Welcome to r/flexibility!

Whenever I try to touch my toes my mid back shakes involuntarily. The shaking isn’t that bad but I’m worried if it’s something bad. Why does this happen?

I know that deep lunge is usually for stretching hip flexors and, when standing, for strengthening hamstrings. But most of the time I don't really feel that stretch in my hip flexors in the straight leg but some sort of stretching or tightness in the hip flexor(???) or groin area in the bend leg. Is this normal? What could that mean in terms of weaknesses in my body?

I apologise if that's a silly question but usually every instructor in this position mention how I should feel stretch in the long leg, but I usually feel stronger stretch in my bend leg, which is overlooked.

I really want to improve my flexibility and would love to find some sort of program or online course that I can follow daily.

If you have any recommendations please let me know 🙏🏻 thank you so much!

Hello everyone, I actually only know the above from camping, when I sleep on a hard floor. (my wife it has that too) However, that only came shortly before Got up and left again after a short time (30 minutes). away.

Now in the last 5 weeks I have had two times of 10 days sleeping on a harder mattress. After a A few days ago my thoracic spine started to be come, independent from the sleeping Position, extremely stiff in one place in the middle feels. If I try to stretch them, that's it a dull pain, also on both sides of the breastbone I prefer, I can no longer sleep for more than 5 hours it goes away during the morning. Lws and Hws have been complaining regularly since then Mobility training etc has not changed so far brought. Once while stretching it made three very loud noises cracked, then it feels good.. Neither me nor my physio managed that again. My brother actually had that once, but nothing happened found. He still took rheumatism tablets for a year and it went away at some point and didn't come back, I'm a little worried about ankylosing spondylitis Although there is something to be said against it (normally this continues to happen below and Crp (inflammatory value) unremarkable as well as Mrt lws summer 2024 inconspicuous) Does anyone else here know this?

Ps: lws= lower spine Hws = upper spine

Lots of excellent training programs out there. I am naturally very stiff. After a year of stretching and mobility work I still have poor ROM. The thing is I have improved, I just can’t see it because I haven’t been tracking.

So are there apps, frameworks, etc to objectively measure progress? What do you use? Thanks!

I’m working on flexibility for martial arts kicks and gymnastics

I tried to take running back up around this time last year, did too much too soon and ended up with shin splints, and then patellar tendinitis.

I’ve spent a small fortune on physios and have a list of exercises to work through, and I’m finally at a point where I reckon I can start running again in a month or so.

One thing that I still get is tightness in my tibialis anterior. The exercises from my physio include foam rolling, but it’s not always practical to whip it out when my leg is feeling a bit tight.

I’ve tried various stretches over the last 10 months or so, toe drag, seated toe drag, cross leg toe drag, kneeling. No matter what i try I always struggle to feel any sort of stretch.

Is there a special trick to stretching this muscle, or is it just one that is hard to stretch?

Have read every post and have been strengthening my butt for a long time to get rid of APT (which I have finally conquered). I am now trying to stretch my hamstrings and so I can get rid of my natural leaning towards apt. So strong butt, strong abs, flexible hip flexors, generally no more pain sleeping or walking. But cannot fold enough so scared my APT will come back if I don't loosen hamstrings. Tried everything but the problem is no matter how much I avoid round back or get abs and butt strong, the second I try to stretch my hamstrings my back spasms. When I am lucky enough to avoid the lower back spasms I get nerve flares in my hips for a week. So I guess no matter what I do my body is fighting fifty years of bad posture and my lower back just doesn't want to loosen or I stretch nerves and need to recover before trying again. I think I need to find a way to stretch while fully isolating back muscles. I don't round lower back at all, stretch hams with knees bent, tried downward dog, tried just doing sit ups but seems just going no where. Any more ideas on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

I am 27 and I have just found out that I have no ankle dorsiflexion. In the knee to wall test I cannot touch the wall with the knee even if my toes are touching it. I cannote move my ankle in that direction, like not at all. While I have a great range in the other direction.

I have just started a ballet class and that’s the reason I found it out. People doing plies like if they have mobility in their ankle, while for me it looks like I cannot even move it. I am like wtf? I didn’t know people had this skill? This is why squats are so hard? This is why I cannot rest in a squat position?

When I was a child I had a lot of pain while walking, my ankles were like burning fire or something, and I was dislocating them often. My parents were like “yeah, children”, so I have never seen a doctor for this. I guess I have damaged my ankle in some way? Is there something I can do now? Would a physio be able to help me?

One of my goals for this year is be a lot more flexible and achieve full side/front splits.

But I don't know where to start, and if I do, how to have a routine that'd take me there. I've tried finding classes but I couldn't find much. Do I do the same stretches everyday for months before I get there?

Ideally, I'd like to find a 2 month routine online (happy to pay too) where I can simply follow along and don't have to worry about coming up with a routine myself (I always struggle with this)?

My back is very tense/tight and after a deep tissue massage, where my muscles made all sorts of noises, I’m looking to help keep it loose.

What kind of stretches could I do to help? Ideally around the rotator cuff muscles and traps. I’ve read thread the needle is really good, but I’m not sure I’m feeling it in the right place.

