My thoughts about anything to do with flexibility and stretching…
I’ve just added a page about Dynamic Flexibility and a Weekly Stretching Routine. Click on the links and check them out.
I’ve made a couple of minor changes to the site. There is now a fixed homepage and the blog is a link on the “Pages” menu. I think that makes a bit more sense since the pages contain more specific information than the blog.
Cheers
Tim…
Last night showed another marked improvement. Looking at the current rate of progress I think I’ll be back at my best on side splits and left front splits within a couple of weeks. I think the right front splits will take a bit longer. It is dramatically better than it was a few days ago, but it is not responding as quickly as the left leg. It’s hard work holding myself back, but if I try to move to quickly I’ll just re-injure it and put myself back again.
Cheers
Tim…
About a week ago I was doing a right-side open split and I felt a “ping” in my right butt cheek. I got out of the stretch pretty sharpish, took an ibuprofen and massaged the hell out of the area.
The next day I attempted some stretches and noticed that all my splits had regressed by 6-8 inches. I didn’t feel pain when stretching, but it felt like my legs wouldn’t move any further. I’ve been nursing a hamstring injury for a few weeks, so I decided to visit the osteopath to check if I’d got any alignment issues.
I went to see him on Tuesday and, sure enough, my pelvis was misaligned a little. He put it back and on Tuesday night a did a bit of stretching and it felt good. Last night I tried it out again and there was a little more progress. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get back to normal, but I’m confident it will be soon.
As a result of all this drama I’ve not been doing my back bend practice much, but last night I made a firm commitment to start again, so I have a couple of weeks until my next progress shots.
Cheers
Tim…
As I thought, there is little or no progress!
Cheers
Tim…
I’ve just added a Links page, with some links to assorted video clips I like.
The stretching has been a little eratic over the last few weeks. I seem to be back on target now, but I doubt the back bend progress shots for this month will be much good.
Cheers
Tim…
I’m experimenting with new stretching routines at the moment. Rather than holding stretches for a long time, or doing PNF, I’m trying short reps. Typically, I’m doing one of two things.
I generally do 10+ reps of each stretch.
So far it feels really good, but maybe that’s just because it’s different. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
I’ve been a little off target with my stretching over the last week and I can feel the difference. Last night before Yoga I slipped into a few stretches, including side splits, and it was hard work. When I got to the back bends in the primary series (Ashtanga), it felt bad, and my wrists felt battered.
This morning I’ve been trying to get my head back in gear. I’ve done some handstands for my shoulders and wrist, and forward folds to loosen up my hamstrings. I’ll stretch out my shoulders after swimming, and I’ve got a cardio session at the gym tonight, which should provide a good warm up for my back bend and splits stretching.
I need to get back to doing a Yoga practice every day again. It adds a certain something, and I’ve got a course this weekend.
I think this months Backbend Progress will be a bit limited, or maybe even regress, but I’m in it for the long haul. 🙂
I was re-reading Relax Into Stretching by Pavel Tsatsouline last night. I tend to re-read all my stretching books when I need to re-motivate myself. Anyway, I think I’m going to try increasing the length of my tensions during PNF. Usually, the longest tension I hold is 30 seconds on the last tension. I think I’m going to try 30 seconds for each tension. I’m just hoping it builds a little more strength, and helps reset the “safe” length in my muscles. I’ll write about the results.
Cheers
Tim…