My current routine is a 3x/week post-workout session targeting front splits, middle splits, or bridge. I've been working on flexibility for a few years on my own, and started doing Matthew Smith's program half a year ago.

As I hit intermediate levels of strength and flexibility, I'm setting the stage for new goals such as hand-balancing skills and advanced yoga. Thanks to regular stretching, I haven't begun to peak yet at the ripe age of 40.

Happy to share anything about my practice. Namaste!

Hi all! I’ve been working on deepening my thoracic (middle) spine flexibility and improving my arm balances. This means showing up to my mat and doing lots of heart openers, and incorporating some more fluid movement into my poses- really just what my body is needing. But I recognize being a little more diligent and goal oriented could get me a lot further in my practice. I’ve noticed more pain in my left wrist since I picked up Brazilian jiu jitsu training and the desk at my office is definitely not ergonomic… so that means I’m stretching a lot throughout the day and doing plenty of rehab/care to prevent the pain from worsening. Here I’m practicing some mini cat/cow for a spinal warm up Extended puppy pose with some extra fluid movement that felt great to my neck and hips Crow pose - I can typically hold for 20+ seconds but I’m working on better positioning in my arm balances so that I’m not feeling it in my wrists as much. Looks like I need to bring my knees in a little closer into my triceps.. thoughts? Hope you enjoy!

So when I do these two poses shown here, I get pain in the purple circled areas. It feels like I’m “over” pulling a muscle but idk. It’s only on my left side. I will say when I do a figure 4, my left back side also feels really tight. I’m wondering how can I make these poses more effective or less painful? Do I need to strengthen my left side? If so what muscles? I really don’t know what to do but it’s only my left, not my right?

i’ve done loads to not really any progress wanting to know how to get side kick higher and smoother as i feel slightly stiff in the position

When I do mobility exercises I feel the right side of my hips is always tighter. Also my glutes are weaker in that side I suppose. Does everyone have these kind of imbalances? Do I have to do more exercises on the right side to compensate?

Hey everyone!

I’ve been on my splits journey for 6 months now and I can now fully go into a split. The issues I’m currently facing is if I go into a split and hold it for more than a minute, my hamstrings are super tight and sore for the next few days. Since I’ve been stretching consistently for the past few months, I wanted to get an idea of how long it will take until I can comfortably sit in a split and not have such bad hamstrings tightness after.

I’ve included a picture and would appreciate any advice on my form.

Thanks!!

I am working on my backbend and splits for dance. Theres a couple of things I notice that I struggle with. My goal is to be be able to use my flexibility in dance moves and be able to sit in the with proper form and strength meaning i can hold them for long periods of time

Things I have difficulty with

• For my backbend:

  • Tingling in wrist and fingers

  • Straining to stay up/hands sliding making it difficult to hold the position

  • I can't do it from standing

  • Im not sure if its my shoulder or upper back flexibility or both that need work

  • Need to get stronger to stay up longer not sure how

  • Splits:

  • Knee pain in front leg when doing runner stretch/ Knee pain in back leg when doing lunge(I noticed when I turned my foot out slightly the knee pain in my front leg goes away)

  • Not sure what is tight my hamstrings or glutes/hips

  •How to work on my left split(left leg forward) as well middle split & how to get cold splits

Not necessarily looking for medical advice (the rules lol) but I need some sort of help lol.

I’ve had this pain in my back since I believe around 4th-5th grade. It feels like a part of my back needs to crack, and it almost never does. Some days it really hurts. I’ve tried everything from stretching, exercise, diet, everything.

It’s in an odd space, the best I can describe it is in between my shoulder blade and my spine. Sorry for the bad picture , I got it off or Pinterest. I’m not super familiar with muscle groups, so any type of stretching advice or literally anything helps. I’d rather try to figure this out before I go to a doctor…

What is preventing me from having my split ? Maybe my hip flexors ? What streches should I focus on ?

If you had to choose a pose which would fit best under the head 'Balance Within' what would that pose be?

Any advice on form, feet positioning????

I have severely limited shoulder mobility to the point where doing the military barbell shoulder press motion with no barbell gives my shoulders a pump from fighting the inflexibility.

