Ned's log

[Kit_L]

The not so obvious thing about using parallettes or yoga blocks is that you can start the exercise with your bottom well above the floor. This means you can practice the exercise, with bent knees, even when you're not strong enough to lift your whole body weight off the ground fully. Parallettes or some other support for the hands and wrist make this exercise completely scalable. For example, by bending your knees but leaving your heels on the ground, you can lift your whole body off the floor, then try as hard as you possibly can to bring the knee to the chest – one leg at a time if you have to. You'll get airborne very quickly.

[Ned]

Based on past attempts, I was expecting a lot more DOMS from circuit 1 than I ended up with.  I did feel tired from the training for a day or so though.  I re-read https://stretchtherapy.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/wrist-mobility_bodyline-exercises_handstands.pdf.  

I appreciate the suggestions for easing my wrist difficulties with the L-sits.  After Nathan's suggestion about trying different hand positions, I spent some time figuring out what was going on and have found that the problem wrist is fine if I can keep the weight going through the pinky side of the palm.  So the fingers turned out method works fine for me at about 45 degrees, I find the fingers pointing mostly forward more comfortable for my elbow on that side though, I'm just not strong enough yet to keep the weight going through the outside of my hand in that position while also holding my bodyweight off the floor (works fine for the regressions though).  I'll keep experimenting.  I'll also say, that I don't especially mind doing them on my fists so long as I have padding under them.  

I did Monkey Gym circuit 2 last night (finished this entry this morning).  Some of the wrist mobility drills, particularly the ones with sideways fingers in wrist flexion and straight elbows is a combination that doesn't work for the one side yet.  So I compromised and made a fist before the wrist flexion on that side and then tried to straighten the elbow afterwards.  I might explore some of them against a wall to get a better sense of exactly where my current limits with them are and then try to figure out how I can work on strengthening those positions.  

I used my yoga blocks with my fingers off the end for the L-sits like Kit suggested for this session.  I did figure out part way through that I need to pay particular attention to keeping my hips back far enough to really engage my core with them when I'm higher off the ground though.  I was cheating myself without meaning to and went back to redo the ones with poorer form when I realized what was going on.  

I liked the plank to pike pushup transitions.  

I added some harder variations to the hollow positions (more time with my arms over my face or ears), and also did full arch body holds in the last few sets during the lower body arch practice.  The reverse planks were very hamstring intense today with the simultaneous cues to keep my tail tucked and press through the heels to lift the hips up.  

I added some elbow side planks (4x20s/side), and single leg squat holds just below the horizontal thigh (4x8s/side).  

I did 10s for the static holds at the top of the pullups, I'll go longer next time.  3x10s two arm towel hangs to finish the session, those are much harder than I thought they would be.  

LRP.

 

[Kit_L]

15 hours ago, Ned said:

The reverse planks were very hamstring intense today

The way to de-emphasise the hamstrings is to gently tuck the tail once in position—and when you are thinking about the next step, press the floor away from you, emphasising the heels.

The "press floor away" cue works way better than "lift the hips". The reason, I suspect, is that 'lifting the hips' is a much more common daily life type of cue which plays into your existing patterns, whereas "pressing the floor away by pressing on the heels" is novel and seems to activate the glutes strongly. Let us know!

[Ned]

I had a tail tuck the whole time (glutes + quads were also active the whole time, navel pulled down towards spine too) just the main intensity was in the hamstrings after the press into the heels cue, everything else was still working though.  I have done quite a few weighted glute bridges over the years as a warmup for kettlebell work and my cues for that are glutes activated to raise the hips, core braced to stay flat.  My association with pressing heels into the floor is mostly from hamstring lunge contractions, so I might be backwards as far as the cues go.  

I didn't think to take a video of it until after I'd been experimenting with it for a while.  When I'm recovered, and I expect that will take some time because I went overboard trying different things, I'll take and post one, or relevant stills from it and see if there's anything obvious from my form.  I didn't think to try stretching my hip flexors first until now, but that's likely worth trying too.  

Is it possible to tuck the tail too strongly?  That might be an issue, although I'm also balancing it out to stay flat with core engagement.  My assumption is that I want to contract everything I can as hard as possible for all of these planks positions while maintaining form.  

The main observations from today's experiments:

My shoulder external rotators are the muscles that are the weakest part of this movement for me currently or at least take the longest of everything to recovery between sessions and attempts.  

I'm reasonably sure I'm keeping a straight line.   

There is some force going through my heels to straighten my body before the heel press cue, so I might already be doing it without thinking about it and just be out of sync with the video since the angles make it hard to follow visually for that part.  My body is already in a line when that cue comes around.  

