Day 173 of stretching and flexibility journey

Date: November 5th, 2024

Target muscles: hamstrings

During the hamstring (lunge) exercise, I hold and prop myself with my arms, my tummy constantly making contact with my (target) thigh. I notice that when I try to deliberately relax my upper body and arms, the intensity of the hamstring stretch violently increases. As I type this, I think this makes sense since during relaxation of upper my body, I’m probably shifting the work onto the hamstrings. In any case, I was reflecting on today’s session and was curious and compare yesterday’s lunge range of motion compared to that of 2 months ago and though I know and feel a difference in my body, seems to me that the increase range of motion is probably a few small degrees. I will say I do notice what I consider for me significant gains in the hip flexor range of motion and as a result, I’m inching my way closer and closer to a forward split.

Also, still trying to experiment with the forward fold — emphasizing hamstring, not lower back — and by hinging at the hips, though I still feel the stretch strongly in my hamstrings, I also now feel the stretch not in my lower back, but towards the middle. And, even with the assistance of the band wrapped around my feet, I’m not fully able to relax in the stretch and feel that hinging in the hips requires more “effort” of the hips, and I actually produce a sweat every time I attempt the forward fold.

Separately, yesterday my body signaled to me that during the hamstring lunge, to point the toes since that increased the stretch for me in location of the hamstring that isn’t targeted when I am flexing my foot back.