disappointed when extending my right arm into the 45 degree angle, when pressing my arm against the wall to stretch the shoulder and pectoralis muscle. Because earlier this week (on Monday; today is Friday) I was beaming with happiness when the first time in months — no, years – the shoulder pain located in the anterior part of the rotator cuff, vanished. I admit that the anticipatory feeling of pain was due to lack of trust in my body, not convinced that the pain free day was just an outlier. So when today I braced myself for disappointment, braced myself for anticipatory pain, I felt relieved that the pain did not arrive.

Reminds me of one of Kit's comments in a separate thread: "Until a body part is able to be stressed beyond its historical experience, the embodied experience/memory of past injuries continues to influence the body's experience in the present"

It's amazing to see the difference between today (day 148) compared to a two months ago (day 71). Back then, I could BARELY get into the STARTING position, due to the excruciating pain.

 

Hero seated post and calve stretch before "retesting" for right "knee pain"

 

Unrelated, I find the feature on the forum pretty neat, the one that has a notification at the top, stating that Kit is temporarily unavailable:

 

 

[Matt Chung]

I work on the forward fold on Tuesdays and notice that from about Wed-Sunday, my lower back is always sore; it's not necessarily painful. It's similar to the type of soreness you would feel in your biceps after performing dumbbell curls. That being said, I started wondering: should I always be feeling this sore after stretching sessions? Apparently, yes. While perusing the forums (I continue to find nuggets of gold), I (re) visited the basics of "limbering and mobility" and this quote was quite fitting:

"And the fact that successful stretching takes a limb into a new range of movement means that there will be soreness in the days following. You actually want that soreness, perhaps surprisingly: if it is not there in the days following stretching, then you know that you can push a bit harder the next time"

As mentioned above, my lower back is perpetually sore, normally like 4-5 days following the stretch session. This soreness also occurs during my hamstring stretches, shoulder, ankle — almost all of the other muscles, except the hip flexors. While sore, they are much less sore compared to the others and leads me to believe that I can probably "push a bit harder".

[Matt Chung]

> No. It always works like that, if you are doing the sort of thing you're doing! I used to have crippling low back pain – Olivia used to watch me crawl to the toilet first thing in the morning for many years

Legit question: why is it that pain hits first thing in the morning? Seems so counter-intuitive. That is, I imagine the body being relaxed throughout the whole night so was it is it about waking up and feeling that pain? Though I do not have low back pain, when I first wake up, I almost always pain deep in my left hip flexor.

[Matt Chung]

Day 151 of stretching and flexibility journey

Shoulders

• Feeling more confident that (RIGHT) shoulder rotator cuff has disappeared, more permanently - I had mentioned a couple days ago that I was totally caught off guard, totally surprised, that when I stretched my right arm out at 45 degrees, the pain that I've lived with for years ... disappeared. I wasn't confident that the pain was truly gone, still a bit skeptical. However, 1 week later, I'm growing more convinced and confident that it's healed. The work doesn't stop there. Keeping it up
• Probably will try out Kit's suggested shoulder exercise (i.e. Supraspintaus) - though huge progress on my shoulder, today I happen to just test out the following shoulder movement (abduction, I think) and felt a pinch at the end range of motion

Ankle

• Discrepancy in ankle mobility discovered - when performing the ankle stretches, I noticed an (obvious to me) restriction in range of motion (ROM) in my right ankle. Likely due for several reasons, including be right side dominant.
• Though I am (what I think) is a few months out to reaching my ankle ROM, I'm VERY pleased with progress so far  - I'm on the 4th week of my program and can almost comfortably get into the Seiza position (i.e. Japanese kneeling position)

Neck

• Right side still feels better but still stiff - nothing much here; normal and part of the process

Though I had a configured myself a program to follow for 6 weeks, I'm glad I incorporated my friend's (i.e. ST certified) suggestion to include the Seated Hero Pose, which IS helping alleviate the twinge of pain around/behind my right knee felt when squatting and shifting my weight towards that (right) knee.

[Nathan]

22 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

Legit question: why is it that pain hits first thing in the morning? Seems so counter-intuitive. That is, I imagine the body being relaxed throughout the whole night so was it is it about waking up and feeling that pain? Though I do not have low back pain, when I first wake up, I almost always pain deep in my left hip flexor.