Further pressing through the heels once straight seems to always activates the hamstrings, but the degree changes depending on how I'm doing it:

• If I use the dragging the heels through the floor style of pushing the heels into the floor the hamstrings are very active.  I think the cause of last session's hamstring intensity.
• If I press heels away from me (I think of it as lengthening the legs and trying to move my toes as far away as possible), the hamstrings switch on, but less intensely, so I'm guessing this is the one I want, but it feels not dissimilar to the start position in terms of glute activation.  

Having my toes pointed forward more on toward ground rather than pointing up improves the situation generally and makes my quads work harder, so that's definitely something I'll keep doing.

 

[Kit_L]

9 hours ago, Ned said:

If I press heels away from me (I think of it as lengthening the legs and trying to move my toes as far away as possible), the hamstrings switch on, but less intensely, so I'm guessing this is the one I want, but it feels not dissimilar to the start position in terms of glute activation. 

Yes: pressing the feet away slightly will activate the quads, and inhibit the hamstrings. Try doing the exercise in a more relaxed way the next time you try it – the straight leg version of that exercise is going to activate the hamstrings no matter what you do. But if you push the feet away from you very slightly to activate the quads, and then squeeze the glutes together to feel where they are again, and then press the heels onto the ground you may be able to activate the glutes more. If you can activate the glutes more that will definitely reduce the hamstring requirement. But in any case, activating the hamstrings in that exercise is not necessarily a problem because the hamstrings can act to do that task—in this way, the exercise become a hamstring, strengthening movement.

Try the next attempt with the least amount of tension that you need in order to create the shape that you want and then simply add the additional activations as we've discussed and see whether that changes the hamstring dominance.

[Ned]

I tried to film this session (yesterday afternoon), but discovered at the end that I knocked the lid of my laptop up about 5 or 10 degrees after I'd set it up, so it's an excellent film of the wall just above me with the occasional appearance of my head, shoulders, and upper back.  

Monkey Gym circuit 1 (slightly shortened)

This session felt harder than it did a couple weeks ago.  I think part of that was related to a hot room temperature.  The rest relates to improved form and more time in the harder progressions early in the session.

L-sit My best effort L-sit is a little over 10s long now.  I did 2 sets of those before switching to the one leg on the ground variety.  

Open tuck hollows - I'm having a much easier time pulling the navel towards the spine.  Two leg hovers the whole way through.

Straight leg hollows - The last two sets were full hollows (low legs, but off the floor), one hands near thighs, the other lifted up over my face briefly.  Lower back pressed into the floor.  

Tuck hollows - I'm always amazed at how much I feel these when the arms go overhead.  

Gymnastics planks - Worked on keeping middle back pressing up and dropping my hips down + tail tucked.  

Elbow planks - I did a couple of these and then paused for a bit to get something to drink.

Arch work - I combined the lower and upper to do full ones with my arms mostly to the sides or behind me (occasional triceps cramping there from trying to lift my arms up higher, not a bad thing, just an observation).  

On 8/12/2025 at 4:09 AM, Kit_L said:

Try the next attempt with the least amount of tension that you need in order to create the shape that you want and then simply add the additional activations as we've discussed and see whether that changes the hamstring dominance.

For the reverse planks, this advice worked very well for me.  I had much more glute dominance this session.  

LRP.  

[Matt Chung]

> L-sit My best effort L-sit is a little over 10s long now.  I did 2 sets of those before switching to the one leg on the ground variety.  

That's solid amount of time.

> LRP.  

The LRP master

[Ned]

5 hours ago, Matt Chung said:

The LRP master

I try to be consistent about it, but I'm still very much a beginner.  

[Ned]

I moved to another city since my last post.  It's been a while since I've stretched (some limbering, but not a lot) or done LRP.  I have done a good amount of hiking though.  I'm feeling generally stiffer than I have for a while, which is a good reminder about the preventative aspects of stretching that I mostly take for granted.  I will say that despite not stretching, most of my muscles are still quite soft when I poke them, so it isn't new tension so much as just that I haven't been moving in enough different ways lately and that's an interesting discovery in its own right.  

This one is a blend of things that my body was telling me it needed or wanted.  

Wrist warmup.

L-sits 5x20s (1 good form 10s both legs up and 10s both legs down, and the rest good form alternating between which single leg was up in 10s increments).  

Tailor pose -> I just spent time here.  I think my position is still pretty much unchanged from when I started (this isn't true, but I haven't moved a whole lot), but the sensation has moved from the big tendon and more to some of the smaller muscles around it.  I think the Cossack squats have probably bad a big impact on the sensation change since I haven't trained this one very much compared to some of the other things.  

