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The Blueprint to Get Flexible Once, Forever — Transcript

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0:00This is the blueprint to get flexible
0:02one time and keep it forever. And I'm
0:04going to walk you through what's holding
0:06you back, optimal training programs, and
0:09how often you should train your ability
0:10to achieve it. Starting with step one,
0:14your flexibility ladder. A flexibility
0:16ladder is all the things that
0:17restricting your flexibility and at what
0:20level they're limiting you. They can be
0:22different muscles, nerve tensions,
0:23technique issues, strength deficits, and
0:26[music] more. I created the flexibility
0:28ladder to show you how in order to
0:30achieve your goal flexibility. [music]
0:32You need to move everything to at least
0:34that level. Anything below your goal
0:36level is limiting you. Which is why it's
0:39so important to identify what is below
0:41your goal level as these are the only
0:43areas of your body that you [music] need
0:45to improve. The problem is most people
0:48don't solve for the limiting factors.
0:50Instead, they just do stretches for the
0:52most commonly focused areas like the
0:53hamstrings or lats, or [music] just
0:55stretch where they feel it. But that is
0:58probably not your personal limitation.
1:01The breakthrough progress you're after
1:02is found by working on the lowest things
1:04on your personal flexibility ladder. So,
1:07you need to find what's lowest, fix
1:09those areas until they're at [music] or
1:12above the level you need to achieve your
1:15goal flexibility. And you might be
1:17wondering, how do I have any authority
1:19to speak on the subject? Well, let me
1:20tell you something insane. After 6 years
1:23of normal stretching, my flexibility
1:25looked [music] like this. I was super
1:27tight, genetically not flexible, and
1:30holding basic stretches did not work for
1:32me. I was nowhere near the splits, and
1:35there was a very long way for me to get
1:37my head [music] to touch my toe. It
1:39wasn't until I figured out my own
1:41flexibility ladder that I was able to
1:43transform my flexibility as an adult.
1:46Then I applied the flexibility ladder to
1:47help other people from all different
1:49levels and age groups do the [music]
1:50same. From students in their teens and
1:52early 20s all the way up to achieving
1:54their splits in their 50s and up to 65
1:57years old. [music] These results were
1:59achieved through the mobility and
2:00flexibility toolkit and my private
2:02coaching for elite athletes, which took
2:04Cam Makavoy from 29th in the Tokyo 2021
2:08Olympics before working with me to
2:10becoming the fastest swimmer in the
2:12world, winning [music] Olympic gold in
2:14Paris 2024. I say this not to show off,
2:17but to prove to you that it is possible
2:19to transform your mobility as an adult.
2:21[music] To do this, we need to identify
2:23what is lowest on your flexibility
2:26ladder with an assessment. Right now,
2:28you're on one of two paths. Path one is
2:31stretching like an amateur. [music]
2:33Your stretches are chosen based on what
2:35flows well or where you feel it the
2:36most, hoping that it hits the right
2:39area. You didn't measure progress at the
2:41start or test to see what is the
2:43problem, leaving you blind to whether
2:45your training is working. And if you're
2:47lucky that some things are making that
2:49little bit of improvement, you
2:50definitely don't know why. So, you can't
2:53maximize a result. Now, on path number
2:55two is stretching like a pro. You
2:58measure your starting level, test which
3:00muscles are tight, and find out whether
3:02you need to focus on increasing your
3:03range of motion or building your
3:05strength to go with your range. This is
3:08then used to build a program where you
3:10intentionally choose in which order to
3:12train your body. So, you deliberately
3:14select the three to five stretches that
3:15will target what you need the most, and
3:18you optimize the training schedule with
3:19one or two flexibility sessions per week
3:22that work alongside your other sports,
3:24strength [music] training, and daily
3:26life. It's like chopping down a tree
3:28with a blunt axe. Path one is how I used
3:30to think it worked. You pick up the axe
3:33and start chopping. 4 hours later, the
3:35tree falls down. Now, in path two, you
3:38spend the first 30 minutes sharpening
3:40the axe and then you start chopping. 1
3:43hour later, the tree falls. On both
3:45paths, you have the same axe and the
3:47same tree. But on path two, it takes
3:50half the time. Assessing your
3:52flexibility before training is the same
3:54as sharpening that axe before cutting
3:56the tree. Let's say you want to build
3:58your flexibility ladder for your
4:00shoulders with muscle length tests. To
4:03do this, we're going to use these bands
4:04to look at the muscles that get
4:06stretched mostly when you lift your arms
4:08overhead. In this case, we've got the
4:10pec major, the red band, subscapularis
4:13and tererry's major as a green band, and
4:15laps, [music] the blue band. If we want
4:17to isolate out the pec major, we can
4:19bring the arm back behind us. You'll
4:22notice that only the red band is now
4:23being stretched. If we want to isolate
4:26and test subscapularis and teras major,
4:28we can externally rotate the shoulder.
4:32Now, this is just going to place the
4:33stretch on subscapularis and terrace
4:35major to isolate these out. For the
4:37lats, it's a little bit more confusing
4:39because any movement of the arm is going
4:41to change all of these. So, we can use
4:44the fact that they're the only ones to
4:45cross the lower back by rounding our
4:47lower back position more to relatively
4:50stretch the lats and isolate those out.