As a bit of background, I do a load of aerial fitness stuff so that’s probably the origin of my stiffness (not to mention my poor posture)!

When doing this exercise, I really only feel it in the quads. Does that mean I am not strengthening the deeper hip flexors? https://youtu.be/7uo4zq_827g

Hi! Yesterday I tried grabbing my ankles while in a backbend and was able to catch them! The only problem is it’s difficult to hold with slingshotting back up to standing. Any tips? Hoping to eventually get to a point of straightening my legs fully!!

Feet out back straight

I also have sciatic tension so find it difficult to stretch hamstrings :/

where do you guys even start when both your psoas are dysfunctional where one seems to be more shortened and the other is more lengthened and they both can't function optimally.

I’ve been practicing splits for the past year—going from very inflexible to pretty flexible. The main goal I have is to be able to do a split. My question is, when I practice doing splits, is it more effective allow the back leg to bend to make the front leg get a better stretch (and me going lower to the ground, fig 1), or to make sure both legs are straight, even though I cant get as low that way (fig2)?

I could let my back leg bend enough to touch the ground giving the front leg even more of a stretch but it doesn’t really feel like working towards a split when doing that if that makes sense. Any input about which is better or splits tips are much appreciated!

I've been training contortion for about 1.5 years but in the past 4 months I moved to LA from NY and haven't been able to find a contortion class I really vibe with, so I'm mostly training at home. In NY I was making huge steps on my chest stands and I had a teacher who was great at giving a spot & sounding off adjustments. Now that I'm doing most of my practice at home, I've regressed and it's really bumming me out. I'm also kind of scared of getting an injury by myself tbh. I'm wondering if anyone has tips/youtube vids they could share to help with chest stands specifically? Also class recs in LA? Thank you!! <3

Question to the male part of the group, have you ever had long term pain in the testicle(s) and groin area from stretching? I have been working on a frog pose for a few months, I reached a level where I was almost flat on the ground and I think during last session (almost 2 weeks ago) I tried to push myself too much. During the stretch i didn’t feel anything wrong, but since the next day I’m having this mild pain in testicle that sometime can be felt in groin as well, it is nothing serious, pain is mild, but I can feel it all the time. I already consulted with urologist and ultrasound didn’t find anything wrong as well, bloodwork is okay with no signs of infection. Hernia is also ruled out. I stopped doing all lower body stretches and waiting how will things turn out, I’m just getting anxious that it will last for very long. Has any one of you experienced such long term mild pain? Any advices are welcome!

BTW this is my first post here, but I learned from this group so much! Thank you!

Ok seriously, she is 100% sedentary watching tv most of the day sitting down and only stands up when she is cooking and never goes on walks or anything. Yet, she can easily touch her toes or raise her leg up straight. So can my mom, who is also very sedentary.

My dad though, who does a lot of physical activity, cannot touch his toes or raise his leg straight. ME NEITHER. My hamstrings feel like metal rods. I try to stretch and I started going to the gym, but so far I’m still the same.

I guess genetics really play a massive part?

Hello

I consider myself to be uber flexible, but struggle with my hips. I used to be able to do boxer and traditional splits with ease but I'm now nowhere near the ground. When I sit cross legged🧘🏽‍♀️ my left hip raises from the ground. I have been doing pigeon, 50/50, frog and other hip openers for years but currently not able to do the splits. Any advice?

Is there anything I’m doing wrong that i should fix? Tips/tricks/suggestions welcome. Thank you <3

I've always had a very healthy body ever since I was young.

Everything changed when I stopped caring about my posture, and sat for 8 hours a day in terrible posture for over 10 months

Now every joint in my body makes clicking and popping sounds whenever I move it (my shoulders, elbows, knees specifically)

Now I am finally looking for a solution to healing my body back to it's normal state and I've came upon the egoscue method

From what I see the method fixes chronic body pain by helping re-align your body with exercises

If anyone here has experience with the egoscue method, I'm wondering if this method will fix my clicking/popping joints since I really don't know what to do to fix my body

Thank you for your comment, it means so much to me

How does everyone feel about holding stretches for 4+ minutes? I’ve seen a lot about how it really helps change tissue but could never really make myself do it. I’ve had nagging hip and lower back pain this week and forced myself to do (supported) frog pose for five minutes. The release after was crazy and I’m going to try to keep doing this one daily. Does anyone make a point of long holds and what stretches do you like for them?

I might be wrong but I feel like if i could do stuff like this on my bad shoulder it would feel a lot better. I’m not sure what to do for my shoulder so any advice is welcome.

I recently started working out again a month ago, use only dumbbells and lots of pushups/situps. Today I tried to do this stretch and could not bring my bottom arm up far enough for me to reach with the other arm. There isn’t any pain, Is it serious or should I just rest and stretch more for a few days? I also don’t stretch as often as I should so Im a bit worried. Thank you.

When I lie on my back and pull a knee into my chest, I can pull my left leg straight back towards me. But on my right leg, once I get about half way I cannot bring it straight back to my chest, it wants to angle or rotate off to the side. Upper right hip and lower back are super tight and I'm having trouble finding a stretch to really address this. Any suggestions?