Form checks (almost no progress..)

Hello!

 

I've been following the middle spilt course since it came out and there are couple of stretches that I seem to make almost no progress at them at all.. Maybe my technique and understanding of the stretch and focus point is casuing this, so here is the stretches and I would like you to criticize me and help me understand why there is almost no progress..

 

   

 

Piriformis- it seems like there is no progress at all here, my foot is on the line with the rear leg, it is suppose to be like that?

 

 

Diamond Frog- Every workout it looks quite the same..

 

 

 

Frog- PPT or APT?

I just can slide more.. tried to slide on floor too.. I'm quite sure that I have the mobility required to slide more as I almost have a full middle split but I can't find a way to slide more than that..

 

 

Frog Rock- Also, looks quite the same each workout... Where do I need to be with ATP and where with PPT?

 

Thanks! 

Oh and those are the only ones that I'm not making progress at them, my pancake and middle split are improving and getting close from time to time.

I know that usually help is coming when someone ask for help at the forum, but I'm really curios about my form and how to solve the non-progress, so.. Someone?

Thank you and sorry for my impatience.

It's been almost a week now and still nobody has helped me yet.. So I'm trying to wake up this post so someone can see it and help me.. Thank you!

Hello Itamar.  i believe you're struggling to get responses because it is hard to tell you what to do with this information.  One thing I can say is that it may benefit you to have more posterior pelvic tilt during your frog rock.  Generally, though, mobility is going to be slow in coming.  How frequently are you doing the routine?  How sore are you afterwards?  What seems to be restricting you? These bits of information will help us help you more.  

MT Nordic said:

Hello Itamar.  i believe you're struggling to get responses because it is hard to tell you what to do with this information.  One thing I can say is that it may benefit you to have more posterior pelvic tilt during your frog rock.  Generally, though, mobility is going to be slow in coming.  How frequently are you doing the routine?  How sore are you afterwards?  What seems to be restricting you? These bits of information will help us help you more.  

 

Thanks for replaying!

 

I'm doing it once per week as recommended by coach Sommer.

Afterwards, I'm usually sore for 1-2 days and then it's ok.

I don't know exactly what seems to be restricting me.. I'm trying to find out.

 

Thanks!

Hi there, looks like there's not much attention to the stretch forums, recently i've been checking if i was doing everything correctly too.

So im not an expert by any means, but i'm pretty sure of some corrections you can make:

 

For piriformis stretch, pull your feet a bit more towards you, until your leg is perpendicular to you. Imagine you draw a line that goes through for rear leg, you want your front leg to be perpendicular to that line. Also strive to keep the torso as high as possible.

 

For frog rock, you might get a better result by lowering your torso, and supporting yourself with the forearm, that way it is more comfortable to me.

 

Try out and see if it works, please give me some feedback. 

Sorry if i didnt explain well, english is not my first language.

What does the rest of your week look like in terms of physical moveement.mHow much sitting do you do a day? Time spent on computers, T.V etc .Sometimes a failure to progress is not due to the program, but how you live and move in your body day to day.

Mark Collins said:

What does the rest of your week look like in terms of physical moveement.mHow much sitting do you do a day? Time spent on computers, T.V etc .Sometimes a failure to progress is not due to the program, but how you live and move in your body day to day.

On regular days I'm waking up in the morning, going to school (7am-4pm), spend some time out (football, walking with the dog) or at home (no computer or TV, but sometime watching gymnastics competitions) and then training (F7x2, Hx2, Sx2 TB is off right now because of a shoulder pain, run 3-4 times a week 4km mostly in 12-13 km/h pace.

Then a shower, dinner, some time with family and to bed.

On weekends, I'm waking up, eat, spend some time and then training, lunch, playing out side or at home, training, and then dinner, time with family and bed. I have one or two recovery days a week.

Thats good to hear.

To give you a boost in progress i would do gentler versions of the exercises more often. For example when you read books or watch T.V you could lay in diamond frog without forcing the legs down. The once weekly stretches are intense so you cannot do them more often. But less intense versions are ok to do more often.

You are also young and have time on your side so be patient.

Mark Collins said:

Thats good to hear.

To give you a boost in progress i would do gentler versions of the exercises more often. For example when you read books or watch T.V you could lay in diamond frog without forcing the legs down. The once weekly stretches are intense so you cannot do them more often. But less intense versions are ok to do more often.

You are also young and have time on your side so be patient.

Thanks Mark.

I'll take the gentler versions idea. I'm usually patient about my progress but these are the same since I've started the stretch courses on March..

One other thing that I notice with regards to your piriformis stretch position is that you position your hands differently than Orench does in the follow along class/exercise demo video. The way you are placing your hands would likely remove much (if not all) of the stress that should be going into your piriformis and instead causing you to bear all of your weight on your hands.

Try placing your hands by the sides of your hips (or on top of Yoga blocks if that is too deep a stretch) and see if that doesn't change both how you feel the stretch and how effective it is.

Hope this helps.

Hi Itamar,

 

a very late reply but I hope it will help you.

 

1. Piriformis stretch, you need a yoga block or pillow to put underneath your bent leg. Also you can play around with the angle of the bent leg, at the moment you did 90 degrees angle try to close the wide angle by moving your feet closer to the groin - see if that stretch your piriformis effectively and feel more achievable to hold it for 90s. 

 

2. Frog rock, you also can pause a bit and squeeze hard your adductors when you rock up, imagine that you want to drag your knees closer together without you literally doing it. Then relax when you rock down. i used to struggle with this stretch but then I learnt this contraction which helped me.

 

Take your time to stretch and be patient, there's no real reason for you to rush to achieve the end result! 

 

Good luck!

For the single leg stretch support the limb stretched with something that avoid excessive muscle contraction. remember that a deep stretch position is something strange an new for the body. for this reason is the body tends to fall, muscle will squeeze to avoid this action. put something under the stretched limb tells to body tha the position is safe because something is avoiding eventual falls.