4:53In this case, if we analyze Dash's
4:55overhead mobility, he needs to focus on
4:57his lats. Let's look at another example.
5:00If your goal is to touch your toes, most
5:02people think it's just about stretching
5:03the hamstrings, but there's more to it
5:05than that. We also stretch muscles like
5:07your adductor magnus and gastronmas.
5:09Your hip and spine flexors have to
5:11contract and be strong to pull you into
5:13position. The sciatic nerve gets
5:15tensioned and more. So we should test
5:17our flexibility to fold forwards but
5:20also test to see if we have the strength
5:21in our hip flexors to be strong enough
5:23to lift our leg alongside our
5:25flexibility. We can test the sciatic
5:27nerve and more. Together, they will give
5:30us a much clearer picture to our
5:32flexibility ladder and therefore what is
5:34holding us back. Even in the splits,
5:36take a look at Sundra versus Suniv's
5:38passive and isometric side splits. Sunva
5:41is much more flexible, but Sundur is
5:43much stronger in his range. They have
5:45different flexibility ladders.
5:47Therefore, Sunniva should work on more
5:49active flexibility and getting stronger,
5:51while Surer should work on more passive
5:53flexibility approaches and increasing
5:55his total flexibility. If you only take
5:58one thing away, it's that there's always
6:00a limiting factor. The thing at the
6:02bottom of your flexibility ladder that
6:04is limiting you most. We assess to find
6:06the lowest thing on the flexibility
6:08ladder, fix it, then fix the next lowest
6:11thing on the ladder, and repeat until
6:12you've reached the level you want. But
6:14what is the level of flexibility you
6:16need? A lot of people come to me saying
6:18they want to improve their hip mobility
6:19or shoulder mobility. But what does this
6:22mean? If we think about it like
6:23strength, [music] the goal of hip
6:25strength or shoulder strength does not
6:26really make sense. These joints can do
6:28lots of things. That's why in the world
6:30of strength training, instead of hip
6:32strength, we aim to improve something
6:34like the squat, deadlift, or vertical
6:36jump. Instead of shoulder strength, we
6:38work on our push or pull strength, which
6:40can then be broken down further into
6:42movements like the overhead press, flat
6:44or decline, and so forth. Strength goals
6:47are based on movement patterns.
6:49Flexibility goals should be [music] too.
6:51Rather than doing vague hip mobility
6:53drills, you need flexibility that
6:55actually works in movement. Because
6:57stretching one muscle in isolation does
6:59not guarantee you can use that
7:01flexibility whilst moving. As other
7:03muscles, nerves and tissues become
7:05involved. Greater coordination is
7:07required and the demands on your body
7:09increase. This is why we break
7:11flexibility down into a series of
7:13skills. Working towards these
7:15flexibility skills is where the real
7:17transformations happen. Because
7:19flexibility does not just make you less
7:21tight. Flexibility makes things easy.
7:24Front splits and bridging equaled easier
7:26access to learning arching acrobatics
7:28and gave me [music] more options in
7:29darts. Improving my pancake allows me to
7:32compress enough to start press. Being
7:34able to sidlit means I can now bridge
7:36wider in climbing [music] and have a
7:37lower center of mass in my one- arm
7:39handstands. Shoulders opened up straight
7:41line handstands, bridging, and [music]
7:43more. And maybe somewhat
7:44counterintuitively, it even made
7:46strength moves like the one- arm chin-up
7:48easier to [music] access. All of these
7:50changes happened as an adult. I did not
7:53start young. Many of the movements I can
7:55do now would be impossible if I did not
7:57take the time to improve my mobility and
7:59flexibility when I started. Becoming
8:02flexible pays itself into the future.
8:04The sooner you achieve the range, the
8:06quicker you'll improve in a wide variety
8:08of sports because flexibility gives you
8:11a performing edge.
8:12>> [music]
8:12>> So, which flexibility skill should you
8:14start with? It depends on your goal. For
8:17many, it's about restoring your ability
8:19to touch your toes again or reach
8:21overhead with ease. Each sport or daily
8:24life activity has an optimal way of
8:26moving to maximize your effectiveness.
8:28The better you can execute these
8:30movements, the better your technique,
8:31the better you perform. It's your
8:33mobility that allows you to get into the
8:35proper positions to execute on that
8:37technique. You can be the strongest with
8:39the most work capacity, but if you can't
8:41get into the position for the optimal
8:43technique, then your strength gets
8:45bottlenecked by your lack of mobility.