Cossack squats -> Not quite as easy as the last time I did them, but the range of motion is still approximately the same, just took a little longer to work into it again.  

Kneeling side bend -> I needed this one quite a lot.  More lat involvement than sometimes when my arm came up overhead on the left side, but it's been some time since I've done any hangs as well so I'm not too surprised.  

Lying rotations -> these just felt good.  

Back bends -> more intense core stretch here today than sometimes, especially the straight arm version, I would say I took a more active compression here than sometimes as well, sort of like an assisted upper body arch body hold variation (just what felt right when I was doing it).  The look over the shoulder at the heels felt good as well.

Hip flexor - the leg straightening + contraction was very strong today (in a good way).  My right side (weaker leg) had a little bit of involuntary shaking toward the end from holding it, but that will probably be gone next session.  I've neglected to do any kind of hip flexor stretch in quite a while, so it's interesting that I was able to go as deep as I could, and also how much more I appreciate the sensations of this one now compared to my first encounter with it.  

LRP.

[Gareth O Connor]

Where did you move to?

[Ned]

On 9/7/2025 at 5:22 PM, Gareth O Connor said:

Where did you move to?

I'm now in the southern part of northern Ontario.  

---

I've done more limbering this last week, and I'm getting back on track with LRP. 

I did Body Line circuit 2 today.  The wrist warmup is getting a little bit easier, the back of the hand stuff is still not especially weight bearing on the side I'm rehabbing, but my elbow is straightening more when I have my hand in a fist than it did before.  

I did hands flat on the floor for the L-sits today and kept them assisted to try to start building more strength in the press (I just started to feel it in the lower traps today which is new).  At the end of the circuit, instead of the pullups (still haven't found a spot to hang on yet, it's on my list), I did another 4x10s tucked legs up off the floor L-sits to work on the pressing part of the movement, since that's currently where I'm most limited when trying to do them with flat hands rather than elevated or on fists.  

The reverse planks are more glute focused now.  I'm noticing that I have a tendency to want to involve the hamstrings when I get tired, but with awareness comes the ability to counteract it.  

I'm appreciating maximal contraction with some of the easier variations in the hollows as well.  That brings an added awareness to some weaker areas I was compensating for. 

It's all part of the slow continual process of gaining more awareness and control of my body and how it moves and where I can notice tension or not.  One of the fascinating parts of that for me, is that when I find a spot like that I sometimes end up vividly recalling some long lost memory where I used that muscle to a similar degree.  I did a few years of gymnastics as a kid, and so often it's the recollection of the same (or a similar) exercise on a mat, but occasionally it's something like climbing a particular part a tree.  

I finished that off with an unassisted (going pretty much to the bottom with no back leg involvement, but also not yet holding the non-working leg out in front) version of the one leg squat variation (10 in total).  I was surprised at how much easier these were than the last time I tried them.  I've been hiking up and down hills a fair bit lately and I'm sure my legs are stronger because of it.  

LRP.

[Gareth O Connor]

Do you like it where you are now?

[Ned]

15 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

Do you like it where you are now?

Yeah, so far so good.

[Gareth O Connor]

That's good

[Ned]

2x10/side off-set pushups.  These are getting easier, I think this volume isn't maximal anymore, but the second set on each side is still challenging to finish off.  

Standing quad stretch (C&R) -  I'm still amazed at how much of an effect the tail tuck has on this one.  I can also bring the working leg farther back than I could the last time.  The slight pulling sensations in my knees I used to get with this one aren't present anymore either which is nice.  I did some voluntary hamstring contractions in this position afterwards to work on strengthening those a bit in this range of motion (I still cramp from doing it, but less than before).  

Knee raises (up, out, down and out, up, in, down a few times each) - This is mostly limbering, but I like them quite a bit.  

Cossack squats + 12 transitions + bent leg Cossack squat - The left side feels tighter than the right today, mostly feeling it in gracilis/whichver part of the hamstring is nearby.  I'm still working on turning toward the straight leg, but I'm farther along than I was.  The bent leg version was a little more hamstring focused and still a challenge.  

Rod of Correction session on my calves.  It's less intense than it used to be, but I'm working on the sides/with the rod angled more and that's still quite intense in places.  

Neck rotations.  

Bar hangs 2 minutes two hand, 30s/side one hand.  The lat stretch from the one hand hangs is so satisfying.  

LRP.  

[Ned]

2x10 assisted one legged squat variation.  

