Been doing this stretch for 2 months now and still no results, no flexibility gainz, still can't reach my toes. What am I doing wrong? How long should I do and how often?
Increasing flexibility is a myth dude
>>35404715
hinge yo hips nigga
>>35404724
then how martial arts fighters does it?
>>35404786
By starting out flexible
>>35404715
You will get no results in just 2 months, flexibility is increased in the span of several months and years, not just a few months. This is more true the older you get. Do a combo of dynamic+passive stretches every other day for better results. Or even better, implement PNF stretching if you have someone that can help you with it.
Think of it like increasing your reach 0.5cm per month and do the math how many months from now will it take you to touch the ground. Yes, I'm pulling those numbers out of my ass but you get the idea. Flexibility gains are as slow as muscle gains.
>>35404715
youtube. /watch?v=xJwwioOcE4E
This is the routine I do on a daily basis so as to improve my flexibility for muay thai. you are welcome (TFW you can't embed)
>>35404715
http://dev.moveskill.com/2015/03/what-should-stretching-feel-like/
http://moveskill.com/movement/band-hamstring-stretch/
>>35404786
Genetics.
Doing too much a day is bad? Holding for too long is bad?
>>35404996
thats pretty much bullshit because flexibility should increase over one session, for OP, first of all you should do this stretch with a flat back as possible, this will help you in achieving a greater ROM for your hammies and facilitate good posture for pulls
Did warm up first? Because stretching is more effective when your warmed up properly. Second it takes a long time to gain flex, tendons gains are slower than muscle gains.
>>35404724
Well technically sort of. You are generally born with perfect flexibility but we loose it over time so it's more or less a labor of maintenance but improvement is possible. I didn't have any split for all of my childhood and then in martial arts I got my straddle split as a teenager and gymnastics I got my left side split as an adult.
I am 28 and still improving.
>>35405092
what would be a good warm up exercise?
>>35405071
It is. When you stretch your muscles too much, too soon your CNS will tighten them in order to protect your muscles and joints from what it senses as a dangerous range of motion. That's the main bad thing about passive stretching, it only creates extra ROM but doesnt strengthen your muscles in that new ROM, making them vulnerable for tears, chronic tightness and spasms.
>>35404715
nice way to stretch your back muscles. looking for a trip to snap city? is that it?
do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM8nZHLShYc
>>35405071
I have heard is better to do it after the lifts not before, and the minimum to hold the stretch is 60sec, that is, if you are stretching beyond your confortable zone.
>>35405088
How is it bullshit? I never said that you dont build extra flexibility after each session, but the amount is negligible. Or at least it should be, to prevent damage to the muscle fibers.
I challenge you to increase your ROM in any joint by 10 cms in just 10 sessions, go ahead.
>>35405121
This is taken from the sticky. I'd do both the joint stuff and the warm ups it covers. On the other hand you could strecthing after your work out.
BTW How long do you hold the stretch for?
>>35405174
>>35405208
Fuck I'm retarded.
http://phraktured.net/molding-mobility.html
>>35405208
>BTW How long do you hold the stretch for?
about a minute or more if i can sometimes up to even 5 min
and how do I know if I'm overstretching?
>>35405487
>overstretching
>>35405239
You can hold that for 5 minutes? That doesn't sound like much of a stretch anymore. Reach further?
>>35405578
it gets to a point where it starts tingling and I don't know if it does harm I try to reach further
>>35405487
During the actual session: pain and clicking rather than just discomfort
After the session, or the days after, tightness in the stretched muscles.
>>35404715
First off, keep your fucking back neutral when stretching your hams. None of this catback bullshit. Keep the neutral arch (straight back)
Secondly, sit down and do one leg at a time
>>35405754
tingling isn't enough, there should be some pain, but it shouldn't feel like you're completely tearing anything, just a little pain, and hold that as long as you can. Do this twice a day instead of once, and you'll see results.
>>35406618
>>35406572
I fail to understand what is the right point
>>35404715
been doing this for 3 days, and the results i have seen are fucking insane.
went from not being able to touch my toes to puching the ground.
the keys are to
1. keep your knees locked straight. otherwise you aren't even fucking stretching. if that means you can't go down as far, then don't go down as far.
2. gently bounce. don't give yourself an injury, but after you relax as far down as you can go, you can gentle "pulse" the stretch by bouncing.
doing this about 3-4x a day, every day, for literally just three days i went from a solid 2 inches above my toes, to knuckles bouncing off the ground (at rest i can have my finger knuckles touching the ground in front of my toe, or grab the edge of my toes with my fingers)
other great stretches are the pancake, and the when where you lie on your back and kick your legs over your head.
i do that with my head in the middle of my legs, and on each side.
went from not even touching toes on the ground, to being able to touch my knees to the ground (start with straight legs first, until your toes start touching, then you can start tucking until your knees are flexible enough)
ANOTHER great supplemental stretch is to do kinda the OP strech, but instead of touching toes, you grab the back of your calves and pull your head towards the middle of your legs, like you are trying to snap your shit in half (pic related)
i also do a unilateral variation of that exercise where i grab one calf and twist my back that way, then grab the other and twist that way.
between the three of those, my flexibility has gone up an incredible amount in a very short amount of time but basically stretching for the whole 3 days.)
gold medal bodies has some neat stuff.
ido portal's movement patterns (Especially ostrich walk) are pretty neat.