8:48Having the mobility required is what
8:49allows you to use all of your strength
8:51potential as it goes through that
8:53optimal technique. And you don't just
8:55have to brute force your way through it
8:57with something less efficient. Don't
8:59just take my word for it. I've been
9:00coaching Andre Strong towards his
9:02pancake and splits. He's one of the
9:04strongest and most famous calisthenics
9:06athletes in the world. [music] I mean
9:07strong is literally in his name. Here's
9:09his perspective on why flexibility
9:11matters. I realized that flexibility
9:15it's matter a lot especially for the
9:17athlete and also just for the normal
9:19person [music] to be able to perform
9:21skill on the high level. You need to
9:23work on your flexibility. Not only the
9:25split, not only the pake but also the
9:27shoulders. If you have a great shoulder
9:29flexibility, it will be way easier to
9:30perform. So I understand that
9:32flexibility should be part of the
9:34journey for the every athlete. Almost
9:36every sport has at least one flexibility
9:39skill that correlates to the sport
9:40specific movements and technique. Even
9:43outside of sport, daily life has its own
9:45requirements as lacking mobility can
9:47make it harder to pick things up and
9:49lift them overhead, harder to hang off a
9:51bar, and harder to sit on the floor and
9:53play with the kids. Almost all mobility
9:56goals will fit into one of these skills,
9:58including pike, which is touching your
10:00toes, [music] pancake, side split, front
10:03split, bridge, shoulder flexion,
10:06shoulder extension, and being able to
10:08comfortably squat. For Andre, he needed
10:11to improve his [music] pancake and side
10:13splits. Now, before you think to
10:15yourself, I'm not sure if any of these
10:17patterns applies to my body. First, you
10:19should understand that these skills
10:20encompass many joint ranges of motion.
10:23In strength, what's more important? Your
10:25leg extension or your back squat? The
10:28back squat. Your biceps curl or your
10:30pull-up? It's the pull-up. Why? Because
10:32they have more transfer over to real
10:34life because they involve your body
10:36working together as one. These
10:38flexibility skills do the same. And
10:41that's why they improve performance.
10:43[music] That's why you should focus on
10:44them rather than a generic routine. even
10:47if you're just wanting to move a little
10:49bit better, you have to solve all the
10:50individual joint limitations in order to
10:52create the progress required for the
10:54larger skill. So, even if your goal is
10:56not to achieve a full split, improving
10:58towards it will likely give you the
11:00benefits you're looking for. Let's look
11:02at some examples. Olympic swimmer Cam
11:04Makavoy hired me to help him improve his
11:0650 m freestyle. To swim as fast as
11:09possible, you need to be streamlined as
11:11you dive into the water, fluid with your
11:14underwater kicks, and be able to pull
11:16with power on each stroke of the
11:17freestyle technique. This requires your
11:20shoulders, hips, and spine to be
11:22flexible, but also strong in their range
11:24of motion. Open shoulders, spine, and
11:26hip extension are the pieces to a
11:28bridge. Yet, how many swimmers do you
11:30see training for the bridge? Almost
11:32none. My job with Cam is to organize all
11:35of his training outside of the swimming.
11:37I program his mobility, strength,
11:39periodization and so forth. We use the
11:42bridge as our metric of mobility
11:44success. As a bridge improves, his
11:46performance should improve with it. So,
11:48we worked on shoulder, spine, and hip
11:50mobility and integrated them into the
11:53bridge. We made his ranges strong and
11:55peaked it into his swimming [music]
11:56performance. Cam transformed his
11:58flexibility as part of his journey to
12:00becoming the fastest swimmer in the
12:01world. From 29th in the 2021 Olympics,
12:05Cam is now the 2023 World Champion, 2024
12:08Olympic champion, and 2025 World
12:11Champion. The principles that make
12:13someone win Olympic gold are
12:15surprisingly similar to those that help
12:16someone starting to move more freely
12:18again for the first time, even after
12:21decades of neglect. I focus on elite
12:23performance because only the top
12:25approaches will work, leaving no room
12:27for ideas that only kind of work. It
12:30takes the most fierce competition to
12:32find the truly excellent methods that
12:34actually get the best result. And trust
12:36me, those methods work just as well for
12:39everyone else. Our student here is an
12:41example of bringing his shoulder ability
12:43back to being able to hang again for the
12:45first time in over a decade. His
12:48flexibility skill focus was being able
12:49to lift his arms overhead and touch his
12:51toes. Now, we know the flexibility
12:54ladder. [music] We have the goal
12:55flexibility skill and we've done an
12:57assessment to find what's holding you
12:59back from achieving that goal. Now we
13:01can go to the next stage and turn this
13:03into a training program. And here's the
13:05trick. The order of exercises in
13:07stretching is typically the opposite to
13:10strength training. So traditionally in
13:12strength training, we start with a big
13:13compound movement when we're fresh at
13:15the start, like a [music] chin-up, and
13:17then follow it up with more accessory
13:19movements like a biceps curl. In
13:21flexibility training, we do the
13:22opposite. We start with a smaller
13:24isolated stretches like for our
13:26hamstrings and hip flexors. This then
13:28opens up our range ready for the bigger
13:30compound movement like a front split. We
13:33do this because stretching experiences a
13:35multiplying effect which I call stretch
13:37stacking. Imagine you do two different
13:39stretches, one for your shoulders and
13:41one for your hips. Through stretching
13:43this way, we make one unit of progress
13:45for our shoulders and one for our hips.
