Back to (Flexibility) Training

After doing handstands four days a week for a year, intermittent fasting and eating like a rabbit for months, I was really looking forward to my beach vacation. Once in Rehoboth, I gave myself a hall pass to eat and drink everything under the sun; I am happy and sad to tell you I feel like “fat Chun” again. My stomach skinfold measurement has gone up, gasp…whole 5 mm!

This means that it’s time to go back to training again. But this time, I’ve decided to focus on flexibility training–don’t get me wrong, I still plan on continuing with handstand training but mobility/active flexibility will be the theme of day for the next year or so.

When I was a kid growing up in Korea, I went to Tae Kwon Do class for as long as I can remember and I could stretch kick out my legs like a ballerina. I was also able to do a pancake stretch with ease. But years of bodybuilding, heavy lifting, and neglect have gotten me relatively stiff compared to my martial arts glory days.

Because of our typical daily activities of sitting and driving, for many of us, our soft tissues of the spine and hips have shortened and have become restricted. For me, this exact shortening and restricting has partly contributed to my neck, lower back and hip pain for a number of years.  ​

Gymnastics Bodies: Christopher Sommers​
I got turned onto Christopher Sommer through a fellow trainer Geoff Blake when I started gymnastic and bodyweight training. Sommer made his mark as the junior national gymnastic coach and has brought to forefront gymnastics training into the fitness world. You can hear him speak here or check out his website here (Btw, he is not the only game in town. Here are others that teach bodyweight and gymnastic type training: Gold Medal Bodies, Ido Portal, Beast Skillz, Barstarzzz, The Strength Project, and Al Kavadlo).

My goal, for the upcoming months, is to increase (or regain) my flexibility in 2 areas: upper spine-bridging and leg splits–front and middle splits. I will be using the stretch method programmed by Coach Sommer that uses both passive and active stretching. ​

I will post my progress so stay tuned.