Middle split progression

i've been practising middle split series 2-3 times per week.  I've not noticed any progression. Please could you advise? Is there any particular order the courses should be completed in, eg middle split is the first course I've bought - are there courses I should have completed prior to attempting this one? Thanks, Charlotte

There is a reason of why Coach Sommer clearly suggested to practice a specific stretch series ONCE a week and no more.

Body needs to recover. flexibility should be considered a training session.

Hi Alessandro, I train every day - once per week wouldn't even be enough to get results for most people in the gym. I'm curious as to why stretching is advised as being once per week?

Hi Charlotte,

Please follow the program as prescribed first, before attempting to make adjustments.  Progress in mobility is measured in months, not days or weeks.

Also remember that I have many times pointed out the different intensities required between strength and mobility work.  If mobility work is approached with the same intensity as strength work, it is a question of 'when' an injury is going to occur; not 'if'.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

On 6/27/2016 at 3:59 PM, Charlotte Deeley said:

i've been practising middle split series 2-3 times per week.  I've not noticed any progression. Please could you advise? Is there any particular order the courses should be completed in, eg middle split is the first course I've bought - are there courses I should have completed prior to attempting this one? Thanks, Charlotte

Charlotte,

I am speaking only for myself here, based on my own experience. What I have noticed with the MSs, and indeed the other stretches as well, is that my progress has not been linear for all SEs.

Just to give you an example. When I first attempted butterfly (SE # 13) I was so tight I was completely immobile in that position. Now, I slacked off a bit in my stretching during the first 8 months of MSs, but I can tell you that during those 8 months I think I might have made maybe a 1" or 2"--at best--progress in moving my torso forward. (In a word, barely no progress.)

Yet, in the other positions of MSs my progress was noticeably better. After more than one year doing MSs, albeit erratically, I've made a lot more progress in butterfly, though I still have a long way to go to get my torso to the ground.

Because of all my prior imbalances and tightness, I decided to look at the stretch courses as a 2 ½ year program, in the sense that I'll have reached "mastery" in most positions after 30 months (give or take).

** By the way, a big shout out to the team at Forma GST for giving us the verbal demonstrations. When I discovered that they had made videos for Foundation 1, I went back and corrected many errors that I had made in the PEs, and I just logged on today and realized that they had done a similar thing for Stretch, so I'm going to go through every video there as well, and correct the errors that I find.