Stretch/Flex?

"The Crow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi.
I have been working out for a while now, and have gained some body
mass, but with these gains, I have also found myself feeling
increasingly stiff and clunky, especially around the shoulder area. I
think I must have an inadequate stretch/flex routine. I have had a
look around, but there appear to be a lot of what might be con-artists
out there, and guys claiming they'll have you inserting your head up
your rear within one hour. So I just wondered if you folks would have
any pointers to some decent information sources for improving one's
flexibility without causing any tissue damage? Thanks.

Sometimes the "hype" is true. I went from not being able to touch my
toes to doing splits in the space of six months, and I was in my late
40's when I did this. It is not magic, it is learning about how your
body works, especially the stretch reflex. By combining techniques to
"trick" the stretch reflex with techniques to build up strength in the
extremes of your range of motion, almost anyone can learn to safely
perform a lot of stretches most people think they'll never do. Pavel's
"Relax Into Stretch" is the place to start - I recommend book over the
video. http://www.kbnj.com/ris.htm

If you want to get essentially the same information but in a less
user-friendly presentation, try http://www.stadion.com and read some of
the articles there. But I think the user-friendliness of the
presentation is important - before I bought Relax Into Stretch, I had
already bought and read "Beyond Stretching" by the same author, and
somehow that didn't do it for me and my flexibility didn't really
improve. In the introduction to "Relax Into Stretch", the author
acknowledges that in the intervening years, he refined his presentation,
throwing out what didn't bring results to most people, and tweaking the
explanations of the remaining movements to be sure that the important
points get across to the readers. It made a big difference for me, and
I cannot think of another book on the subject that's anywhere near as
good. You can look at the thread in this newsgroup started July 19,
2005, entitled "Pictures of me doing splits" to see how far I've
gotten - the last little bit, getting my legs in a straight line, has
been a few years in coming, but I honestly did learn to do get close
enough to the position you see in the picture within six months of when
I started that they were considers "full" splits by everyone who saw
them - except, of course, Pavel. 🙂

Perhaps the most important "concept" in the book is the order in which
exercises are presented, because he will say things like, "If you can't
do the previous exercise to [a certain point], you have no business
doing this one - turn back a few pages and come back here only when
you're ready." That sort of advice will both keep you safe and also
keep you working on the appropriate stretches for you. The book covers
the body pretty much from head to toe.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Quoted message said:

they'll have you inserting your head up your rear within one hour.>

That should turn on 98% of this NG.