13:48A total of two units of progress for the
13:50session. Now imagine you do two
13:52stretches, but this time they're both
13:54for your shoulders. The first stretch
13:56might open up range in the pec major
13:58muscle, which then means the second
14:00exercise, let's say that's for your
14:02lats, can then go further because the
14:04pec no longer limits the lat stretch as
14:06much. This creates an effect where 1 + 1
14:09equals three as each exercise stacks on
14:12top of the previous, [music] which takes
14:14each session much further than trying to
14:16improve everywhere at once. As each
14:18exercise is helping open up things for
14:20the next. By intelligently selecting
14:23three to five stretches that are all
14:25aligned towards the same skill, you can
14:27benefit from the stretch stacking
14:29effect. That's what we do, and that's
14:31how you can also make big jumps in your
14:33mobility and flexibility. [music]
14:35When you train this way, you'll likely
14:36see progress almost every session as
14:39everything is working together. Imagine
14:42every time you stretched, you went
14:43deeper and unlocked extra range of
14:45motion. What would that do for you? For
14:48me, it gave me confidence in the
14:49direction I was going. The next step is
14:52to choose which exercises to use. As
14:54they say to the person with a hammer,
14:56every problem looks like a nail. But not
14:59everything in life is a nail. That's why
15:01it's important to have different tools
15:03in your toolkit. The same applies to
15:05stretching. Some people overly focus on
15:08just one stretching method and then
15:10their progress stops and they wonder
15:11why. To give you more chances of
15:13success, let's look at the assisted
15:16resisted spectrum. It's a powerful tool
15:18to know which exercises you should focus
15:20on. And Maria is going to show us an
15:22example with the side splits. First,
15:25there's heavily assisted. The full force
15:27of your body weight and gravity is
15:29pushing you deeper into the [music]
15:30stretch. If we flip this upside down
15:33with small ankle weights, we're now
15:35assisted. The weights combined with the
15:37leverage of our legs assists us into the
15:39stretch, but not as much as our entire
15:41body weight before. Remove the ankle
15:44weights and there's significantly less
15:46helping you deeper. So, it's a more
15:48neutral position. We transition as it
15:50becomes more about being able to pull
15:52yourself into position. To make it
15:55resisted, we can perform a standing tilt
15:57by lifting the leg against gravity. Add
16:00weight to this and it's now heavily
16:02resisted where we strength train through
16:04our existing range of motion. These
16:06zones form the main stages of the
16:08assisted to resisted spectrum and can be
16:11applied across the flexibility skills.
16:14As you move from left to right across
16:15these spectrums, you go from being
16:17pulled by something else into the
16:19stretch to using your own strength to
16:21pull yourself into the stretch. [music]
16:23So flexibility and strength training are
16:25not opposites, but two ends of the same
16:27spectrum. Pretty much every exercise can
16:30be placed on this spectrum, which means
16:31we now have many ways of targeting our
16:34training. Assisted training allows you
16:36to stretch deeper, [music]
16:37whilst resisted training makes your
16:39range stronger and more usable, whilst
16:41middle develops a little bit of both.
16:43Improving your flexibility is a game of
16:46knowing when to push the ceiling of your
16:48total flexibility by training more
16:50assisted versus when you need to focus
16:52on getting stronger into your existing
16:54range of motion and training more
16:55resisted. With stretch stacking, we can
16:57then maximize these effects. Let's say
17:00the first exercise A1 is an assisted
17:03exercise that will open our range and
17:05the second exercise A2 is a resisted
17:08exercise that strengthens the range.
17:10They will both help each other. The
17:12first exercise creates more range for
17:14the second to then strengthen into
17:16whilst the second exercise is
17:18contracting the antagonist, so opposite
17:19muscles, which will then cause further
17:22relaxation of the muscles we were
17:23stretching before. meaning they will be
17:25able to go a little bit deeper again in
17:27the first exercise. By alternating
17:29between the two, we get another 1 plus 1
17:32equals 3 effect. [music] They go further
17:34together than when trained separately.
17:36There are many mobility and flexibility
17:38training methods that can be used within
17:40this spectrum and combined together. The
17:42most common stretching method is the
17:44static passive stretch. [music] Simply
17:46holding a stretch for time whilst trying
17:48to relax. Sometimes this is the only
17:50thing someone needs to improve. But more
17:52often than not, there are other things
17:54limiting. So, here are 10 of my top
17:56training methods to improve someone's
17:58flexibility. Starting with number one,
18:00post isometric relaxation or PR. The
18:03most common type of P is contract relax,
18:06where we contract our muscles for a few
18:08seconds, which then allows us to relax a
18:10little bit deeper than we normally would
18:11for a few seconds. This alternating of
18:14contracting and then relaxing is
18:16repeated for reps. [music] It might not
18:18look like much is happening from the
18:20outside, but you'll feel it when you do
18:21it. There are many variations such as
18:24antagonist contract to relax where you
18:26contract the opposite muscles before
18:27relaxing. Meaning P can be used to solve
18:30a variety of problems where we want to
18:32be assisted into the stretch. For number
18:34two is isometric stretching. Here we
18:36contract the same muscles that are being
18:39stretched and they need to hold us into
18:41position building strength and control
18:44at our end range. Examples include the
18:46isometric front splits, but sometimes
18:48the skill itself is an isometric, like
18:50the bridge. For three, and arguably
18:53better than pure isometrics is doing
18:56isometric holds, but for reps. These are
18:58powerful, and it's one of the most
19:00common methods I program for people.
19:02Think about it like this. Instead of
19:04holding a long 30-se secondond
19:06isometric, you perform reps with around
19:093 seconds hold on each rep. This way you
19:11get a short rest in between the reps,
19:14meaning you can train deeper and with
19:16higher intent and quality. Each rep goes
19:19further, so the training effect is
19:21greater than just purely holding the
19:23entire time, [music] where it's just not
19:25possible to go as deep. Compare an
19:27isometric horse stance to a horse squat.