A reply from Kit:

I think the reason is that we believe that we are relaxed when we sleep at night, but unless we do the kind of things that we are doing, most people are not in fact relaxed when they sleep, and this is one of the reason why sleep problems are so common these days. 

So what actually happens? I think is that where you habitually hold patterns of tension in your body, the fascia involved in that location actually sticks slightly to itself overnight, and this is exacerbated by that same tension. Gil Headley called this “fuzz,“ and if you search on YouTube, you’ll find his excellent presentation on it, with some unique photographs as well. The thing is, though, that as soon as you start moving – literally as you get out of bed – the fuzz unsticks itself, and the next thing you know, whilst you might’ve felt pain, for example, in your lower back, as soon as you start moving around a moment or two later, it’s gone – what happened to it? 

This is the deep and interesting question for me, but as a pragmatist, I don’t care about the mechanisms so much as just that I know that if you do move, the pain eventually will settle down. This is operative in the short, medium, and long-term – the deeper point being that, as you restore normal movement to any part of the body, any pain phenomena associated with it, regardless of cause, tends to improve.

[Nathan]

On 10/14/2024 at 1:38 PM, Matt Chung said:

As mentioned above, my lower back is perpetually sore, normally like 4-5 days following the stretch session. This soreness also occurs during my hamstring stretches, shoulder, ankle — almost all of the other muscles, except the hip flexors. While sore, they are much less sore compared to the others and leads me to believe that I can probably "push a bit harder".

(Just me now)

Soreness can be a good indicator that (the desired) adaptation is taking place, but this is not always true, so I wouldn't necessarily go seeking soreness for the sake of soreness. Instead, use it as a source of feedback. For example, the sore lower back after your forward folding sessions could be hinting at compensation patterns, i.e., getting your forward fold range from the lower back rather than emphasizing the hamstrings/calves as much as you could be.

Similarly, the lack of soreness in the hip flexors could simply be due to other tissues holding you back from really working on the hip flexors effectively (and this is often the case). So is it that the hip flexors don't get sore? Or is it that nothing gets sore? If nothing, then yes, perhaps you could consider pushing a bit harder.

[Matt Chung]

Thank you for elaborating @Nathan

> i.e., getting your forward fold range from the lower back rather than emphasizing the hamstrings/calves as much as you could be.

It is my understanding that the forward fold is predominately a lower back stretch with the hamstrings/calves being secondary?

> Similarly, the lack of soreness in the hip flexors could simply be due to other tissues holding you back from really working on the hip flexors effectively (and this is often the case). So is it that the hip flexors don't get sore? Or is it that nothing gets sore? If nothing, then yes, perhaps you could consider pushing a bit harder.

That makes sense; I should've qualified. The hip flexors do get sore, just not as sore compared to other muscle groups (e.g. shoulders, hamstrings) and ultimately, I do think that I can push a tad harder on them.

[Nathan]

3 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

It is my understanding that the forward fold is predominately a lower back stretch with the hamstrings/calves being secondary?

It can be! A nice, deep forward fold is really a fantastic stretch for the whole posterior side of the body. That's not how most people think of it, though. People generally think of the forward fold as a hamstring stretch—and it can be a great hamstring stretch—but when they go to do the forward fold, they let the lower back do a lot of the heavy lifting. To really target the hamstrings, you want to hinge at the hips as much as possible, keeping the back relatively straight. You will eventually need to bend the back forward as well, but only when the hamstrings move closer to maximum range.

Of course, depending on your goals, you can move in the opposite direction. You can bend the knees, open the legs, etc. to move the stretch away from the back of the legs and into the back. This can feel absolutely lovely

[Matt Chung]

Day 152 of Stretching and Flexibility Journey

Due to a heavy dance training this past Sunday (little clip below) — which consisted of lots of strength training of the lower body and high intensity interval training — my legs are SO sore — to the point I'm struggling to walk up stairs. Unlike my 20s (and early 30s), I am now listening to my body, honoring the soreness and skipping dance class tonight (Tuesday evenings in London, which I ritually attend). Now, regarding today's stretching session, I felt that I could still work/stretch my hamstrings and hip flexors, so I did just that: hamstring lunge, elephant walk, lunge quad stretch

Also, following the stretch routine, I stumbled upon a blog article titled "The Quiet Art of Attention" and felt the following paragraph encapsulates some thoughts I've had regarding my stretching journey:

It is tempting, in moments of ambition, to think that we must change everything all at once, that the path to mastery or peace requires a sudden, dramatic shift. But this is rarely the case. In truth, most lasting changes come from small, deliberate actions. It is in the repetition of these small actions, over time, that we build strength, that we build the habits of mind that lead to deeper clarity. Just as a mountain is climbed not in great leaps but in steady, measured steps, so too is the mind brought into alignment by daily, patient attention to the way we think.

