MikeL practice log

[MikeL]

Hi all

I bought Kit's neck program 2 years ago with the idea of fixing a neck that is starting to feel stiffer and stiffer. My attempt at doing this failed, probably because I got distracted by some other practice or occupation. 2 years later, I finally remember I was supposed to try this program ... The situation with my neck certainly hasn't gotten better.

So I will start again and decided to share my findings and progress in a log.

 

Have been playing around with the program for a few days slowly adding exercises and doing the relaxations. Currently at exercise 9 - neck side bend. Neck overall feels quite immobile and stiff but not really painful. There is some sore spot(s) somewhere in the left lateral side of the neck. Guess it will be more clear what's going on there once I do a run through the first series of 18 exercises.

Anyways, see y'all later

[Kit_L]

Consistency, not going too hard, and doing the relaxation exercises daily as well are the keys. Welcome!

[MikeL]

So I actually have more ST programs that I have played around with a bit but never really went into deeply. As my other bodily and other cultivation practices have stalled/stagnated more or less completely I feel I need something to fill the void. I think I now want to explore the ST system more deeply.

 

Did quite a few things these past days.

 

* played around with the daily 6

* some exercises from mst squat

* lucky to have a girlfriend that also likes to stretch (partly because she suffers from some back pain) and she seems interested in doing at least one weekly partner stretching session with me. I collected some of the exercises from the youtube channel and from the mastery courses (which I own from since the beginning when they were released on vimeo, but unfortunately never got to training them seriously) and we played around with that.

* more stuff from the neck course

 

Still thinking a bit how to go about studying this system. I do also own the starter course but I must admit I do not really like follow along programs(in general). Still might be a good idea to make at least one run trough it.

So I think I will start by focussing on the starter course and neck course supplemented with weekly partner stretching sessions. Maybe some squating and hanging. And that already seems quite a bit...

Is there like a bare mimimum of strength training one might best do when doing flexibility training? Mostly interested in flexibility for for cultivation purposes but do feel the body also needs some kind of heavier physical workout to feel good. Guess that already answers my question a bit...

[Kit_L]

17 hours ago, MikeL said:

Still thinking a bit how to go about studying this system.

Begin with the Starter course. If you want to learn the system, that's the best way in. Much more sensory information is available to you – information from the body – when you are feeling stretches that you are actually loose enough to do. As well, just enough of the reasoning behind the system (the why we do what we do part) is given in this course. This info is not really available from the other courses (especially the Mastery Course).

WRT strength training: some experimenting can be instructive here – for example, in my own body having done this sort of thing for a very long time now maximum intensity is what it needs to signal to let go. But in the beginning this may not be the case. You have to try a different intensities and see which one speaks to the body most clearly. In any case, always do strength training before stretching. It is the best possible warmup, for the strongest stretches in particular.

[MikeL]

Went through the last 2 programs of the starter course today. So now I did all of them at least once, the ones from part 1 and 2 at least twice each. Will play around with the programs of part 3 for a few more days.

• I'd say my lower body flexibility is okayish, but also not better than that. A little bit of hip impingement on my left side I think, and my legs dont move very much in internal rotation when doing the figure 4 exercise. Also think I might have some mild version of the piriformis syndrome because sometimes during work I get some small stabbing pain in that area.
• Upper body flexibility a bit less, especially shoulder flexion, I cannot access that range very much. And also quite a stiff neck of course. Very bad internal rotation on my right side.
• I really liked some of the pancake work in the starter course where you also go in a side bend of the core. Gives me a strong stretch from bottom of the hips up to the top of the lats, and if I also bend at the neck, some of those muscles. Something really thight is going on there in my left side especially at the level of the neck.

So I can slowly start thinking about what to focus on next. I'm in the process of acquiring some tools, got a nice ring setup now in my living room along with some massage balls. Found a good site from which you can order wood cut into custom shapes including egg shape. Used that to build my own baby whale:

It's a bit steep so I think I will build another one which is bigger and more gentle. Gives a good lat and spine stretch though

 

 

[MikeL]

Partner stretch session yesterday with my girlfriend. Planning to do this every sunday. It was a bit experimental and it's clear it will take some time to get into the flow of it. We did:

• Stick pec stretch
• Hip flexor (wall quad version)
• Shoulder pulldown (fenomenal sensations with this)
• Quad stretch

First 2 seem fundamental to me. Shoulder pulldown because of my thight neck. I should probably add some kind of lat stretching since those are perhaps the thightest part of my body. Any idea on other must have bang for buck partner stretches?

[Kit_L]

Those four will keep you going for a while—in the advanced class, we did the partner hip flexor stretch every Tuesday night for a year before everyone started to get really flexible in this line. It's tremendously important and it certainly worth repeating the same exercise a couple of times each session and that'll take you 20 or 30 minutes. Usually, you will get much deeper in the second iteration.