99.9999999% when people don't progress on a stretch, it is because they aren't doing it properly.
>>35405088
>thats pretty much bullshit because flexibility should increase over one session
fucking this
> should do this stretch with a flat back as possible, this will help you in achieving a greater ROM for your hammies and facilitate good posture for pulls
and this
everything this anon says is gold.
except for me, i found it was easier to reverse-engineer the flat back, by working on grabbing my toes with locked knees, then once i had that, slowly extending my back.
in that position (Where you are holding onto your toes) i find it can SOMETIMES be useful to unlock your knees, and fully extend your back, then slowly push your knees back into the locked position.
but you should only do that if you are flexible enough to mostly be in that position with locked knees to begin with.
>>35404715
don't be discouraged OP
i tried for fucking a year to stretch my hip flexors to no avail.
when i finally got the technique right (i.e. maintaining posterior pelvic tilt), was only a matter of days before there was noticeable improvement.
just try working on the technique.
see if there is something you are doing wrong that is allowing you to "cheat" the stretch (it still felt like i was stretching, but the lack of pelvic tilt meant i was stretching the wrong part, not the part the needed stretching to actually improve my flexibility)
Is there a limit a day of how many times I can do stretches or for how long?
>>35405088
This hasn't worked for me. Keeping a flag back feels like just isn't enough force to stretch my hamstrings. Pic related is where I am at. I have a lot of trouble keeping my knees locked. I can touch my toes but I now grab the back of my shins and try to pull myself down. My goals is to bend harder at the hips. Also I stretch hip with butterfly.
>>35406726
Why do girls always do yoga and flexibility like it's second nature to them? I envy you
>>35407064
i am a guy.
pic is not me.
i am formerly obese (currently slightly overweight), so this limber and flexible thing is new to me
>>35406851
i just did it as much as i thought i could without it affecting my recuperation.
>>35407049
>not enough force to stretch hamstrings
increase the range of motion with flat back - hinge further faggot.
>>35407049
brah, how many days have you been training flexibility?
because at first glance it seems you are doingitrong if you are still so inflexible.
also keep your cervical spine in a more neutral and relaxed position.
>>35408048
I only started doing it seriously for like 2 weeks. Before that I did it but skipped it a lot and no progress. I notice that I'm much more comfortable now in the bottom position of a squat though. I want to hinge further at the hip but that is as far I can go and and then it just stops and my upper back rounds. Will it get better if I keep at it? I will try to do it with a straight spine but still I feel like I need to grab hold of something and pull myself down
>>35408091
for that long you should be way deeper.
re-evaluate your stretching technique.
also for squat depth, a great exercise i have found for that is to get on your knees, and extend your lumbar spine as much as possible, while sitting all the way down on you heels, and slowly hinging the hips forward.
sometimes it helps to clasp your hands behind your back as you do this. but as you get deep, i find it is best to push off the ground to really maximize your thoracic extension (kinda like lockout in the snatch), which will emphasize lumbar extension
>doing this normie meme stretch
Welcome new years resolutioner
>>35404715
You're supposed to do them for a minute or 2. 2 months seems a bit long.
I am 52 and six feet and I can lay my palms flat on the floor doing that stretch.. you're just not trying
>>35405174
That sounds wrong.
When you lift you minutely tear the muscle and it gets bigger when it repairs. It's why sleep and food are as important.
So stretching when your muscles need to repair seems like a ticket to snap city fampai
>>35410040
>I am 52 and six feet and I can lay my palms flat on the floor doing that stretch.. you're just not trying
you don't fucking have sciatica, old man. you don't even know what the fuck you're saying
>>35409931
>>35410040
Why are you still posting on a Cambodian shrimp fishing bulletin board at your age?
>>35404996
>>35404996
untrue. in 2 months my hands went down from my middle shins to thub on the floor.
i only did pnf stretching. hurts like a bitch if done properly, gives amazing noob gains.
i did every stance only once for each leg, but kept getting deeper, tightening muscles and going deeper, every pose took me like 3-5 min even though i only did 1 rep.
-pidgeon pose 1xf
-couch stretch 1xf (THE PAIN)
-ankle stretch 1xf
-cross legged hamstring stretch 1xf
-standing pike 1xf
-lie on ground grab towel and pull your foot 1xf
even though i do only 1 rep for each leg this routine took me about 60-90 minutes
i warm up with molding mobility
i did this 3 times a week on rest days
it gave me almost linear progression
i gave up after i could place my hands on the floor because noob gains stopped, now i just do it occasionally to not get back to inflexible man
also some parts of my skin where not large enough to stretch so deep, so i had to apply constant oil and vaseline to the tight areas else i would feel like my skin was being torn off.
