Any simple and effective ways to stretch your muscles and gain mobility and flexibility?

[Oneironaut]

I used to be into bodybuilding and powerlifting. Even though my physical strength went through the roof I feel that all the years of weighlifting made me slow, sluggish, stiff and poorly coordinated. I'm also trying to get back into martial arts. 

 

Does anyone know of any simple and effective ways to counteract all the bad side effects of weight lifting? I heard hatha yoga may be good but I'm not really into yoga. Any other suggestions?

[Marblehead]

Tai Chi.  It hasn't failed me yet.

 

 

[Oneironaut]

What style of tai chi? I'm also open to chi kung.

[Marblehead]

Keep it simple starting off.  Do what the old ladies are doing in the YouTube videos.  When it starts getting boring you can advance.

 

[beingnature]

It may sound contradictory but zhang zhuang (standing meditation) made me much more flexible.I recommend the books of lam kam chuen! He also has great warm up exercise that could be a system by themself Just standing and sitting and later some spontaneous stuff made be flexible enough to sit in foll lotus which was absolutely unimaginable when i started with all of that. I somewhere read when you do stretches for mobility you have the risk of loosing power in your joints while taji or standing exercises will me make you flexible and strong...

[Oneironaut]

I looked into yin yoga with Paulie Zink and realized it's not for me. I don't doubt that tao yin works. I don't know.... maybe I'll give Paulie's material another chance.

 

Has anyone ever tried sotai ho or yi jin jing?

Edited July 22, 2017 by Oneironaut

[Cybele]

Have you heard of resistance stretching? It's the idea that muscles can only stretch if you contract them while lengthening. Looks a little like yoga, but the action within the stretch is very different:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAz7X9fQII

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDCCKlQm1Ak

 

I've had good results with it. Most of the stretches are available on YouTube.

 

[Aetherous]

Simple and effective, yes...if you know that a certain muscle is tight, stretch it most often. A way to know which one...look at stretches for all of the muscles, if one is most challenging and you don't have that range of motion, then focus on that one most.

 

18 hours ago, Oneironaut said:

slow, sluggish, stiff and poorly coordinated. I'm also trying to get back into martial arts. 

 

Martial arts sounds like the remedy for those things. You could also go for jogs and sprints, and do agility training.

[idquest]

IME taiji is not enough, not even talking about qigong. I had thought I was doing good job on flexibility with taiji and neigong until I started to practice quite sitting for longer time, around 1 hr per session. This was when I realized how inflexible I was. If you want real flexibility, heavy duty yoga is your friend. Possible resistance stretching as Cybele mentioned, but still yoga.

[silent thunder]

I had very tense and tight hips and ankles for many years.   These stretches were helpful.  I grew up sitting cross legged on the floor most of the time, so getting half lotus was pretty quick.  Full lotus took a few years longer. 

 

There is no more intense stretching for me.  Not like I used to for Kung Fu and Sports with the straining, pushing and pulling.  I'm entirely done with the 'no pain, no gain' philosophy.  That is not helpful in my experience.

 

Stretching now is very gentle and based on breath and awareness in the point of tension.  The majority of it is informal and woven into my movements by breathing into body awareness at any given point where tension arises.

 

The more seated practice I engaged in, the more my hips seemed to open up.  Since much of the preliminary seated ritual is dropping the physical body in emptiness and silence. 

 

Lately, I suspect that the real source of flexibility is not in the pulling of muscles, but in relaxed presence.  It's in the breath and awareness.

 

 

 

[Fa Xin]

if you want to be flexible, you must stretch. 

 

Yoga! 

 

ashtanga is good I hear. 

[yyitself]

Hello everyone.

 

Thank for your suggestions.

 

I really need to improve my flexibility. For a long time, I had a sedentary life and now I perceive that my flexibility is poor.

Since I started to meditate, I began to do some stretches.

I found a channel on Youtube, the Yoga TX and they helped me a lot.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAwPqAM_ONIyI1EHU5hDe4Q

 

Still, my flexibility is far from perfect. Are there any stretches you can share that will allow me to sit cross-legged without discomfort for a while? 1 hour for example.

[Seatle185]

I have had success with "the genius of flexibility" personally which is resistance stretching - you can do some by yourself but preferably with a partner for harder to reach things  or you can also do it with pulley cords iv heard.