[MikeL]

On 5/12/2026 at 8:33 AM, Kit_L said:

Those four will keep you going for a while—in the advanced class, we did the partner hip flexor stretch every Tuesday night for a year before everyone started to get really flexible in this line. It's tremendously important and it certainly worth repeating the same exercise a couple of times each session and that'll take you 20 or 30 minutes. Usually, you will get much deeper in the second iteration.

Makes sense, fellt as if it was not enough. In that case I think even 3 exercises might be enough to fill one session.

 

Other thoughts:

• I've been doing the relaxation exercises quite consistently since I started stretching about a month ago, but now taking my time to go deeper into lying relaxation and yoga nidra and all of that stuff. Found that spreadsheet with all kit's relaxation recordings. Started playing around with that a bit. For now 30-40 min practices. Will play around with longer ones.
• Also started doing some rollstretch stuff. Doing some work on the piriformis seems to help a little bit with those (slight) stabbing pains I sometimes have. Need more time to know more. Other rollstretch exercises for neck, played around with it. Not sure about the effect. Needs more experimentation.
• Combination of restarting some strength training and perhaps also some stretching gave me a flare up of frozen shoulder syndrome on right shoulder I have had for quite a long time. From a doctor visit quite some time ago I know I tend to get some bursa inflamation. So I will start playing around with the master should flexibility program in the upcoming weeks but I think my neck is also part of the problem.
• Daily 5(6) stretches is something I come back to quite often. Always feels good.
• I like stretching the toes while in a squat position. Feels like a good way to train ankle flexibility. Will probably also start working on master squat program.

[MikeL]

Been a while since I posted, but still busy doing relaxation and flexibility work.

The relaxation has become more of a priority to me since my main interest is meditation. I guess I can say that my main goal in all of 'this' is building a meditation practice. I tried doing this before, but got stuck with sitting meditation, qigong, ... Main problem is my sleep got really bad. I can certainly say I trained too hard.

Right now my relaxation practices are about 40 mins long. Sometimes it feels as if I snoozed for half the session but I do also have some sessions where I'm more or less 'awake'. This does get a little bit better as weeks pass I feel, but slow.

Mostly doing breath counting. Sometimes reset on 10, sometimes just counting up. But I do notice my attention spanning is short and when I do count up, I get interrupted by other thoughts quite quickly.

I do still have some spinal alignment problems which I feel put some more pressure on the neck than is problably normal. About 40 mins in I start to feel it slightly in the back of the head. Little bit unpleasant pressure feeling. Not very strong, but it's there. That's the main thing preventing me from doing longer practices.

Building up my relaxation practice is the short term goal, slowly increasing the duration. How does it feel to do 90, 120 mins practices? Does the keeping attention on counting improve over time?

Still doing some stretching, but a little bit unfocused there. Doing the neck program and some of the other stuff like hip flexors. Not much strength work right now but I do feel I could benefit from that. Lot's of swimming though.

[Kit_L]

14 hours ago, MikeL said:

Sometimes it feels as if I snoozed for half the session but I do also have some sessions where I'm more or less 'awake'. This does get a little bit better as weeks pass I feel, but slow.

This will take as long as it takes – and there's nothing wrong with snoozing or sleeping when you're doing lying meditation practice – and that's what will happen if you're fundamentally tired over a long period of time. That's probably the phase that you're in now. I know people have done yoga nidra practice for two or three years before they suddenly realise that they're listening to half of the recording that they haven't ever heard before because fell asleep. If you need to sleep it's very good for the body to sleep.

14 hours ago, MikeL said:

But I do notice my attention spanning is short and when I do count up, I get interrupted by other thoughts quite quickly.

You are noticing it though – that is the key point most non-meditators are simply not aware that they're being distracted by their own thoughts all the time. This is all part of the process and there is no such thing as a bad meditation session – if you're paying attention to what is actually happening.

14 hours ago, MikeL said:

How does it feel to do 90, 120 mins practices?

I cannot speak for you. The depth that you reach is constrained by many factors. In my view, there is a danger in trying to calibrate your practice—the spectres of "progress" and "improvement" are close by! Better, in my view, to simply pay attention to what's happening now, and make your 'now' window as narrow as possible. Most people are thinking about now, but now is actually a physical experience – it is pure presence and nothing else can be found there. If you're thinking about now, you are definitely not present (you have moved from the experiential realm to the conceptual one).

I do not believe that trying to sit for longer will yield any "better" meditation; I have mentioned this to you before, IIRC. If a sit (or whatever position you are using naturally extends), that's one thing. Trying to sit for longer is something else, I believe.

14 hours ago, MikeL said:

Does the keeping attention on counting improve over time?

Most definitely. Keep going.