Legendary Flexibility

These notes were published in 2019 and discuss the author’s flexibility and health claims as presented in the book at that time.

These are my notes on Legendary Flexibility by John Call (or Jujimufu). When I read this, I was working on improving my flexibility, mostly for (olympic) lifting, which made it a timely book for me.

Do the hard work. I like this advice because he positions it next to doing ‘new’ or ‘exciting’ movements. Things like rollers etc, they are good and have value, but gaining flexibility (or strength for that matter) is about doing the hard work. This also makes me think about YouTube videos on all these things, the incentive is wrong here. And by that, I mean that you can only make 5 videos about the basics and be done. But you can make 100 videos about crazy movements that are not the hard work. “But from the start, which is right now, you have to accept that hard, direct, PAINFUL, and often BORING work is the only way to ever make it in the flexibility game. Brute force it.”

Call makes the case for sustained repetition: “Do 1000 reps. 1000 minutes worth of time deepening your splits or squats, or increasing your kicks. Whatever it is you want, begin brute forcing it now.”

Finding a strong enough reason to train matters to me. My goals were to perform the snatch and similar movements through their full range of motion, and to touch my toes; both would feel good to achieve. Call suggests making flexibility part of ordinary life, whether picking something up from the floor or doing the dishes. He also treats strength, coordination, technique and repetition as ways to train the nervous system for new movements.

Supplementary exercises should resemble the position or movement you want to improve, since a session can contain only so many snatches or aerials. Call also stresses maintaining control throughout a flexibility exercise rather than forcing yourself into a position.

Call favours exercises that involve movement and tension, even when the movement is against an immovable wall. Structure and equipment can help create tension and range of motion. He also points to Stretching Scientifically by Thomas Kurz: “when you’re fully stretched, flex your muscles” The note then suggests relaxing, stretching a little farther, and possibly adding weight; the question mark in my original note reflects uncertainty about how much that would intensify the stretch.

For my toe-touching goal, one example was a stiff-legged deadlift on a platform, keeping the back straight, rather than only bending forward. Weights and a well-cushioned mat, thicker than a yoga mat, are among the tools that can make practice easier to sustain. Call asks when anyone last wanted to stretch on a hard floor: “training in unnecessarily hard conditions is going to make you quit early or skip stretching.”

Other tools in the notes include a wall, chair, fixed beams for a lower squat, barbell, yoga blocks, rings, weights for movements such as the Cossack squat, bands, a stick or PVC pipe, straps, a timer and knee sleeves.

Part II: Flexibility training strategies

Collection 1: Circumstances

Call suggests training flexibility alongside other work and “add movements that stimulate flexibility and ranges of motion during your warm up.” This could mean adding movements that explore range of motion during a warm-up.

For example, light but deep squats could come before heavy squats. Similar movements throughout a workout could target weak points in a lift such as the snatch.

“You get flexibility stimulation throughout the day in little bits here and there by living a flexibility lifestyle, but that’s not enough to develop very high ranges of motion. You must add in the intense stretches that are very uncomfortable to build the control and pain tolerance needed for those ranges of motion. That will do a great trick, but you also need to spend more time training flexibility in long sessions with relaxed and refreshing work. Particularly for the latter, you should be doing your long sessions in supportive and motivating environments with other people.”

The historical book also suggests performance-enhancing substances or supplements for flexibility. My notes name painkillers to relax muscles, as well as caffeine, L-tyrosine, DMAE (with a question mark), ephedrine and L-theanine. This is Call’s advice as recorded in the book, not a recommendation based on current evidence.

Call also advocates what he calls a flexibility-friendly diet.

My notes record Call drinking 7–11 litres of water a day and suggesting anti-inflammatory foods or supplements such as greens, fish or fish oil, and possibly curcumin. These are details of his approach, not established requirements.

Collection 2: Tracking

Record progress with regular videos. One schedule in the notes is a 1-minute stretch followed by 4 minutes of rest, repeated for 5 sets, for 25 minutes in all. Call says the rest allows the nervous system and cellular machinery to adjust to the new range of motion.

A training log can record the exercises, the experience of doing them, and ideas for next time, much like a lifting log.

Collection 3: Parameters

Call compares flexibility training with weightlifting: work at about 80% of your available range can still be useful, without taking every set to the maximum.

