Total Stretch 3

I am still working on my goal of reaching my needle. Even though I have been working hard by doing stretches from the book Total Stretch by Roscoe Nash  AND doing stretches that I have previously known from dance, I feel as if my needle has not improved. This is the reason why I did not post a picture of my most recent needle.

I was wondering why my needle was not improving and so I began reading the section "Stretching". In this section it stated, "Somethings do not come naturally to people, some people get things automatically and others have to work harder and put in extra effort to achieve something like a stretch" (27). I knew that I was one of those people that had to put in extra effort to reach my goal so I decided to change my stretching routine. Here is my new stretching routine:

Warm up:
15 Minute Jog
20 Squats
35 Jumping Jacks
25 Crunches
25 Push-ups

Stretches:
"Back Arch" (47)
"Looking at the ceiling" (49)
"The Parachute" (49)
"Extended Prayer" (39)
"Reverse Push-up" (73)
"Back Splits" (50)
(I did these all twice)
Plus many stretches that I have learned from dance.

As you can see from my list of stretches I have not showed two of them which was "Reverse Push-up"(73), and "Back Splits" (50). These are the stretches that I have added and will demonstrate in this blog post.

The first stretch that I did was the "Reverse Push-Up"(73). This was a moderate/hard stretch (73).

This stretch was in the "Shoulder stretching" section. (66). This stretch was different than stretches that I have done before which is just pulling my arm over my head. Since this was so different, this stretch hurt but did not hurt to the point where I couldn't do it. I decided to do some shoulder stretches because when you pull your leg up you really need your arm and shoulder to help pull your leg up. Overall this stretch in my opinion has benefited me better than all of the other stretches that I have tried because it was the most difficult and was very different than what I have done before. It really challenged and pushed me in a good way.

The second stretch that I tried was the "Back Half Splits" (50). I decided to make this stretch a bit harder for myself so I decided to do full splits instead of half splits (Half splits is when you bend your front leg). This was a hard stretch (50). 

This stretch was in the "Back Stretching" section (34). This stretch was a medium difficulty for me. The most difficult part of this stretch was leaning back since I already had my splits. I made another goal for this stretch which was trying to lean back farther and farther. Once I can lean back farther and farther my needle will become super easy because this stretch is basically doing a needle on the ground.

I began to look at different information on the back so I looked at "Back Care" (178). Nash states "Strengthening and stretching the muscles of the lower back and abdominal area will help keep back pain from occurring" (178). Since I have back pain occasionally, these back stretches will not only help me get my needle, but will also help my back pain.

These stretches have benefited me the most in getting my needle because of the different way they stretched my shoulder and my back.

Question:
Have you ever altered something to make it more challenging for yourself? If so, what was it?

Citation:
Nash, Roscoe. Total Stretch. London: MQ, 2003. Print