19:30Your adductors will get a better
19:32stimulus from the reps because of the
19:34short rests in between. For number four,
19:37active lifts. Now we're contracting the
19:39opposite muscles to those being
19:41stretched, the ones that have to shorten
19:43to pull us into position. This is
19:46resisted training, and this is where
19:48full control comes in as you can access
19:50the range when you need it. Compression
19:53work would be a classic example of this,
19:55and it's one where learning to solve the
19:57cramping problem becomes very important.
19:59Taking this further, we can do active
20:01lifts with an eccentric overload. By
20:04lifting a leg with a bent knee, we can
20:06lift higher than we normally would. And
20:08on the way down, we're stronger, so we
20:10can straighten the leg and then lower.
20:12This is a great way of building strength
20:14into that very top portion that we would
20:16not be able to normally lift to if we
20:18kept the leg straight the entire time.
20:20Five is dynamic stretching. We lift with
20:23speed and momentum. Inside your body,
20:26there are different muscle spindles that
20:27detect the stretch. Some of these detect
20:30just the amount of stretch, whilst
20:31others detect both the amount and the
20:34speed of the stretch. Dynamic stretching
20:36is stretching at high speeds. If you
20:39want your flexibility to transfer
20:40dynamically to kicks or acrobatics,
20:43dynamic stretching is a useful tool to
20:45bridge that [music] gap. The number six
20:47is ballistic or rapid contract relax. I
20:50was taught ballistic stretching when I
20:52lived with the Shaolin monks in China.
20:54Using momentum, you can pulse deeper
20:56into the stretch than you could without
20:58it. These micro stretches then add up
21:01over the total set. Since each rep is a
21:04very very short hold, you can push
21:06yourself more than you normally would
21:08and accumulate reps of this very deep
21:10stretch sensation. Nowadays, I prefer
21:13what I call rapid contractual relax or
21:15RCR. Instead of using momentum, you use
21:18your own muscles to pull yourself into
21:20the deepest stretch. You then release
21:23and relax, which will naturally pull you
21:25out of it. [music] This means you're
21:26always in control of the depth of the
21:28stretch. The seven is joint capture
21:31releases. Your joints are surrounded by
21:34joint capsule that can also cause
21:36restrictions. [music] Tight joint
21:37capsules are common and people often
21:39feel very stiff and where most other
21:41stretching methods just aren't working
21:43for them. By aligning your body such
21:45that you don't really target specific
21:47muscle, some of these positions allow us
21:49to get deeper than that and stretch the
21:51joint capsule itself. For number eight,
21:53we have nerve flosses, glides, and
21:55tensioners. [music] Nerves have a
21:57limited ability to stretch. For the
21:59sciatic nerve, it's only about 8 to 10%
22:01more than its resting length. So
22:03instead, they slide up and down the body
22:06in their sheath when we move. If an area
22:08gets compressed, the nerves can get
22:10stuck and become unable to slide
22:12through. This is known as a nerve
22:14enttrapment, which can cause
22:15excruciating pain in some people, an
22:17electric type feeling in others, or
22:19simply stop you from being able to move
22:21any further without you feeling any pain
22:24at all. Meaning a nerve enttrapment can
22:26stop your flexibility progress without
22:28you even knowing. Nerve exercises such
22:31as flosses, clies, and tensioners can
22:33help us remove these restrictions.
22:35Another powerful tool to help nerve
22:37enttrapments is number nine, soft tissue
22:39treatments. There's a ton of techniques
22:41here. I could create a whole in-depth
22:44toolkit just on [music] these. Some
22:46issues require you to go in and manually
22:48help those areas get unblocked.
22:50>> [music]
22:50>> Chronically tight muscles, scar tissue,
22:52and more can limit your body's ability
22:54to stretch and move properly. Soft
22:57tissue work then becomes a cheat code to
22:59fix flexibility fast when targeted to
23:01the right area. Some techniques require
23:04an expert to help, but I've developed a
23:06whole database of methods that work to
23:08target specific areas on your own. The
23:10best part is the assessments could help
23:12you locate some of these issues. Here's
23:15the big picture. Rather than blindly
23:17foam rolling or smashing yourself in a
23:19massage ball, think about using these
23:22tools, but through the stretch. All
23:24these methods we've just talked about
23:26can work. It's through a proper
23:27assessment that you find out what you
23:29need to work on at the bottom of your
23:31flexibility ladder and clever training
23:33program design that transforms it. As
23:35you can see, there are many ways of
23:37solving the flexibility puzzle, and each
23:39training method has its own optimal
23:41program design with it. As a little
23:43disclaimer, this video is about the
23:45system that will work for most people
23:47most of the time. How to find the three
23:49to five targeted stretches trained one
23:51to two times per week for one or two
23:53skills at a time. Sometimes we need to
23:55approach things differently. It depends
23:57on the adaptation or problem you're
23:59trying to solve for, but I recommend you
24:01understand this blueprint first. It's
24:04the foundation for the majority of
24:05cases. But even with all the right
24:08exercises, some people still can't
24:10progress. Which brings us to exercise
24:12category number 10 and definitely one of
24:15the most underrated technique exercise
24:17drills. These are not about stretching
24:19but rather about learning the proper
24:21technique. We can use exercises that
24:24make it easier to learn the specific
24:26skills as practice to get into the
24:28correct positions. [music] Learn how to
24:30activate the right muscles and cue our
24:32bodies to move how we need them to move.