...
And so, the journey to mastery of the mind begins not with grand gestures but with the simplest of practices: the practice of paying attention. Attention to the present, attention to what truly matters, and attention to the quiet spaces in between. In this way, step by step, thought by thought, we move closer to that elusive state of clarity, of peace, and of freedom.

 

 

[Matt Chung]

> It can be! A nice, deep forward fold is really a fantastic stretch for the whole posterior side of the body. That's not how most people think of it, though. People generally think of the forward fold as a hamstring stretch—and it can be a great hamstring stretch—but when they go to do the forward fold, they let the lower back do a lot of the heavy lifting. To really target the hamstrings, you want to hinge at the hips as much as possible, keeping the back relatively straight. You will eventually need to bend the back forward as well, but only when the hamstrings move closer to maximum range.

Thanks for elaborating @Nathan; at the moment, how I am doing my forward feels like somewhere in between in between; back not strictly straight, but not overly curved. Regardless, during my next session, I'm going to experiment a bit with a "straighter" back to see (which I anticipate) will move the stretch from my lower back and towards the hamstrings, especially at the initial starting position (of the forward fold). Below is from today's session (snagged from the video I posted in my previous comment) and reflects more or less how I am currently performing the forward fold; seems like my back is rounded, and thus, engaging more of the lower back?

[Nathan]

11 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

Below is from today's session (snagged from the video I posted in my previous comment) and reflects more or less how I am currently performing the forward fold; seems like my back is rounded, and thus, engaging more of the lower back?

Yes, this is lovely. You will have some lower back stretching happening here.

I initially come from a gymnastics strength training approach, so my thoughts tend to default back to the strict, gymnastics-style shapes. If you want to really emphasize and feel the difference, start with straight legs, and when you fold forward, think about sticking your bum out to the rear and touching your sternum to your toes (so we're tilting the pelvis more than folding the torso). This is just the visualization; you may not be able to bend forward past 90 degrees. Be very gentle - we're just playing here. Your hamstrings will not like this 😆 You can then play with alternating from pointed toes to dorsiflexion to see just how much calf tightness, nerve tension, etc. all affect the forward fold, as well.

[Nathan]

One more from Kit, who will hopefully be back shortly, as Apple claims his PC has been successfully repaired 

Quote

 

When you are doing the forward fold bend, please put both of your heels on the floor as you try to straighten the legs – the reduction in friction will give you so much more control over how and the rate at which you straighten your legs. Also, consider straightening one leg at a time in that same position – that will bring on the hamstring stretch in the leg that you’re straightening and allow the other one to relax a bit. Last tip is to consider rolling up a small hand towel and putting it underneath the back of your knees so that the legs can feel something underneath them – this will be very similar to what it feels like when the legs are properly straight. This too will help the body relax in the final position.

As well, when you’re doing the lunge hamstring exercise, please put your back leg’s knee on some firm cushioning support – you will not know the extent to which your holding tension in your body until you can relax completely in that position, and having your knee on something softer, rather than on that very thin yoga mat, will make all the difference in the world.

 

[Matt Chung]

> One more from Kit, who will hopefully be back shortly, as Apple claims his PC has been successfully repaired 

The dedication to this forum is real. And Apple products are so resilient, the fact that they were able to repair it after being drowned. I had a similar experience; was trying to film myself doing a cold shower and then a hot bath and then accidentally dropped my phone and fully emerged into the water. The iPhone shut off, said water had been detected and that it will turn back on once fully dry. We are truly living in the future.

[Matt Chung]

Quote

 

When you are doing the forward fold bend, please put both of your heels on the floor as you try to straighten the legs – the reduction in friction will give you so much more control over how and the rate at which you straighten your legs. Also, consider straightening one leg at a time in that same position – that will bring on the hamstring stretch in the leg that you’re straightening and allow the other one to relax a bit. Last tip is to consider rolling up a small hand towel and putting it underneath the back of your knees so that the legs can feel something underneath them – this will be very similar to what it feels like when the legs are properly straight. This too will help the body relax in the final position.

