Help me with flexibility
After years and years of sitting in front of a computer I have poor hamstring flexibility.
The thing is i've been lifting weights pretty regularly for at least 8 years now and have good numbers on squat, deadlift, bench. I do a lot of romanian deadlifts and kettlebell swings.
But these don't seem to help with sitting at 90º with my legs straight.
I can search for flexibility routine, but the internet these days are full of ad riddled and generic content that I'm having a hard time filtering through the bullshit and finding something that says "do this 3 times per week, progress like this, etc". They just throw some stretches at you and don't say exactly how to progress and what to look for.
It's not like lifting weights that you put more weight on the bar to quantify things easily.
I was In a similar spot until I started a regular yoga practice. 15-20 a day can work wonders. It’s worth taking a couple private lessons with a good teacher. Tell them what you want to focus on and they’ll present you with some good sequences.
Since it improves overall flexibility and not just your hamstrings, I'd suggest what my wife did:
Yoga
My wife was a dancer (ballet and Irish) for about 15 years, stopped, and developed the same poor flexibility as you over the years. She also tried many of the internet stretches and while some seemed effective, none solved all her flexibility issues. Yoga has brought her back to the flexibility she had while she danced and then some. It's varied approach and intensity depending on the class has helped her tremendously and with muscles she "didn't even know she had".
There's plenty on YouTube. LivinLeggings has a lot of great resources on how to increase flexibility. She's a yoga instructor, and yoga is actially really good for this. She specifically has routines that can be done in a set timeframe a few times a week.
Movementbydavid is entirely flexibility training with regards to calisthenics. He does a lot of shorts, but I found them helpful.
Upright Health does longer videos about things like Asian squats, which require good hamstring and ankle mobility.
Most resources I've found generally follow the same recommendation: Bend your knees a bit, touch your toes, and straighten one or both legs until you feel a stretch, and just treat it like a small squat. The major goal here is to get those muscles used to stretching that far over time. Your main marker for progress is how straight your legs can go with the same sensation of tension. You can also just see how easy itnis to touch your toes/how close you get every week as a measure.
Thanks! I'm checking those channels trying to find some basic beginner routine.
The asian squat is squatting deep in the ground like this? I can stay in that position forever and my hamstrings flexibility suck.
Edit: i really liked Movementbydavid. It's pretty straightforward.
Yeah, that's the squat.
A lot of this is also brain/muscle connection and so between these channels you'll see active drills to build adaptation and strength in these more extreme positions.
As a side note Pavel Tsatsouline also has a solid book with stretches and theory called "Relax into Stretch" that details three major methods for developing flexibility: Relaxation into extended stretching, excercising into extended positions, and a section fatiguing a muscle group into failure to shut down the protective response. He only advocates for the first two, but uses the third as an extreme example that he has utilized as a trainer. It's a bit old, but it's one of the earliest things I've seen around the newer idea of active stretching and mobility training.
During lockdown I just started following a YouTube yoga program and it helped with my flexibility and strength a great deal. It’s easier than you think once you make it part of your daily routine.
I recommend https://youtube.com/@BreatheAndFlow they have great videos for beginners, men, women etc
I'm a big fan of Tom Merrick on YouTube. His channel can be a bit vloggy, but he has several 10-30 minute flexibility routines that are really good. After following along with them several times, I found the stretches I liked and have kind of put together my own routine. He also has some more in depth routines for things like splits, pancakes, etc. if you ever want to go down that path.