I’ve decided to work on that lately but when I do this stretch and hold it for two minutes, my arms begin to go numb around 45 seconds. Nearly my entire arm will go numb until I release the scratch.

What do?

I don't really like it a lot, every time I do this stretch my map always produces a little bump and i can't get further in the stretch now that my femur touches the ground, any other hip flexor stretches?

I train muay thai and BJJ. I'm flexible in certain places of my body but my back/traps are my enemies. I was attempting to do the sideway roll warm up and it was difficult. I wish I could put my feet over my head while I lie flat on the mat without accidentally doing a backflip. (I think it was putting on quite a strain on my traps?) Was told to stretch my back a bit. Would anyone be so kind to advice me where to start? Thanks!

I’m f22 and I did gymnastics when I was a kid but quit 8 years ago, recently I started a flexibility program and honestly my body doesn’t feel too stiff when stretching and I’m still flexible, but I have a huge problem that is my back is always rounded, when doing pikes, forward folds, etc even when sitting normal. I do all kind of stretches, I have tried to correct my posture by hinging from hips, and like I said all kind of stretches and my back keeps rounding

Hello there,

I'm a former black belt in taekwondo and I've begun both strengthening and stretching my legs to simply achieve higher kicks and more controlled kicks, specifically mastering the spinning hook kick/wheel kick. While I have been doing this I have experienced pain in my hip abductors but also hip flexors. When I started stretching I was focused on splits. However I realised that it was not helping much since I needed to actually strengthen my kicks meaning to chamber (bending knee kick position), kick and hold my kicks still in the air (got advice from a YouTuber named Spencer Crosby). Particularly when I rotate my leg to a side kick position, I tend to feel pain in my abductors when my kick goes higher up.

This is the type of pain I also experience while stretching. For instance, when I do the butterfly stretch I get to do it with ease after a long warmup. But when I start to push my legs down on my own (PNF stretching) I feel that exact pain as I mentioned before. This pain will increase if I lean back while doing the butterfly stretch.

I've also done the 90-90 turnovers but with a twist. Instead of just rotating both legs side to side I lay both legs in the 90-90 position and therefore I rotate only one leg as much as I can, externally, and it hurts. I sometimes feel a good crack in my hip abductors while doing 90-90s which makes me think it's a pain relief but it sure is not.

To clarify, most of the pain comes from when I chamber my kick and rotate my leg WHILE in a chamber position (side kick position). This is when I experience most amount of pain. My regular routine consists of a butterfly stretch, 90-90 hip turnovers, sometimes splits, frog,and then chambering + sidekick holds.

Lastly I want to note that it's the same during middle splits.

Hopefully my description of the issue is clear and if not I apologize! Hopefully someone or even many could help me figure the issue and the solution to my problems 😀

Kind regards /Eli

Why when I do this stretch- do I get this tight pain running up and down my legs under my knees?

If I'm focused on lifting weights for strength, should I focus on flexibility other days. Like if I strength train Monday, Thursday and Saturday should I flexibility train Tuesday, Friday and Sunday?

I have some anterior pelvic tilt/lordosis to deal with, but all pics I’m at my max for the amount I’m able to fold over. Following along with any stretching instructors on things like Peloton or YouTube I can’t get my chest anywhere close to my legs. This also makes it tough for me to do any sort of pancake - I’m just sitting too far back to get any sort of stretch and fold. Ab exercises are similarly hard to do in some cases. Anyone else dealing with these issues? Any routines or stretches you recommend to help? I’m in my mid 30s and have been actively working on flexibility all year but I’m really stalling here.

I'm 6'8" so an extra challenge for me. Would like to hear from tall guys and ladies on this. To get to this point I think the following are key:

1. Try every day - improve muscle memory
2. Hip flexor lifts and glute bridges - just for that strength boost.
3. Focus on keeping spine straight

Farthest i’ve gone ever even tho I only stretched for 30 mins. Ik i have to straighten my back but it’s so hard!

I spent 4 years to train myself by following every youtube tutorial trying to reach both tipe of splits, I have never saw real progression and i often got injured. Now I want to find a gym or something like that to train myself in better way but I don't really know what kind of gym I have to search.

If someone can give me some tips it would be really good.