As well, when you’re doing the lunge hamstring exercise, please put your back leg’s knee on some firm cushioning support – you will not know the extent to which your holding tension in your body until you can relax completely in that position, and having your knee on something softer, rather than on that very thin yoga mat, will make all the difference in the world.

 

🫡
I'm going to experiment today with this version of the forward fold, this being more of an emphasis on the hamstrings versus lower back (i.e. back straight) and will report back with the numerous tips above (repeated here, for myself):

• "when you fold forward, think about sticking your bum out to the rear and touching your sternum to your toes (so we're tilting the pelvis more than folding the torso"
• "consider straightening one leg at a time in that same position – that will bring on the hamstring stretch in the leg that you’re straightening and allow the other one to relax a bit"
• "consider rolling up a small hand towel and putting it underneath the back of your knees so that the legs can feel something underneath them – this will be very similar to what it feels like when the legs are properly straight"

Thanks for the communal support and will give these forward folds a crack! Much love!

[Matt Chung]

Day 155 of Stretching and Flexibility Journey

Summary

• No victory too small: sitting at Starbucks, on a bench, legs crossed (i.e. Indian Style / Sukhasana) WITHOUT pain in my right "knee" (i.e. tightness in calve/hamstring/ankle), previous sensation described as "about to burst"
• Every 10-15 minutes or so, I tried to alternate positions
• During today's stretching session, attempted to the forward fold, emphasizing the hamstring (i.e. @Nathan suggestions above) but stopped almost immediately because I could barely even sit with legs straight out without feeling my lower back tensing (not stretching/not relaxing) and didn't want to pull a muscle
• Today I felt very CONFIDENT that the shoulder pain in my right shoulder, when positioning at 45 degrees, has disappeared. As mentioned in previous updates, I was reluctant to declare that the pain was ACTUALLY gone but after 3 sessions, I'm noticing less and less resistance/reluctant/hesitation when getting into the position

Body Scan Observations

• Over the past 3 days, noticed nerve sensations at the bottom of my feet, between the 3rd and 4th metatarsal head (image below — not my feet)
  • This may be due to too much volume (i.e. dance) from the previous week
  • The sensation is annoying and uncomfortable, not necessarily painful
• Normally as soon as I wake up in the morning, I feel a pain deeply located where I believe my femur connects to the hip joint but today magnitude of pain is less
  • The sensation is increased when I position myself in child's pose and (for lack of a better word) tilt my pelvis so that my left side of my butt sticks out further
  • The location of the sensation feels similar (if not the same) to that of when I am in the lunge position and stretching my hip flexor (of the bag leg)

Stretch Session

Today's focus was shoulder (3 exercises) followed by lunge hamstring exercise

• After 4 weeks of my own customized program, I felt ready to graduate from the "arm across body" stretch to the floor version
  • Stretch sensations MUCH stronger, in a good way
• With the shoulder strap exercise, I'm starting to feel less pain and shoulder feels stronger however no noticeable increased range of motion (ROM) over last 3-4 weeks
  • Still continuing to pull the shoulder back and lift the chest (sensation does feel different), which revealed a previous compensation that appeared as if I had more ROM than I actually did
• For Hamstring Lung, this time I played around with dorsiflex(ing) my foot and found a sweet spot (too much dorsiflex shot the sciatic nerve pain to an intolerable place)
• Though never the aim (and still not the aim), I compared the hamstring/quad lung position compared to 5 months ago and there's drastic difference and can imagine a future version of me that can actually perform a split. Perhaps in a few years!

[Kit_L]

19 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

attempted to the forward fold, emphasizing the hamstring (i.e. @Nathan suggestions above) but stopped almost immediately because I could barely even sit with legs straight out without feeling my lower back tensing (not stretching/not relaxing) and didn't want to pull a muscle

Follow his suggestions, but doing it your normal bent-to-straight legs way (with heels on the shiny floor!). The hamstrings will still be emphasised, but all the tension will be out of your lower back because the knees will be bent.  Try this and report back – you're making brilliant progress. Not as fast as you want, of course, but no wanted change ever has been in the history of the planet!