>>35404715
Dude stand up holy fuck
>>35411406
underrated toast
>>35404715
Stretching is all about plateaus. I think the mind is v involved. A muscle will fight u for ages, and then one day it just seems to chill out. For three months my hands didnt make it past my shins when I tried to touch my toes, then in a period of like three weeks I coulf put my fingers onthe floor. Ive been ppracticing yoga for about six months. Keep it up and ull get there steadily. Its like anything else. Every bit as important as strength gain though imo
>>35410417
The logic is that stretching also tears muscle fibers as well. So to do it before lifting would make you less than optimal while doing your lifts.
>>35410417
I make a lot of my stretch gains post lifting. your muscles have way more give in them. i see it as killing two birds with one stone
>>35407049
When you are rounding your back you are basically making your arms artificially longer letting you reach lower, how low you can touch with your hands with locked knees isnt really whats going to improve your hamstring flexibility, its more about stretching the hammies as much as you can, consider adding other hamstring stretches to your routine as well as dynamic stretches, candy toe has a video on this where he utilizes the stiff one legged medball deadlift (im flexible enough to do it off a 15 cm deficit) he explains it better, its titled "Hamstring Mobility For The Deadlift", considering his video and what i have said in this and the previous comment you should still try and keep a neutral spine when doing this and other standing standing stretches, you are probably stretching because you lack the mobility to achieve a certain posture and position in a certain exercise (probably the deadlift since you want to stretch your upper hammies) and i doubt you lift anything heavier than a pencil with this back.
>>35405199
First of all the amount isnt negligible, its noticeable, i have personally gained 3cm of ankle dorsiflexion in just about 20 minuets of stretching, as for increasing your ROM by 10cm in 10 sessions you are not going to do that, why you ask? two reasons: One being the law of diminishing returns, your next session in a given exercise will yield less results than the previous, that is why it is important to have a dynamic stretching routine according to your strengths and weaknesses with various rolling, dynamic and static stretching.
Reason 2 is the fact that people have a set natural flexibility and ROM in each of their joints, as we live our lives for many reasons these joints and the various tissues (muscles ligaments) around them get tight, resulting in a decreased range of motion, try and look at young kids, they are flexible as a motherfucker before they sit down for the rest of their lives.
Cont.
>>35405199
>>35415775
So you must first reobtain your lost natural range of motion, which will be fairly easy for the following reasons: If your body isnt used to a certain exercise it will adapt faster to it compared to an increased adaption stimulus from an exercise you are used to do, this goes for both weight training and stretching, and maybe even other aspects of fitness and even life.
The second reason is that the body doesnt have to make and special changes to achieve more ROM in a tight joint, simply stretching it and making it not tight anymore will take minimal effort (other than the pain of stretching), while obtaining a more "unnatural" ROM (a full or even declined split for example) will require more adaptions from the body other than just untensing the muscles, and these adaptions take time and will shortly reverse unless maintained.
thats it.
I am 26yo, I was never able to touch my finger with my hand, I can not do proper DL or squat. I was doing 5 exercises for lower back and hip mobility with 0 results
I wish I could be flexible as pic related
>>35415775
>i have personally gained 3cm of ankle dorsiflexion in just about 20 minuets of stretching
this is a short term adaption which is a result of the viscoelastic properties of collagen. when you tension a tendon (achilles in this case) you squeeze water out of the collagen matrix and the tendon gains length for a short time and then returns to its pre stretch length
thats not to say stretching achieves nothing long term, just dont go getting too excited about your short term gains
This stretch is retarded. Try something more dynamic, like this routine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSSDLDhbacc
>>35417758
>I was never able to touch my finger with my hand
>>35404715
You can increase flexibility for a short time, but your body will always flex back to normal unless you actually dislocate something and permanently stretch your ligaments.
Also, instead of fingers to toes, touch your palms to the floor. It's such a good stretch.
Probably you have back problems like me.
I can reach my toes easily even when i was kinda chubby before.
and now my bodyfat is 10% but can't even reach them anymore.
Let me ask you some questions to diagnose whats going on.
1) Are you white?
2) Have you graduated highschool?
3) Are you sure you're white?
If you answered yes to all three, then no need to worry, because you have a great life and you're better than everyone who answered no to at least one of those
>don't stretch they said
>flexibility isn't important they said
I can't even wipe my own ass anymore my flexibility is so bad. I literally have to use one of these, which I have stuck to the wall and wrapped in a cloth, to wipe my ass.
Literal plens up in this thread
Just lift, focus on form above all, and stretch after wards
It's not JUST due to flexibility but also muscle weakness imbalances
Alan Thrall explains all this
>faggots go to gym after watching g YouTube
>can't even touch their toes
>instantly start dead lifting
>wahhh my back hurts
Faggots