 

So it is saying that the best way to become more flexible is to resist with the muscles while stretching. I dont know about others, but personally i have found this method to work better than pulling and relaxing. 

 

Here are is a site that might explain a little better the method

 

https://www.thegeniusofflexibility.com/resistance-stretching/rfst.html

 

I hope it helps. There is also fascial stretching which iv heard is great but have never looked far into it. I use a foam roller every once in a while to massage the fascia but i cant say weather it helps directly with flexibility or not

[yyitself]

2 minutes ago, Seatle185 said:

I have had success with "the genius of flexibility" personally which is resistance stretching - you can do some by yourself but preferably with a partner for harder to reach things  or you can also do it with pulley cords iv heard.

 

So it is saying that the best way to become more flexible is to resist with the muscles while stretching. I dont know about others, but personally i have found this method to work better than pulling and relaxing. 

 

Here are is a site that might explain a little better the method

 

https://www.thegeniusofflexibility.com/resistance-stretching/rfst.html

 

I hope it helps. There is also fascial stretching which iv heard is great but have never looked far into it. I use a foam roller every once in a while to massage the fascia but i cant say weather it helps directly with flexibility or not

 

Thank you Seatle185!

 

I'll try it and I'll give you some feedback within a few days.

[Spotless]

When sitting in a chair cross your legs - work up to puttting your ankle on your knee - then the back of your foot up against you your belly. Switch legs and do this often - even under the table when you are at work or in a movie or at lunch.

 

Turn your head as far as you can from one side to the other - and turn your eyes as far as you can when doing this.

 

Regularly stretch your hand in front of you - pulling back the fingers with the other hand.

 

Bounce lightly but quickly and definitively on younfeet in a standing position - shake out your body.

 

bend your head down until your chin grinds into your chest and curl it up slowly with chin tucked until you cannot tuck it.

 

Have the tip of the tongue touching the top forward behind the teeth as if you just said "bite" - have it there always when possible.

 

Touch the ground with your hands at least 4 times a day - do it each time until the initial strain is gone.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2017 by Spotless

[gendao]

On 7/22/2017 at 3:01 PM, Oneironaut said:

I used to be into bodybuilding and powerlifting. Even though my physical strength went through the roof I feel that all the years of weighlifting made me slow, sluggish, stiff and poorly coordinated. I'm also trying to get back into martial arts.

How would you rate your flexibility in these 5 basic stretches?

[Hancock]

On 7/22/2017 at 3:01 PM, Oneironaut said:

I used to be into bodybuilding and powerlifting. Even though my physical strength went through the roof I feel that all the years of weighlifting made me slow, sluggish, stiff and poorly coordinated. I'm also trying to get back into martial arts. 

 

Does anyone know of any simple and effective ways to counteract all the bad side effects of weight lifting? I heard hatha yoga may be good but I'm not really into yoga. Any other suggestions?

 

[Stumpich]

On 7/22/2017 at 2:38 PM, Oneironaut said:

I looked into yin yoga with Paulie Zink and realized it's not for me. I don't doubt that tao yin works. I don't know.... maybe I'll give Paulie's material another chance.

 

Has anyone ever tried sotai ho or yi jin jing?

maybe Paulie is right - he just might not be the right teacher for you 

there is Paul Grilley - a student of Paulies 

& there is The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga Book

I like to download torrents

 

http://www.yinyoga.com/forums/index.php

Edited August 31, 2017 by Stumpich

[doc benway]

On 7/22/2017 at 4:01 PM, Oneironaut said:

I used to be into bodybuilding and powerlifting. Even though my physical strength went through the roof I feel that all the years of weighlifting made me slow, sluggish, stiff and poorly coordinated. I'm also trying to get back into martial arts. 

 

Does anyone know of any simple and effective ways to counteract all the bad side effects of weight lifting? I heard hatha yoga may be good but I'm not really into yoga. Any other suggestions?

 

Stretching / calisthenics would work just fine.

I have use a daily stretching routine I learned from a kung fu teacher years ago.

Yoga is wonderful but only if it is a good fit for you. 

A friend gave me a book some years ago called Kum Nye: Waking Up for Beginners by Stephanie Wright.

I can't attest to the origin of the practices but it did wonders for loosening my hips, especially.