Head to Toe stretching

[Craig]

I'm specifically not working on a prop and getting the TA activation happening as strongly as possible.  It's like a war of inhibition reflexes, gastroc on stretch wants to activate and make the TA deactivate, activating TA makes gastroc relax and can go deeper, which produces super intense stretch sensation which causes gastroc to activate again. 

[AndeL]

Interesting info here on chin to toe: "the hundred day stretch".

 

Quotes:

 

"no practice, no breakfast"

 

“A hundred days is [a lifetime, and] also a single breath."

 

Jon, a yoga block does an ok job... or a decent size kettlebell?

[ChenZhen]

Craig, I try to do both at the same time, but using the prop has definitely improved the quality of my practice. I still try to acivate the tibilalis ant. as much as possible, it may have experienced a little growth since starting Emmet's programm, haha

[ChrisScott]

Yh, Craig I really don't see the benefit of doing this without propping your foot up, as ChenZhen says, I think the quality of work will suffer. My TA is fully contracting, my foots just wedged into DF too.

John Valentine, I use a whale back stretcher. I found a plastic one a while ago, don't like it at all for back stretching, but have several great other uses for it haha.

[jon.valentine]

All good suggestions gents, thanks.

 

I was thinking of using one of the foam yoga blocks just because it's the most portable (I generally do my h2t when I get into work, before anyone else comes in). I was using 'the wedge' in Dave's class this morning and that was gold (I could get about 1-ish finger away and holding with a little wriggling around), I think that will be my go-to when I get one for home. 

 

Craig, I think if I didn't have this hip thing I would stick with pulling into it with my hands put it's just an added distraction at the moment. Once the hip has cleared up I will re-visit it I think.

[Ciaran]

Having never done J Curls before, but with plenty of deadlifting and squatting in my legs, I found after doing 3x10reps 2x per week at 12kg/16kg for a month, I had the movement down and improved my RoM quite a bit too. I was then able to build it upto 28kg/30% for the last set over the following month, as each increase felt no harder and in fact helped me progress lower.  But at 28kg I got the feeling I was taxing different muscles in new ranges, and I was starting to resist the weight rather than work with it on the way down, so should probably build a solid foundation at that level before moving the weight up again.  It's definitely one to do mindfully.

I think the slow progression is due to the slow nature for adaptation of the passive structures, specifically the intervertebral structures.

[Nathan]

Just a quick update. (Where are those photos, Craig?!)

 

I'm just under 3.5 weeks in and I finally hit head to toe on both legs for the last 20-30 pulses of my third set (video on IG). I'm actually having to rock up off of the back leg to make contact, which makes balance a bit shaky. I wonder if this has to do with leg length, or if it is simply a sign of lengthening required somewhere along the line - lower back, perhaps?

 

I experienced my first "clunk" in the left hip during my second set. There was no pain. I have had some sort of pinching in the left hip during certain positions for some time. It would be lovely if something shifted that resolved that. I will find out tomorrow while doing joint rotations. I also tried Kit's seated piriformis stretch recently and noticed that this seems to hit the exact same location where I feel tension in the right leg doing the ballistics, so I have started adding this stretch after the ballistics and at night.

 

Started doing ballistics for my pancake on Sunday as well, since this has worked so well for me. Looking forward to the progress!

[Emmet Louis]

About 3 weeks in and literally getting photos everyday of peoples progress. Not going to lie to you but very happy with how this has gone.

[MattPark]

@Nathan Congrats!!

 

Day 27 for me, I can get both elbows to toe without any pulses and head to fist plus thumb within 3-5 pulses now. Still hovering around the fist plus 1/2 thumb after the first set and for the following sets. If I use a slight pull with my other hand I can get head to fist but by just actively pulling myself into it it is a struggle to get past fist plus 1/2 thumb.

 

On another note I did loaded stretching for lower body for the first time in 3 weeks last Friday and I could hold my max Side Splits for 3 minutes easy 2 minutes the second set and 1 minutes the third set. Before 1 minute 30 seconds at my max SS was pushing it. Have only been doing Pu Bu and Standing Pancake pulses. Does the Ballistic Stretching improve strength that much?

[Emmet Louis]

@Matt I've noticed a massive increase in strength in my side split from pulses. I was away teaching last week and in one of the sessions I was demonstrating the straddle split to stand + Iso for side split, I done ten reps demoing then held the side split iso, not really thinking I continued my explanation of what we were doing for about 2 mins while in side split (not flat)  this was done at a very comfortable level too. About a month ago my max at that depth was about 30s for a hard 30s

[Craig]

Been on retreat and on an internal alchemy practice bender, which has meant everything else has fallen on the back burner.  Will rock a set tonight after ~1.5 weeks of not much practice and see what I'm looking like.   GF is back from turkey so she can take a photo for me

[Nathan]

Just posted my four week progress video. Still haven't hit head to toe in the morning, but hitting it consistently during my sets and the toe continues to inch closer and closer to the eyebrows.

 

The "clunk" I mentioned previously didn't magically cure all of my hip problems (what a surprise), but it did seem to improve the slight pinching feeling in the left hip during certain movements. I also find that I'm still having to rock up off of the back leg (onto the toes) once I get the toe to the forehead - does anyone happen to know why this may be? In addition to the piriformis stretch, I've begun rolling the glutes a bit with a Kong rubber ball, which feels (torturously) nice.