[Matt Chung]

On 10/19/2024 at 8:03 AM, Kit_L said:

Follow his suggestions, but doing it your normal bent-to-straight legs way (with heels on the shiny floor!). The hamstrings will still be emphasised, but all the tension will be out of your lower back because the knees will be bent.  Try this and report back – you're making brilliant progress. Not as fast as you want, of course, but no wanted change ever has been in the history of the planet!

Thanks for the additional tip (i.e. bent knees). Will try this out during tomorrow's hamstring routine and will report back. Yes — the duality of feeling grateful for the current progress AND wanting progress faster AND enjoying the journey.

[Matt Chung]

Day 158 of stretching and flexibility journey

I'm on week 5 of my following my own program (focusing on shoulder, ankle, hamstring, hip flexors) and while I originally set out to follow this prescription for about 6 weeks, I think I'm going to commit an additional 3-4 weeks and then re-evaluate; I did throughout the past 5 weeks modify my program every so slightly, introducing some new exercises (e.g. seated heroes pose) that I had not originally planned.

Focusing on my areas in my body that I think require most attention has been rewarding; for instance, working the ankles flexibility twice a week is paying off huge dividends. I can almost sit in the Seiza position without pain. From the outside perspective — specifically people less interested in stretching and mobility — ankle mobility may seem less sexy; again, my focus is less on external validation (e.g. "can you do the splits?") and more on internal feeling. Again, I can confidently say that already 5 months into this journey, my body feels different.

Today (Monday) was shoulder and ankle day and I must say, this was the first day that I stretched while not well rested (I had my 5 year old daughter this past weekend and sparing details, running on sleep deficit) and will say that stretching felt more challenging and I definitely had less mental patience throughout the routine. At one point, I even considered skipping today but felt that holding 3 breathes per stretch was better than 0 breathes.

Also, I had a moment during today's shoulder stretch that I had regressed when stretching my right arm out at 45 degrees. Felt a twinge of pain. Could be from not being well rested. Could be from moving beyond my normal range of motion. Maybe a combination of both.

In a nutshell, all the exercises today (especially ankle) felt more challenging due to lack of sleep and being tired. In fact, immediately after the 30 minute stretch session, I jumped back in bed and took a 40 minute nap.

Finally, I normally I video record all my sessions for my own personal archive but today, phone battery was running low and decided to skip recording all together.

[Kit_L]

9 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

holding 3 breathes per stretch was better than 0 breathes

Most definitely.

9 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

I can confidently say that already 5 months into this journey, my body feels different.

Better, I hope? Can you attempt a description of how your body feels different? In any case, great work, and please keep going.

When you are tired, just getting in and out of the positions can be enough, though three breaths is better—remember that the lying relaxation exercises can be massively useful in these situations, too. I still do this practise every day.

[Matt Chung]

Just remembered: welcome back @Kit_L (along with your resuscitated mac)

[Matt Chung]

Quote

Follow his suggestions, but doing it your normal bent-to-straight legs way (with heels on the shiny floor!). The hamstrings will still be emphasised, but all the tension will be out of your lower back because the knees will be bent.  Try this and report back – you're making brilliant progress. Not as fast as you want, of course, but no wanted change ever has been in the history of the planet!

I spent several minutes today trying to experiment with the forward fold that emphasizes the hamstrings and bailed after about 5 minutes of frustration, unable to meaningfully target the hamstrings and it feels as though I lack the strength to hinge at the hips, unable to activate the muscles necessary to tilt the pelvis. That being said, after playing with the positioning for several minutes, I was able to get to a point where I could alleviate back pain/activation.

Below, I happen to stumble on a clip from Instagram (algorithm does a great job curating relevant content; he's a dancer and physical therapist) and I believe he accurately describes my current challenge; imagining that the hips are a bowl holding water, try to tip the bowl forward. This is what I'm unable to do at the moment.

Silver lining, after watching this person's Instagram clip, I recognize now that I've been relying on trunk flexion (may be obvious to others but wasn't to me). Following his snippet below is me trying to reposition myself (compressed from 5 minutes) to alleviate the back pain. I did this specific exercise shirtless in front of the mirror to gain an awareness of whether or not I was curving my back (early on, very much curved, actually).

Ultimately, I think I need to find some sort of variation of the forward fold that will help me work up to being able to tilt the pelvis.

Edit: Doing some more research, going to try and place a bolster underneath my butt and also use straps. Will give this a crack next session

 

Edited October 22 by Matt Chung
Added edit (i.e. bolster + straps)