Two years of stretching...

[flexagon]

A year ago I showed the first set of "one year of flexibility improvement" pictures. Today we took some more. I am a little testy that this comes near the end of my hamstring rehabilitation, but decided to stick to my schedule. These are supposed to be representative of "pretty good for now", not "best ever", anyway.

As usual, heisenbug was behind the lens, and the cats sneaked their way into a lot of the pictures. :)

Same pictures as ever. But this year I'm wearing socks!

Butterfly stretch / baddakonasana

Boring...

Assisted forward fold

Please to politely ignore cat coming out of butt this year.

Reverse Namaste

My palms aren't flat against each other, but still!

Backbend

I'm shifted more over my shoulders, and my hips are more open (I can tell because the pubic bone is more visible). I thought at first this hadn't improved, until I saw how much shorter my stance is this year and started to look for reasons why.

Walking it in just for fun

Left splits

Remember Hedwig and the Angry Inch? This is flexagon and the angry inch. I have touched this one down, but only twice.

Right splits

I have no idea how my right has almost caught up with my left, especially considering the hurt hamstring. I haven't been working on these splits for over a month! One theory: stretching it 3x/day has been good for it.

Double pigeon / full pigeon / box pose, left:

right:

Creeeeeeeak! On the right, we have touchdown.

Straddle, still the toughest stretch of all

I will be lying on the floor one day if I don't get hit by a bus. Check back in 2019 or so.

Center "split"

This one got worse according to a digitally overlaid protractor, but the camera was higher up, so who knows. Dear adductors: beating will continue until morale improves.

Comments

[nevers.livejournal.com]

your shoulders may not be as open as you'd like but your backbend really is terrific! envy! yay progress :)

[flexagon]

*smiles* yeah, it's a happy spine. i can actually get more over my shoulders than that, but I have to remember to... and it still feels freaky.

naturally, i take this good feature completely for granted as i gaze enviously at everyone else's splits. :)

speaking of things to envy and admire, wherrrrrrre is my video of hs-to-frog?

[nevers.livejournal.com]

oh! i totally forgot about videoing that. maybe tomorrow.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your progress!

I'm in the middle of rebuilding my strength/flexibility: until they diagnosed me with fibro, I was terrified I'd been injuring myself, but now that I know the difference between the pain from doing-oneself-an-injury vs. stupid-fibro-pain, I'm able to continue with my practice.

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

good work!
i'm working on splits right now...hard stuff, especially if you are wearing boxers while doing them.

i've torn two pair that way.

[figmint.livejournal.com]

Wow! Dare I say you have a rockin' bod! haha You should be a reader-model for Shape mag, have you seen their reader-models? You'd be great.

I'm signing up for yoga here at work. It's a start. I'm terribly inflexible. oddly, the one stretch I can do to an amazing extent is the straddle. I hope to do splits (again) one day. I used to do them when I was a cheerleader in high school.

[flexagon]

Aw... thanks! Being a reader model would be fun! Sadly, that way lies madness too. One day it sounds so harmless to model for a couple of fitness pictures, but the next day I could find myself dehydrated and fake-tan and spraying myself with Pam cooking oil to look good under the lights. I dunno about all that; I feel I'm just getting to the point of having fun with motion and fitness. Doing it for how it looks also makes sense, but I've sorta done that already. Now I'm more about "come play with me!"

Please to post picture of your straddle so that I may green with envy turn?

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Love all the pics, yer so pretty. Yeah, I know that's not the point, but whatev. I particularly like namaste and right pidgeon. You look peaceful and comfortable in those.

S looks completely unfazed to be exiting your butt, she's so brave.

One comment about the backbend (aside from it being gorgeous) - try to keep your feet aligned with your body and not turned out. It's a common cheat to get the bend higher by turning your feet out, but it can come back to bite you in the butt for walkovers and stuff.

[flexagon]

Let me assure you that no comfort was involved in those particular poses -- all of these were my max for the day in fact, so there's no comfort anywhere except maybe the looser backbend.

(I do find it comfortable and pleasant for S to be half in and half out of my butt; you're right, it's interesting that she doesn't mind, but you know, if you get them used to it from when they're kittens it doesn't have to be a big deal.)

Feet sneaking away from me again -- you're so right. Sigh!

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Look at the double pigeon - you're just kind of looking down thoughtfully. Now, maybe what you are thinking so thoughtfully is something along the lines of "Jeebus I'm breaking my hips", but it could also pass for "I like this rug. Rugs are good."

[flexagon]

If you must know, I was thinking "I have no memory of where I put my hands in this position last year. Usually I keep them under my knees, but if I do that they'll make the picture unclear. What the hell did I DO last time? Maybe if I just put them here in my lap it'll be okay." :)