Wrist warmup.  The palm up, elbow straight, make a fist drills are getting a little bit more comfortable now.  I'm able to do some of them without making the fist first, but they're still a ways off being comfortable movements.  Solo shoulder/chest stretch drill (also more comfortable than it used to be, and my shoulders turn out without thinking about it when I get into this position).

Bodyline drills, 20s on 10s off

2/side one leg up, one leg bent against the wall, wall assisted handstands, I focused on pressing myself away from the floor, and tried to keep my torso over my shoulders.  

5 L-sits.  Entirely done with hands flat on the floor this time (turned out about 45 degrees).  My best effort in that position was 9s straight leg L-sit today, the other four sets were one leg up, one leg down.  

5 open tuck hollows (both feet hovered)

5 straight leg hollows (one foot hovered)

4/side side planks

5 reverse planks

LRP.

[Ned]

It's long overdue, but I finally bought a pullup bar.  The upside is that I'm now doing a lot more bar hangs, towel hangs, and pullups than I have at any other point in my adult life.  The downside is that DOMS seems to be ever present while I'm acclimating to the increased volume.

I went for a walk (1.6km) tonight that turned into a run on the way back (another 1.6km).  I stretched when I got back.  I don't often warm up before stretching, but what a difference it makes.  

Wall calf stretch - mostly just to make sure they're loose before the elephant walk.

Elephant walks - back to the straight legs by the end, but it takes some time to work into that and it needs to be the right day.  But progress.

Cossack squat transitions - just trying to stay low when I move between sides.  

Hip flexor + quad lunge much less shaking with the contractions today, and with the warmup ahead of time I felt less stiff getting into and coming out of it than I often do before I've warmed up.  

Lunge hamstring - Felt right at the time, so I went with it.  C&R, but I didn't push the end position as much as I probably could have.

Floor quad stretch - I did contractions with this one.  Very nice top of the foot/ankle stretch tonight.  

Tailor pose - I am (slowly) making progress with this one.  I think I've moved down about the height of my thumbnail since my last attempt which is the biggest difference I've seen between any two sessions in this one.  

LRP.  

[Ned]

I've been doing strength work a little too frequently, so I plan to scale that back to one session a week for a while to give myself more recovery time.  It's less muscle soreness and more neurological fatigue that's the limiting factor with it right now.  

My QL and hamstrings were both quite tight when I was limbering today, so I went through Program 21 of the starter course again and feel much better for it.  The guided sessions always remind me to forget where I want to go, and just relax into where I am and what a difference that makes.  

I'm continually amazed by how different stretches feel between sessions, and how my 'tight' now is still much more flexible (and relaxed) than I used to be.  

It's been a while since I've done the wide leg elephant walk, and it felt lovely to work the different positions and just explore how I move today.  

The QL stretch was just what I was after.  I spent a good bit of time with the arm overhead just breathing until the tension softened a little.  

I like this hip flexor stretch more each time I do it (the toe stretches beforehand were also needed).  It's still far from easy, but it's less shaky than it used to be so I can take more time to explore it and how little shifts in position change the emphasis.  

The hamstring forward fold was more hamstring than lower back for me today.  I've been sitting in chairs more often than usual lately and I feel the difference.  

The toe touch, is always easier afterwards.  I'm more limited in my hamstrings than my lower back today which is the reverse of often.

LRP.  

[Kit_L]

7 hours ago, Ned said:

so I plan to scale that back to one session a week for a while to give myself more recovery time. 

@Ned, when I was in my powerlifting phase, I made my greatest ever strength gains over an eight week period before a competition doing one long training session a week, supervised by coach. The sessions lasted about two hours. The science does not support this – it claims that detraining effects start 48 hours after a training session – but this is simply completely inaccurate. Once a week is enough to make significant strength gains and once every two weeks is enough to hold onto whatever strength you've got.

Your other insights were a pleasure to read. Keep going (in a leisurely way!).

[Gareth O Connor]

Marty Gallagher also believes great results can be obtained from training once a week

[Kit_L]

https://www.ironcompany.com/blog/once-a-week-strength-training-minimalism

[Ned]

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

https://www.ironcompany.com/blog/once-a-week-strength-training-minimalism

That's an interesting read.  I'll give it a try for a while and see how it goes, swapping out the power lifting for high intensity calisthenics since that what I have access to.  

