Mobility / Flexibility

[Markus]

Alright so I'm awfully inflexible, have knee pain (medial) and neck pain, and have been procrastinating for two years doing anything serious about it. It's time to change that. I want to have a better meditation posture plus get back to the gym to lift weights. 

Any advice/resources to increase flexibility in general, or more specifically for a total beginner, would be welcomed. Especially some routines or something like that. Mobility WOD (https://www.youtube.com/user/sanfranciscocrossfit/videos) is a great resource, as well as the book "Becoming a Supple Leopard". However that'd be better suited probably for someone who is already athletic and tackling specific mobility issues. If one were to ask me which of my muscles are tight...umm...all of them, I'd say. So something general to help that would be good.

[JKG]

Simply build a basic stretching habit. You can find great routines anywhere around the internet. Try some different routines out and look which exercises you like the most. Then build your own routine

And this guy knows everything!

https://www.youtube.com/user/EmmetLouis/videos

 

[ULFBERHT]

@Markus Becoming a Supple Leopard is one of the best resources you can buy! It is not just for athletes! Its for everyone. If you don't know where to start, start with every exercise in  that book and listen to what your body is telling you.

What, specifically, are you dealing with? What hurts and when? How is your meditation posture suffering? What exercises hurt to do in the gym?

[Markus]

@ULFBERHT That's probably good advice. I guess I'll have to identify what my worst areas are and start to work on them. 

As far as pain goes, my two key problems are medial knee pain and pain around the tibia. I figured the medial knee pain is probably from a lack of external hip rotation, which when meditating cross-legged can make the shin move sideways to compensate, squeezing the medial meniscus between the thighbone and shinbone. Any stretch I tried to do for external rotation caused pain in that area though. I remembered a banded distraction where I rotate my hip outwards with the leg straight, I'll try that out. As for the tibia, it seems like my ankle range is terribly restricted. Yet the issue is, I can't really mobilize it without the pain acting up. Perhaps that is from a weak foot, or tight calves. I'll try to tack some of those tissues with a lacrosse ball for a few weeks, see if it gets any better. I've also found I have really tight hamstrings, which is probably what ended up causing me pain when squatting, deadlifting or doing bent over rows, dealing with that should be pretty straightforward.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Markus

[ayokolomo]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for,but

 

 

[Henri]

@Markus Hatha yoga together with pranayama`s will help. Join a group for some months, it will be easier.

[John]

Hey,

I started using the techniques from Becoming a Supple Leopard a few months ago and haven't looked back since.

The sheer amount of information in it is overwhelming at first and that might be where your falling down. I have two recommendations:

1) The fundamental movement of Supple Leopard, is the air squat. Go to that section of the book and see if you can perform the squat as shown. If not, (you most likely won't be able to) you will be able to see where you are failing and this will tell you what areas you need to start stretching and foam rolling first. The better you get at this squat the more your body will start to correct itself as muscles that were dormant become active and correct posture and muscles that were tight become loose and less prone to injury.

2)You said you have knee pain. There is a concept in the book called upstream down stream. Knee pain means your calves (downstream of the painful area) are tight and your it band, hamstring, and hips (upstream of the area) are tight. Start stretching and foam rolling the shit out of these areas as described in the book!

I'm no physiotherapist, and am still an MWoD noob, but I hope some of that helps!

[Markus]

@John Thank you for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.

[Phocus]

@Markus If you don't already, you should really try doing yoga.  I have run and lifted weights for years (along with playing virtually every sport out there) and I'm extremely tight and doing hot yoga (hatha) once a week changed that dramatically.

[ULFBERHT]

@Markus I advise that you do SMR before you do any kind of stretching, period. Dynamic, static, banded distractions or what have you. Foam roll or lacrosse ball and then stretch to see if that makes a difference in restoring external rotation capacity in your hip. Stretching alone won't do it, regardless of the mobility tools you've got at your disposal. For ankles, in my experience Voodoo bands have always worked the best. They are kind of an all-in-one tool and you can work through full ranges of motion while still loosening up the tissues.

Edited February 24, 2016 by ULFBERHT

[Ludwig]

Great suggestions from you guys. Definetly check myofaszial release techniques and have a stretching routine that covers your tight spots. Yes, Voodoo Bands are awesome you can even use them on muscle (and not only ankles) when you are advanced.

Besides that, breathing is huge. Breathe as deeply, natural and conciously as you can. But don't force anything, it get's easier with time. As you exhale go deeper into the stretch, as you inhale come a little out of the stretch. With the next exhalation go even deeper...

Also drinking enough water is a great point besides nutrition. Definetly experiment what works for you. For me for example if i would eat meat my flexibility goes down a lot. I even feel changes with dairy. So you might want to avoid foods that make the ph-level of your body too acid.

And be patient. Flexibility improvement comes in longterm circles, so expect some days where you seem to be at day one again.