24:34Sometimes just a small tweak in the way
24:36you perform a stretch can make a big
24:38difference in your result. This is
24:40something we've seen over and over again
24:42with the sides split. Trying to sides
24:44split by just opening your legs to the
24:46side does not work for most people. The
24:48hip jams, which can stop your progress
24:51completely and even cause pain at the
24:53hip. Bone on bone does not flex very
24:55far. Instead, you need to anterly tilt
24:58the hips forward. Alternatively, you can
25:01externally rotate the legs by pointing
25:02your feet up. Both of these technique
25:05changes create the same alignment at the
25:07hip, creating enough room at your hip to
25:09drop into your deepest sides split.
25:11We've had multiple students who were
25:13stuck with a sid split, and after making
25:15this one change in their technique, they
25:16were able to break through a plateau and
25:19massively speed up their progress.
25:21Sometimes the only piece missing on the
25:23flexibility ladder was understanding the
25:25correct technique, which happened with
25:26Theo. For me, as I said, it was like a
25:29mental barrier and the advice and the
25:31tips and tricks that Matt had were
25:33really profound and helped me to
25:34overcome my mental barrier and I reached
25:37a position that I was never ever like
25:39imagining to be able to [music] enter.
25:41Obviously, most people have more
25:43problems to solve on their flexibility
25:45ladder that will take more time, but it
25:47shows how essential the correct
25:49technique can [music] be. I encourage
25:50you to try it. Try a side split just by
25:53opening your legs. Now try by tilting
25:55the hip forwards and sitting back a
25:57little. Show off your twerking. As you
26:00can imagine, almost every flexibility
26:02skill has at least one of these
26:04technique changes. [music]
26:06For example, for bridge, the queueing is
26:08about lifting up and then arching over.
26:10Front splits will have more long-term
26:12gains by keeping the hips square and so
26:14forth. I can go on and on. The point is,
26:17whatever you choose to stretch, make
26:19sure you learn and apply the right
26:20technique. Doing these small changes
26:22will pay off in big ways. Sometimes it's
26:25the only way. Let's combine this
26:27together with an example. Dennis is a
26:30professional acrobat wanting to push his
26:32skills to the next level. We know that
26:34the sid split is a skill that transfers
26:35to acrobatic performance, but right now
26:38he's tight. We need to improve his
26:39splits. First, we need to sharpen the ax
26:42with an assessment so we can find the
26:44bottom of his flexibility ladder. Three
26:47tests we can do for this is first the
26:49Taylor's pose or butterfly position.
26:51Taylor's pose is an easy sid split. It
26:53stretches the same muscles as a sid
26:55split but less of them. So if you can't
26:57Taylor's pose, it's going to make the
26:58sid split much harder when your brain
27:00has to perceive more stretch and has to
27:02handle the increased demand. To do this,
27:05sit with your back against the wall.
27:06Bring your feet in close together and
27:08now pull your legs apart without your
27:10hands helping. Can you get your calves
27:12to touch down in a Taylor's pose? Dennis
27:14can't. So, we now know we need to focus
27:16on isolating the short reductors and hip
27:18rotators through bent leg exercises. For
27:21the second test, let's look at the hip
27:22tilt with a pancake to see if he has the
27:25range to tilt the hip forwards enough to
27:26avoid that bone jab. Without this
27:29ability, the sid split just is not going
27:30to happen for most people. Open your
27:33legs to your max width. Now, come in a
27:35little bit. Can you then get your head
27:36to touch down to the floor with a round
27:38back? [music]
27:39Again, the answer is no here. So, we now
27:41know we need to improve the hip tilt for
27:43side splits to work.
27:45Next, we can test the passive versus
27:47isometric versus active strength [music]
27:49like we did for SR and Sunniva earlier.
27:51We can then maximize the effectiveness
27:53of the training by having each exercise
27:56stack on top of the previous. So, first
27:58is a bendy exercise to open up the
28:00shorter adductors and hip rotctors. This
28:02will help the pancake training we do
28:04next, which will also stretch these
28:06adductor muscles. The pancake training
28:08then increases the hip tilt needed for
28:10the sidlit technique. [music] And next,
28:12we can use these exercises that help us
28:14learn the correct technique for the side
28:16splits, but now have a greater ability
28:18to tilt our hip forwards because of the
28:19pancake training. Remember, getting this
28:21coordination right is make or break for
28:23the side splits, which will improve our
28:26ability to perform the final exercise
28:28with the right technique and get the
28:30best result. In summary, just four
28:32exercises with every single exercise
28:35targeting a specific issue on Dennis's
28:37flexibility [music] ladder. Each
28:39exercise stacks up to make the next one
28:41better than if it was done on its own.
28:43Everything is targeting what he needs.