 

The pancake seems to be coming along nicely after only a week, as well. I never really noticed much soreness when focusing on only the H2T stretch, but after adding the pancake soreness seems to be accumulating. It may also have to do with reaching new heights with H2T, though.

[ChrisScott]

I always found head to toe down on the ground awkward and depending on my set up would also have to go on to the ball of my back foot. I don't believe it to be a problem, more to do with the set up. Like when I used to do it on stairs I had to lift up with my back foot, but if I were to just do a head to toe hold on the floor, I didn't need to.

[ChrisScott]

Here's some inspiration for you guys.

[Nathan]

Chris - Thanks, that makes sense. I'm sure we all have our own individual proportions that come in to play, as well. And thanks for the video... got a good laugh out of that

[Emmet Louis]

The part two show's his method for for getting it. A choice quote "You pull down and you don't start counting til you hate me"

[ChrisScott]

Haha yeah, seems to me like there's a link between being fflexible when older and being completely crazy. Think this guy would get on with that Dick hartzhill guy for sure, haha

[MattPark]

That guy is funny as haha.

 

One thing I'm noticing a lot is how fatigued my hamstrings are all the time. I haven't missed a day yet and my legs get quite a lot of work from squatting twice a week and deadlifting once a week in addition to 1 loaded stretching session a week for lower body.

 

Will the fatigue slow progress?

[Emmet Louis]

@Matt fatigue will definitely mask your levels in these things, if its really tough going taking 5-7 days off all hamstring work bar maybe some light squats and pulls and gentle mobility work will make a huge difference when you return.

[Nathan]

Matt,

 

Just my own personal anecdote - I felt very little fatigue during the first 3 weeks or so of daily H2T. I was doing hill sprint intervals 2-3x/week and behind-the-leg pistol squats 3x/week during this time. After that, I started deadlifting (for the first time in about 15 years) 3x/week and started doing pancake ballistics as well. Since doing this I have steadily been accumulating fatigue, although I can't say whether it is due to the deadlifts or the pancake ballistics. I decided to drop deadlifts down to 1x/week (replacing the other 2x with jefferson curls) and see if that makes a difference.

 

All of that said, the accumulating fatigue hasn't seemed to halt progress. It may certainly have slowed it since I might be further along otherwise, but I'm still progressing fairly steadily. I still do the calf/hamstring rolling every night, which I enjoy and I assume may very well help. On a side note, I take my time doing the rolling (generally 30+ mins.) while watching YouTube videos and I have a feeling my seiza has improved quite a bit since beginning

[Nathan]

Another quick progress update.

 

Continued drilling head to toe on the floor for a bit over a week after making contact. Was aiming to hit head to toe in the morning cold before raising the leg, but I got bored So yesterday I decided to raise the leg, and in my second raised session I hit head to toe during the second set. Will stick with this for a week or so now. This one is a lot more painful in the morning than on the floor.

 

Also have noticed that spending some time in the third-world squat seems to make my hips happy after doing the ballistics, so I've started incorporating that. Also tried adding 5kg to my pancake ballistics on the last set yesterday. That felt good, so I did the same on my 2nd and 3rd sets today. Will continue with 5kg for a while and perhaps increase the weight if I feel the inclination.

[Peredur_zee_polymath]

Once head to toe has been reached with the both feet on the ground one in front of the other how would one progress onto other variations of head to toe? Pike, splits, standing etc.

[Nathan]

Once head to toe has been reached with the both feet on the ground one in front of the other how would one progress onto other variations of head to toe? Pike, splits, standing etc.

 

After reaching head to toe on the ground, Emmet suggested that I raise the leg to belly button height and continue. As for how to do this, you simply place one leg on a raised surface and bend forward to do your pulses. You can see me doing this in the link I posted just above you. From there, I assume that you would just keep raising the leg higher and higher. User ChrisScott is cleaning up his standing head to toe and I know he has worked with the leg at sternum level, if not higher, so perhaps he will chime in to confirm. 

[MattPark]

I'm hitting head to fist of a morning within 20 or so pulses now, I've dropped jefferson curls and pancake good mornings from loaded stretching. The fatigue isn't bad I can just notice my hammies when I bend over and things like that. Can't drop anything else as I'm in a training cycle atm but I am still progressing.

 

On another note from doing Pu Bu/Side Splits my abductors have been crazy tight for a few weeks and it has destroyed my adductor and hip flexor mobility. I have this pain where my ITB crosses my knee all the time and it catches on the bone when I move it. The ballistic advanced piriformis stretch doesn't seem to soften them nor does any lacrosse ball or daily 5.

[ChrisScott]

Peredur,the standing variations can been achieved by progressively raising the leg. The stretch changes in different ways depending on the height of the elevation, especially after go past hip height.

This should help with other variations too, however other "poses" aren't too hard some times, like splits head to toe feels no different on my hamstring.

Work up to at least nose to toe also, (unless proportions really do make it unlikely) as it kind of gives you that buffer zone of being confident you have head to toe.