[Ned]

I discovered (when I finally unpacked my scale this morning) that a compounding factor in my sub-optimal recovery lately is that I have apparently increased my activity enough and eaten enough less that I lost 6lb over the last month.  I knew I'd lost some, I just figured it was like 1-2 and not 6.  Not a terrible event, but I'm thin enough that I'd rather not lose any more.  I have a pretty fair idea of what I'm doing on the nutrition side of things, so correcting it is less about knowledge and more about planning and logistics to make sure that I bring enough food with me.  I'm still going to stick with the one main session a week though it might end up like every 5-6 days like this one until I dial in the volume and intensity.

Strength portion.  This wasn't the right order to do these in.  Next time, the harder things go first and the higher rep things go towards the end.  That said, it went pretty well overall.

3x3 pullups + 10% of body weight, (2s up, 3s pause at the top, slow negative to dead hang each time to lose all momentum).  The bottom is my weakest part of the movement, so I'm working on that portion quite deliberately and going to to a relaxed dead hang between each rep and then up from there to make them as strict as possible.  

1x14 alternating single leg squat negatives followed immediately by 1x20 of the alternating assisted single leg squats variation

2x12/side offset pushups.  These are getting easier, I tried an archer pushup after and I'm still a ways off being able to do one all the way down.

2x10/side single leg Romanian deadlift w/ 20kg kettlebell

3x20s (10s/side) hands on floor one leg up L-sit, working on being mindful about keeping as much of a hollow during these now to make sure my core is working as much as it can.  The full ones weren't happening with what else I'd already done before these.

3x20s reverse planks 

1x10s/side non-rotating single arm dead hang

Stretching portion:
Elephant walk - today I ended this one in a standing pike, torso still on the thighs.  I was not expecting that, I wasn't even expecting to be close to that, but I felt the moment when my mind went from "it's not possible" to "of course that can be done" and it felt much more like a mental barrier that dissolved than a physical one if that makes any sense at all (though from the sensations I'm sure it's also physical, and I'm sure it will be inconsistent for a while).

Cossack squat + bent leg variation - I'm able to get my torso much farther down on my thigh today than in any previous session (straight leg side hand on the floor for support, and the opposite hand holding the straight leg's foot).  My leg still needs to be bent rather than straight to keep the torso on it, but it's a huge difference compared to a week ago.  Quite intense in the hamstring when trying to straighten the leg in that position.  

Hip flexor + quad lunge with leg straightening action and hips low.  No shaking today.  The sensation of the stretch in my hip flexors is becoming more nuanced, and there's more awareness of softening.  After the stretch today, the hip flexors feel softer when I prod them, than they have in any memory I have of them.  I've been waiting for that to happen.  

Tailor pose - this one is stubborn.  I did more contractions, but it still feels like it's going to be a long time before I get anywhere with it.  I've pulled some muscles in my groin in the past and I think my brain is hyper cautious about stretching in that area as a result.  I'm finding that I'm able to support myself more vertically instead of needing to rest my back on the wall,P so the area is slowly changing, and each time it seems like there is more nuance to the sensations.  It's just a matter of time and practice.  

QL stretch - I needed this one again.  I warmed up a bit with the 'baby flops' before going into it and in the process stretched some muscle in the outside of my left hip with it that was perfection, like a knot I didn't know was there finally let go.  The QL itself is an area that's become a high priority.  I'm not sure if it's newly tight or if I'm just finally noticing how tight it is, but either way it's going to be in the regular rotation for a while.  

Back bend - elbow and straight arm versions.  A pleasant stretch of the abdominals especially with the straight arm version.  I did the C-shape to finish.  

LRP.

[Kit_L]

All excellent insights. 

19 hours ago, Ned said:

I felt the moment when my mind went from "it's not possible" to "of course that can be done" and it felt much more like a mental barrier that dissolved than a physical one if that makes any sense at all

That makes complete sense. What you describe is exactly how the body changes—and once that feeling has been experienced, everything changes. Excellent. Carry on!

Great strength workout, too. 

[Kit_L]

I meant to mention – strengthening the first part of the pull is an easy matter. You're using 1/10 of your body weight at the moment as extra resistance, if I recall correctly, so the next time you do pullups, start your session with say 1/5 of your body weight around your waist and just do scapula pulls –by that, I mean keep your arms completely straight and simply pull yourself up as high as you can until you would have to bend your elbows if you wanted to get any higher. You'll probably be able to do 20 reps on your first attempt. Just keep the elbows pressed straight and work on that first part of the pull. You might also find that you can use a lot more weight than 1/5th bodyweight, but it's always wise to be a bit conservative on your first attempt. If you concentrate on going from dead hang to the top of the scapula depression part of the pull-up, that ROM will strengthen extremely quickly. It is also an almost 100% latissimus dorsi exercise.