28:45Everything is working together to
28:47maximize the result. This is why
28:49targeted stretching sessions based on
28:51flexibility skills beats full body
28:53routines. To visualize this, imagine a
28:56circle with each of the skills you want
28:58to improve. It's much quicker to bring
29:00up each skill one by one to complete the
29:02circle than gradually trying to expand
29:04everywhere together. Focus training,
29:07typically with three to five stretches
29:08working towards a specific skill, takes
29:10each session further than trying to
29:12improve everywhere at once, as each
29:14exercise helps to open up things for the
29:16next, even if the goal is to get
29:19flexible everywhere. Now, maybe you
29:21might be thinking, [music] I can see how
29:23focusing my stretching towards one skill
29:25can help me progress faster, but won't I
29:27be losing my flexibility in other areas
29:30if I [music] don't stretch anymore? If
29:32one skill is the fastest way to
29:34progress, how do I avoid losing
29:36flexibility in the areas I'm not
29:38stretching? That's a valid concern. But
29:41if it was true that you lose flexibility
29:42when you stop stretching, [music]
29:44how is it possible that I can still drop
29:46into the sides spplit despite not having
29:48done a proper sidlit training session in
29:50over 3 years? Here's how you can think
29:52about it. There are two different
29:54categories of adaptations that can make
29:56you more flexible. The first one is
29:59changes in your brain and nervous
30:00system. When you fold forwards to touch
30:02your toes, a signal is sent along your
30:05spinal cord to your brain. Once that
30:07signal reaches its maximum, your maximum
30:09tolerable perception of a stretch, you
30:11cannot go any further. Stretching can
30:14improve your stretch tolerance at what's
30:15known as a suprapinal CNS level, which
30:18is a fancy name for your brain. And
30:20number two is changes in your body.
30:22Training can change your body, including
30:24tendon stiffness, alongside the length
30:26of your muscles, known as sarcimeiris.
30:29This has been shown in humans and is
30:30where your body adds sarcimeir, the
30:33building blocks of your muscle in series
30:35at the end of the muscle fiber. Both the
30:37changes in your brain and body can help
30:39you become more flexible. But the brain
30:41adaptations are the most powerful
30:43because the brain adaptations stay
30:45[music] longterm. The problem with the
30:47changes in your body like cycroenesis is
30:50after about 6 weeks of not using it,
30:51these adaptations will reverse and go
30:53away and most programs don't optimize
30:56for the lasting brain changes. Even
30:58worse is how most people stretching is
31:00essentially just warming up. This
31:02improves the viscolastic nature of your
31:04muscles and tendons, which gives you a
31:06temporary increase in flexibility. It's
31:08like pouring [music] honey. When it's
31:09warmer, it stretches out and pours more
31:11easily. However, this only lasts a few
31:14hours and leaves you back pretty much
31:16exactly where you were once everything
31:18cools down again, leaving people stuck
31:20in a cycle. They spend hours stretching,
31:22but it never quite makes the lasting
31:24improvements. In order to make the
31:26adaptations you want to your brain's
31:28perception of stretch, you need to train
31:30so that your brain is not limited by
31:32fatigue or tiredness signals from
31:34training. Fatigue from other sports and
31:37strength training can send apherrant
31:39signals which are signals sent from your
31:40body to [music] your brain which limits
31:42your brain's ability to tolerate a high
31:44stretch signal as the [music] fatigue
31:46takes up room in your available
31:48perception of stretch which means your
31:50brain can't adapt as much to help you
31:52become more flexible. Balancing your
31:54training schedule and using proper rest
31:56periods becomes essential if you want to
31:58make flexibility gains that lasting even
32:01after you stop stretching for years.
32:04This is one of the reasons why my
32:05students can access their flexibility
32:07cold without warming up even after they
32:10stopped flexibility training. By
32:12creating more permanent changes to your
32:14flexibility, [music]
32:14it also allows you to focus on one or
32:16two skills at a time without losing much
32:19progress elsewhere. Furthermore, the
32:21skills overlap. [music] For example,
32:23touching your toes transfers to the
32:25front leg of a front split, whilst the
32:27back leg transfers to a bridge. [music]
32:29So, by focusing the training on one or
32:30two skills, you can indirectly maintain
32:33and can even improve the others, too.
32:35But do so in a way that you get that 1 +
32:371= 3 stacking [music] benefit to really
32:40push the skill you're working on
32:42further. Having to dedicate time to
32:44stretching should not be something you
32:46have to do forever. You need to go
32:48through a season of focusing on
32:50transforming your mobility. work to get
32:52it to the level you need, then it's
32:54surprisingly easy to maintain [music]
32:56when done right. That's why in our
32:58community, we like to say, "Stretch
33:00right, stretch once." Myself and many of
33:02the athletes I work with no longer need
33:04to stretch anymore. We have the range we
33:06need, and we now use the remaining time
33:08to maximize our other sports and
33:10practices. Focusing on skills instead of
33:13full body routines is how I unlocked all
33:15of my flexibility skills. It's how Liv
33:17unlocked her flexibility skills, and
33:19it's how Manu did the same. This was
33:22mostly done training one to two times
33:24per week. Focus on a skill and improve
33:26it to the level you need. Most people
33:29try to do too much. It's better to make
33:31progress where you need it now cuz you
33:33can always add more later than try to be
33:35overly ambitious and just end up
33:37quitting. Which brings us to stage
33:39three. When and how often should we
33:41train our flexibility? And how do we
33:43optimize it for the adaptations in the
33:44brain that give us that longerlasting
33:46flexibility? To do this, we need to
33:48understand what happens inside our
33:50muscles when we train. In sport and
33:52strength training, we contract our
33:54muscles in order to move, be strong, and
33:56be powerful. The muscle is made up of
33:58lots of sarcimeir, which are the
33:59building blocks that make up our muscle
34:01and allow us to contract. [music] In
34:03order to make this contraction happen,
34:05the brain sends a signal that comes all
34:07the way down and causes the release of
34:09calcium ions into the sarcimeir. These
34:12calcium ions bind and cause actinomy to
34:16work together to shorten the sarcamir
34:19and together the sarcamir shorten all
34:21the muscle. In strength training we
34:24release lots of these calcium [music]
34:25ions.
