A few questions

[w1nkZ]

Hi Kit

Here are the questions from my mail

1. I've noticed from your posts and videoes that you are a big fan of minimalist shoes. How do you approach this during winter?

2. Tried the solo hip flexor stretch from your youtube clip, and it works really great for my left side, but i get a sharp pain in my right knee (stretching the right side) when i lower my leg down to the floor, which makes it impossible for me to do the stretch.

I know that pretty much all structures around my knee are tight (gastroc, hamstrings, adducturs and quads (specially rectus femoris)) but that also counts for the left side so I'm a bit at a loss here. My right side also lacks a bit of extension. Do you have any tricks, tips and/or alternatives to work fix this (I already have an practioneer working on my tissues and I do SMR with my foam roller and trigger point balls aswell, but it is always nice with extra ideas)

3. For the front split - is it best approached by doing the specific stretch or is it better to split it into seperated hip flexor and hamstring stretches in the beginning?

4. Which solo stretch do you find best for the gastroc (it's limiting my knee extension with flexed hip/hip flexion with fully extended knees)? Got some ideas from this thred: http://kitlaughlin.com/forums/index.php?/topic/174-super%E2%80%93duper-ankle%E2%80%93soleus-stretch-routine-essential-for-the-squat/ - most of them are partner stretches but i could of course just try to do them on my own?

/Thor

[Kit_L]

Hi Kit

Here are the questions from my mail

1. I've noticed from your posts and videoes that you are a big fan of minimalist shoes. How do you approach this during winter?

2. Tried the solo hip flexor stretch from your youtube clip, and it works really great for my left side, but i get a sharp pain in my right knee (stretching the right side) when i lower my leg down to the floor, which makes it impossible for me to do the stretch.

I know that pretty much all structures around my knee are tight (gastroc, hamstrings, adducturs and quads (specially rectus femoris)) but that also counts for the left side so I'm a bit at a loss here. My right side also lacks a bit of extension. Do you have any tricks, tips and/or alternatives to work fix this (I already have an practioneer working on my tissues and I do SMR with my foam roller and trigger point balls aswell, but it is always nice with extra ideas)

3. For the front split - is it best approached by doing the specific stretch or is it better to split it into seperated hip flexor and hamstring stretches in the beginning?

4. Which solo stretch do you find best for the gastroc (it's limiting my knee extension with flexed hip/hip flexion with fully extended knees)? Got some ideas from this thred: http://kitlaughlin.c...-for-the-squat/ - most of them are partner stretches but i could of course just try to do them on my own?

/Thor

Hello Thor,

I will answer these in turn, following your order above.

1. Olivia and I both wear the Vibram five fingers summer and winter. She feels the cold in winter so she uses toe socks inside her five fingers. As long as I am moving I don't feel the cold in my feet so I don't wear the toe socks. Now, I know where you live it gets much much colder than where we are and also you have the additional aspect of snow on the ground and ice too perhaps. In these conditions I would use the five fingers that are explicitly designed for cold/wet weather wear. I cannot remember the model name right now but somebody else may chime in and provide this information. What I can say is that the uppers are made of a thin neoprene which actually allows some water in and the shoe ends up behaving like a wet suit, and one's feet are kept very warm.

2. Regarding the solo hip flexor stretch: don't go down anywhere near as deep on the problem side. Above you wrote "when I lower my leg to the floor" but I recommend not going anyway near as deep as that if the knee hurts. As well, make sure that you have the weight across the whole of the front of the back foot when doing this exercise: it is very common for people who pronate to have the majority of the body's weight on the ball of the back foot only and this can definitely cause knee pain in some people.

3. Regarding the front splits: in my view ,for beginners, it is better to do the lunge hamstring stretch first and then the lunge hip flexor stretch second before trying to put the elements together in an exercise we call "modified front splits". I have not done a YouTube video on this latter exercise, but you will find it described in detail in the book Stretching & Flexibility. A significant element of modified front splits is that the back of the front leg is supported on a bolster which allows a deep stretch but also supports a fraction of the body's weight. This allows all sorts of micro movements to be done in the position firstly (and a much deeper relaxation to be achieved), and allows the final position to be held for much longer than would otherwise be the case, secondly. And once supported you can lean forward with a straight back which emphasises the hamstring dimension and then lean back and emphasise the hip flexor dimension.

4. In my opinion the best solo gastrocnemius stretch is the one shown in the book Stretching & Flexibility where I'm standing on a step with my heel hanging down below the level of the step. Basically you let the body's weight stretch gastrocnemius and you can do small contractions in the bottom position and then just simply try to press the heel down further—for me personally this is one of the most intense gastrocnemius stretches and is only bettered by the single leg dog pose.

hth, KL

[w1nkZ]

Hello Thor,

I will answer these in turn, following your order above.

1. Olivia and I both wear the Vibram five fingers summer and winter. She feels the cold in winter so she uses toe socks inside her five fingers. As long as I am moving I don't feel the cold in my feet so I don't wear the toe socks. Now, I know where you live it gets much much colder than where we are and also you have the additional aspect of snow on the ground and ice too perhaps. In these conditions I would use the five fingers that are explicitly designed for cold/wet weather wear. I cannot remember the model name right now but somebody else may chime in and provide this information. What I can say is that the uppers are made of a thin neoprene which actually allows some water in and the shoe ends up behaving like a wet suit, and one's feet are kept very warm.

2. Regarding the solo hip flexor stretch: don't go down anywhere near as deep on the problem side. Above you wrote "when I lower my leg to the floor" but I recommend not going anyway near as deep as that if the knee hurts. As well, make sure that you have the weight across the whole of the front of the back foot when doing this exercise: it is very common for people who pronate to have the majority of the body's weight on the ball of the back foot only and this can definitely cause knee pain in some people.

3. Regarding the front splits: in my view ,for beginners, it is better to do the lunge hamstring stretch first and then the lunge hip flexor stretch second before trying to put the elements together in an exercise we call "modified front splits". I have not done a YouTube video on this latter exercise, but you will find it described in detail in the book Stretching & Flexibility. A significant element of modified front splits is that the back of the front leg is supported on a bolster which allows a deep stretch but also supports a fraction of the body's weight. This allows all sorts of micro movements to be done in the position firstly (and a much deeper relaxation to be achieved), and allows the final position to be held for much longer than would otherwise be the case, secondly. And once supported you can lean forward with a straight back which emphasises the hamstring dimension and then lean back and emphasise the hip flexor dimension.

4. In my opinion the best solo gastrocnemius stretch is the one shown in the book Stretching & Flexibility where I'm standing on a step with my heel hanging down below the level of the step. Basically you let the body's weight stretch gastrocnemius and you can do small contractions in the bottom position and then just simply try to press the heel down further—for me personally this is one of the most intense gastrocnemius stretches and is only bettered by the single leg dog pose.

hth, KL

Hi Kit

Thank you very much for the answers

1. You're probably right about the weather conditions. The danish winters can be pretty rough in periods. They would probably not allow the use of five fingers and other types of minimalist shoes, but I will look into the possibilites and consider your ideas.

I was also thinking about other shoes like Inov8 and the likes (not five fingers, but light shoes with minimal amount of sole). What are your view on shoes like those?

2. It seems like the cue about distributing the weight across all of the front foot works - i'll experiment with it and see where it leads me. Else i'll just have to go with other hip flexor stretches for now.

3. Great information! That gives an idea of how to approach it. Sadly I don't have access to your book - a video would be very much appreciated if it's information you feel like sharing for free

4. I will have to acquire something I can use for this stretch then!

THank you very much for taking time to answer my questions!

BR

Thor