Stretching (or Whatever) Is Not for Me
04Dec13
A reader of Stretching Scientifically has sent me this:
“Hi. I have bought the Stretching Scientifically but I think it is not for me… I have tight hamstring and I can barely reach my knees with my legs straight (reaching my toes is a dream…). I have also started karate and with the kicks I feel a lot of pressure in the inner thighs. Any advice please?”
Reply:
My advice is to ponder this statement by Lao-Tsu: “The longest journey begins with a single step” or its better translation, “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.”
To the above I can add what W. L. Bateman said, “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
Filed under: Flexibility and Stretching | 6 Comments
Tags: flexibility training, karate, kicks, Lao-Tsu, Stretching Scientifically, Thomas Kurz, W. L. Bateman
Stick with it. Mr. Kurz knows what he’s talking about. Take your time, but believe that you can achieve it if you work at it. Or don’t, and find happiness in other aspects of your life.
Also take a look at the kicking w/ out warm up DVD. I have all of them, a lot of great info…
I can attest from my own personal experience that anyone can benefit from the information in “Stretching Scientifically”, it doesn’t matter if you’re hard like a tree trunk. Personally, this book helped me to realize all the things I was doing wrong in my martial arts training. I bought it to learn how to do the splits and what I found was the starting point of my long journey to heal my knee pains, hips and knee arthrosis, sacroileitis, adductors tears, and others issues caused by bad training. After about 3 years, I’m still working on achieving the strength necessary to do isometrics (so no splits yet) but I’ve healed my knees, hips and back pains almost completely. You just have to READ CAREFULLY, read the articles on this website about proper conditioning in the right sequence, improve your nutrition and be PATIENT and CONSTANT.
It’s such a shame in our western society that we are not taught to think for ourselves anymore. Being rational, making decisions based on the evidence available and taking personal responsibility just seem too outrageous to teach to our young and pass on. This is the result!
So how long will it take a totaly untraind person to get strong enough in squats and dead lifts to be abel to do a side split???
If it took Mr. Fabian Barrera 3 years but he still can’t do it.
Should one focus on strengh before flexibility?
Thank you
“So how long will it take a totaly untraind person to get strong enough in squats and dead lifts to be abel to do a side split???”
Clearly that depends on the person in question, no? Their age, diet, sleep pattern, how often they train, the quality of their training and so many other things!
The box splits and back bridge may seem unfeasible at first and therefore you get disheartened. However, just think how much better you would feel if you were 2-3 cm more flexible, and strong with that too?
Just get started and use these resources to help you get into a habit. The rest will take care of itself.
Good luck.