34:27Now the body doesn't want these calcium
34:29ions to accumulate inside and so it's
34:30constantly trying to pump them out. But
34:32in strength training they accumulate and
34:35this accumulation of calcium ions
34:37activates something known as a calpane.
34:40A calpane is a protein eating enzyme.
34:42Since our muscles are mostly made of
34:44proteins, these cause muscle fiber
34:47damage and other things like excitation,
34:49contraction, coupling failure. Anyway,
34:52this damage then causes inflammation.
34:54The inflammation enters the bloodstream
34:57is then detected by your body and sends
34:59signals to your brain that you are
35:00fatigued. This is one of the ways your
35:02brain knows it's fatigued. What most
35:05people don't know is that flexibility
35:07training causes a similar thing but
35:09through a slightly different mechanism.
35:12You see in flexibility training our
35:14sarcimeir is all stretch and that causes
35:18stretch mediated calcium ion channels to
35:20open [music] up where the calcium ions
35:22can pass through and enter into the
35:23sarcimeir. This causes an accumulation
35:26of the calcium ions inside. An
35:29accumulation activates the calpanes.
35:32[music] The calpanes causes muscle fiber
35:34damage that causes inflammation enters
35:37the bloodstream and is detected by the
35:39brain. Flexibility and strength training
35:41cause similar fatigue. Now the reason it
35:44starts might be different
35:47but the end result is the same. This is
35:49one of the reasons why flexibility,
35:51sport, and strength training should all
35:53be considered when scheduling the
35:55training. And I'm going to show you the
35:56three main ways of doing it. But first,
35:59notice that this cause of brain fatigue
36:01happens hours after the training. You
36:03know how if you do heavy leg strength
36:05training, one or two days later, you can
36:07barely sit on the toilet. It's not the
36:09whole reason, but you could think of it
36:10how each of these steps is delayed.
36:13There's a delay for the calcium ions to
36:14accumulate. It takes time for the cow
36:17pains to be activated. It takes time for
36:19them to cause the damage. Then there's a
36:21delay for the inflammation to happen,
36:23enter the bloodstream, and be detected
36:24by the brain. This cause of brain
36:27fatigue happens hours after the
36:29training. It also takes hours or days
36:31for your body to repair itself and
36:33remove this fatigue. It's for this
36:35reason that the number one optimal time
36:37for mobility and flexibility training is
36:39two or more days after the sport or
36:41strength training that could affect it.
36:43Since this is not always realistic,
36:45especially with more demanding training
36:47schedules, the next best is actually to
36:49train on the same day as the sport or
36:51strength training. You do the sport or
36:53strength in the morning and then
36:54flexibility in the evening. This works
36:57because that brain fatigue has not fully
36:59hit the brain yet, so you can still
37:00improve and make the brain changes. The
37:03most common mistake is when people
37:04stretch the day after strength training,
37:06or worse, think they should add it on an
37:09off day as active recovery. It's not
37:12recovery. I'd argue that flexibility and
37:14strength are actually more similar than
37:17different and in some cases even the
37:19same thing. And if you can't train two
37:22times a day, then the third best option,
37:24which is still a very good option, is to
37:26do your mobility training after your
37:28sport or strength training. You just
37:29have to reduce the volume of each by a
37:31little bit when doing them together.
37:33Now, you can see how we just need three
37:35to five exercises done one to two times
37:37per week for one or two skills at a time
37:40in order to transform your flexibility.
37:43It's time to start putting this into
37:44action. To see how this method is
37:46applied, just click the link in the
37:47description to start watching it. So you
37:49get flexible once [music] and keep it
37:51forever. The blueprint summarized is
37:53this. Set the goal by focusing on one or
37:56two flexibility skills that will help
37:58you move and perform better. Assess to
38:01find the problem at the bottom of your
38:03flexibility ladder and which exercises
38:05to use to fix it. [music] Stretch stack
38:07the exercises to make them multiply
38:09together and perform each session one to
38:11two times per week [music] and organize
38:13them in your training in a way that
38:14optimizes for the adaptations that stay
38:17longterm. [music] And you might have
38:18noticed there's one box left. The final
38:21step is to put it together and make it
38:25happen. We develop our flexibility to
38:27become free, move better, feel better,
38:30and use it in whatever sport or
38:32practices we want. The best part, when
38:34flexibility is built properly, it's
38:36surprisingly easy to keep it. This
38:38results in a unique freedom that comes
38:40from building a flexible, strong, and
38:43capable [music] body where you enjoy
38:45your flexibility. Here's your blueprint.
38:48Now, it's time to go and apply it. If
38:50you want us to help implement it for
38:52you, click the link in the description
38:53and we'll walk you through the next
38:55steps. [music] Anyway, keep up the good
38:57work and let's get to training.

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