Stiffer than a board :(

Hi all,

Very new to the mobility work after years of inactivity I signed up here. I tried the Middle splits video and found I could not even get my chest near the floor or knees down to the mat. My mobility is very limited. While I know it's a journey are there some recommended easier progressions I can do to achieve the flexibility I see in the video ? Pretty much everything in the video had terrible form when I did it because of the stiffness everywhere and I am afraid I will just stall out when I should trying easier movements to achieve a better flexibility before tackling these exercises. Anyone been in my boat ?

Thanks 

Hi mate, 

Don't worry about where you are starting from. It genuinely doesn't matter.  Just keep scaling it back as necessary, and the improvementswill come fast

Hi Steven,

haveyou had a look at the technical tip videos in your course library? These are very helpful and also shows you scaling alternatives you can do for each exercise  

Steven:

I'm a little late to this thread, and just a 40-something guy who also turned himself concrete from lack of mobility work for several decades.  I've been using all 3 stretch series for about 18 months (except for 3 months last summer following a freakish knee injury). I'm still YEARS away from anything resembling "flexible", but I have made significant progress.  Here are a couple suggestions:

1. Get your butt WAY elevated for all the pancake work. I still do all of those seated on a 17-inch plyo box. I started on a 24-inch box. It will be a couple years before I'm seated on the ground.  

2. Keep reminding yourself to lock/tighten/straighten the knee for all MS series exercises that involve a straight leg. Coach gives several reminders in the follow-along video. When i first started using the video, I was so bad at everything (with the unusual exception of the piriformis stretch on my right leg) that I didn't always listen to that cue. In the last 4 months, I've made better progress by really focusing on that cue. Get that medialis squeezed/contracted  and your hamstrings WILL relax more. 

Good luck