When people hear “flexibility”, each individual would think a few “focus areas”, usually a small number, rarely more than 10. Many would only think of hamstring or lower-back or shoulder. I try to look at more areas. My toughest poses are mostly about leg spread out (open-up), which requires extension in lower back.
- hurdler (no yoga pose) — i’m worse than about 40 boys in my class, but not sure about other guys
- I have never stretched the other side !
- 🙂 never done in yoga
- 🙂 sitting on blocks helps a lot
- pancake pose i.e. open-leg sit-n-reach fwd. To avoid falling backward, I need to sit on 2 blocks!
- fish — thigh,
- but top of my feet is too tight. I think i need some firm support there just to stretch the thigh.
- I can use yoga blocks beneath my back
- —- improving:
- three-legged dog, but …
- 🙂 mostly due to weak muscle to lift the back leg, even though that leg could go higher.
- bending the standing knee helps
- half-lotus [Nov-Dec 2018]
- —- not so bad in terms of my gap behind others
- pigeon?
- 🙂 many men and women are very poor
- 🙂 I can use blocks to help stabilize my form, even at home
- front split, compared to average guys
- frog — comfortable
- praying hands behind the back
— gravity makes a huge difference to my range-of-motion many tough poses
- eg: split-plow is good for 1) lower-back 2)adductor; holding toes in open-leg stand is better for 1) adductor 2) lower-back… much better than pancake pose
- eg: warrior is much better than 3-leg dog, lie-down split or standing split
— Q: Why do I bother to write down this list? A key reason is the “wipe_out“, same as coding drill. So in a yoga group practicing the my worst poses, I get the heaviest blow… blow to my self-motivation, self-hope for improvement self-esteem.
Therefore, it’s better to know the worst enemy before the encounter with it.