The day after I stretch... pure evil

[Sebastian Schneider]

Hey guys and girls,

 

I am just corious if you witness the same. After every stretching day I feel so sore (only in my legs) that I can barely move. It feels like I never will touch my own toes again or open my legs for the split.

I am stretching now for around 1.5 years and it improved alot but I am probably doing something wrong since I am still pretty far away from i.e. a split (around 35 cm) 

 

I tryed already to stretch really hard once a week and wait till the pain is over and stretch again... but somehow the recovery times never get better. This is even limitting my F1 work since my legs are screwed really hard.

 

cheers

[Jon Douglas]

What are you doing to make you so sore?

[Richard Hamilton]

I get something similar. I woke today to my upper legs feeling like lead but some limbering up and foam rolling helps I find. When I wake up I really don't feel like getting out of bed!

[Sebastian Schneider]

haha I feel this way aswell

 

I typically have a stretch routine I do for legs:

 

Warm up + light/dynamic stretching

 

1. Weighted pike stretch ~12 kg 3x 45 seconds

2. Standing PNF middle split stretch 2x90 seconds (15-20 seconds stretch, 5-10 seconds pushing)

3. Seated pencake stretch 2-3x60 seconds (every now and then with around 10 kg on my back)

4. Hip flexor stretch 2/side around 30 seconds

5. front split 2-3x/side 45 seconds

 

It happens quite often that I cant do everything because I have no strength to hold myself in these positions anymore.

I have pretty big legs compared to people my size since i played soccer for around 18 years... this is also the reason for my really bad flexibility. 

[Jon Douglas]

Don't take it the wrong way, but that looks fairly light to me... do you know which ones in particular are making you sore? Do you have Foundation, and if so how do you find the mobility, particularly hip and oblique mobility?

[Sebastian Schneider]

I appreciate every input I get since I am still fairly new to this.

Especially the pike stretch and/or pencake makes me feel the worst the next day. I feel quite good in the hip/oblique area. I only have one little problem, sometimes I feel that something is kinda wrong with my hipbone (doesnt feel right) but this is probably cause of the dysplesia I have. 

Its not a pain or something its just that I have to adjust the position im currently in.

 

I am already at my maximum when im stretching, should i try harder/more often?

[Jon Douglas]

I appreciate every input I get since I am still fairly new to this.

Especially the pike stretch and/or pencake makes me feel the worst the next day. I feel quite good in the hip/oblique area. I only have one little problem, sometimes I feel that something is kinda wrong with my hipbone (doesnt feel right) but this is probably cause of the dysplesia I have. 

Its not a pain or something its just that I have to adjust the position im currently in.

 

I am already at my maximum when im stretching, should i try harder/more often?

No good going harder if you're already at your maximum i just mean I'm surprised that it still gives you trouble after a long period of time at 1/week.

 

Sounds fairly clear your hamstrings are tight; it's not unusual in runners/soccer players. If you're really not having much success I'd recommend you go lighter with it more often, maybe make unweighted stretches your focus until you are more comfortable. The weighted ones are very effective but they can also be a bit demanding. I wonder if they are working, but keeping you from realising it because the stiffness prevents you stretching again until it's pretty well back to how it was before the first time.

 

When you say your hipbone hurts, perchance do you mean in stretching for side splits? I often see people having a little difficulty with the rotation required to get to a 180 degree angle; the legs don't just raise out to the side like an action figure. Notably I distinctly remember the cramping in my glutes the first time I achieved a side split from straddle.

It's sort of like doing dislocates for shoulders. If you use the muscles around the joint to put it in a more advantageous position you don't need to develop excessive and dangerous flexibility in the joint itself.

 

This may be a dumb question, but you ARE doing P+F stretches correctly, right? You aren't just punishing yourself by going low and then trying to push lower, and cramping muscle tension (good) rather than pain (bad)?

 

I haven't looked at it too much but Kit Laughlin has a fair bit of YouTube material that also be a good place to look.

 

 

 I'm happy to help, but this is coming from my own experience more than anything else, which does *not* include diagnosing or correcting anything pathological, so do keep that in mind in case there are real reasons why you are having trouble

[Jon Douglas]

Oh, and have you tried following up a hard weighted stretch session with unweighted, more relaxed stretching with longer holds the next day or so? This does not always start out pleasant, but can go a ways to helping stiffness from overdoing it.

[Sebastian Schneider]

Thanks! I think im doing the PNF stretching as good as I can. I just find it pretty weird to explain. I basically go to the lowest point I can without pushing myself into it. After that I contract the muscles (for middle split its basically trying to close the legs again) for a short period of time. When letting the contraction go I can go down a bit further... rinse and repeat

Another thing I thought of is the high discrepancy between my active and passive flexibility. I feel it the most when im doing MN/PE2. Comparing to my passive flexibility in pencake/pike position the active part in the movent is extremly bad. It may sound funny but I often dont have the strength anymore to just stretch.

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Have you tried taking 2 weeks away from any hard stretching, and easing up on other leg training during that time?

If not, you might want to give it a shot:

- Not hard stretch at all for 2 weeks.

- A little bit of limbering (light passive stretching only) whenever you are warmed up.

- No long walks, no long runs, no hard runs, no running the stairs, and easing up on whatever else you do for leg training.

 

After 2 weeks, ease back into some harder stretches, you might have gained some ROM, and gotten rid of some of the pain.

 

 

[edit] - I just read that you are on MN/PE2... the paired iM is really tough on the hammies (it is for me), that may be the reason of your severe DOMS!

[Sebastian Schneider]

Sorry for double posting but i didnt find the edit button being online on my phone.

I never really tried it for a longer time. When I try to stretch light and unweighted for example today it feels ok but its nothing compared to my session yesterday... Flexibility wise. Yesterday i could holt the weight way under my toes. Today i can barely touch them

[Jon Douglas]

Hmm, that IS a fair discrepancy...

 

Your PnF is basically good, there's a couple of details I'd iron out if you were in front of me with regards to hold times (because I'm a perfectionist) but you should still be improving, at least in DOMS. Once you hit your limit for the day, try holding a full contraction one step back (as you described) for a full 30-60 seconds; this quite simply sucks until you adjust, but makes a big difference over time.

 

As Fred mentioned, are you going heavy on the Mn 1 + 2 mobility, or other leg training? It could be something as simple as that. Are you an active soccer player now, and so are your hamstrings just getting hammered frequently (and then you are punishing them more with weighted stretches?)

 

If all else fails a week or two off the weighted stretching to play with some other variables might be in order. It's hard for us to see the big picture from text but on the face of it, I don't think the content of your stretching sessions themselves are the problem; maybe the weights you use for them could be contributing if there's mobility deficits in there somewhere.