The notes suggest practising daily if possible, with lighter days when feeling poor and a cycle of harder and easier work.

Collection 4: Programming

Call argues that the traditional timing of stretches matters less than people assume. He dismisses much static stretching as unhelpful, while saying it need not harm performance before a workout.

Warm up before going all out, using active stretches and light exercises, and choose stretches that resemble the movement you want to learn. The notes propose prioritising one skill for a 12-week cycle and taking roughly a week off each month.

“Flexibility improvement is not linear. Eventually, you will need to step it up, or back the hell off to make new improvements.” “Backing off is not only hard to do, but it’s also completely counter-intuitive for flexibility training. Yet it is the best advice I can give people who are doing everything right already with any intensive flexibility training.” In the latter case, Call means a real break, without even light training.

Collection 5: Psychology

A hard workout or a busy week can affect the next session, so the notes warn against expecting identical performance every time. Call adds: “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it…”

Call advises stretching despite soreness, but the notes distinguish allowing full depth from forcing a position. His argument about confidence is that “For many people, the “mobility problem” they experience with some movements and skills aren’t caused by lack of flexibility, sometimes it is caused by not committing to the full range of motion. Not committing is a confidence issue. Commitment is scary!”

Visualisation is another way to build confidence, although Call also emphasises physical preparation and challenging performance: “So now, here’s a secret about sport confidence: it’s best developed by physical preparation and difficult performance. So the best way to push yourself past your physical limits is to prepare for, and perform in, high-pressure situations.”

“flexibility gains last a very long time. With a proper flexibility training cycle to build it up initially, then general maintenance after that, and retention of confidence throughout your training lifetime, you can achieve something seemingly akin to permanently increased levels of flexibility, even high levels of flexibility can become seemingly permanent.” My takeaway was that flexibility might be retained even when maintenance uses exercises other than the original target movement, provided control and nervous-system engagement are maintained.

• Part III – Flexibility Training Programs
• Routine 1: The splits
  1. The full splits are a worthy goal (good for reputation)
  2. Full front splits are easier than full side splits
  3. The full splits are not an advanced skill (Jon compares it to being easier than 2.5x bodyweight deadlifts)
  4. Not many people have full splits because not many people train them
  5. The splits are a technical skill (like a flip or lift)
• Workout 1 – Extreme relaxed splits (1 hour)
  • Do 2 of these 3
    1. Front split with left foot in front
    2. Front split with right foot in front
    3. Side split
  • Set up mat, get timer, 10min warm-up, 1 min mildly uncomfortable, 2 min moving relaxation, repeat 3-4 times, then 3 min instead of 1 min depth, repeat 2 times, repeat for second type
• Workout 2 – Weighted Splits
  • Ditto exercises
  • Set up mat, 10 minutes active warm-up (thoracic extension variations), some weightlifting (optional) with focus on flexibility, 1min split/2min rest, repeat x times, add 5kg, 3-5 sets/3-10 (side) or 6-20 (front) sec hold, rest 3:30/5:30
• Example 12 week split program: 1. Monday/Wednesday, 2. Thursday/Sunday (see page 167)
• Routine 3: Ass to grass squats
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xm3-OeZp1k&feature=youtu.be&t=1s
  • use movement (up-down/left-right/etc) instead of only static stretching
  • goblet squats
  • Hmm no more guidance here, but I can do 2 routines of 30min per week / combine it with day when I squat

• Universal flexibility routine
  • These do not have to be done in any particular order.
  • These are not done for X amount of reps or sets. Although, I generally spend 20 minutes doing this daily, usually before training.
  • Stay in constant motion and move in and out of the positions. It’s best to combo these movements. What you should be doing is fidgeting around.
  • Do not pause for more than a couple seconds at any range of motion.
  • You should actually be feeling blood flow to the muscles as you do this. A very mild muscle pump is possible.
  • Rely on support initially, but then wean yourself off of it. Afterwards, begin using a structure (or weight) to increase the difficulty.
  • Add in a rest period of 2-3 minutes every 10 minutes or so, even if you aren’t feeling any fatigue.
  • Exercises examples: Cossack stretch, squats, warrior lunge, extending spine, twisting, bending, reaching, kicking, etc
  • Thoracic extension: do it with large pvc pipe. Butt on floor, foot on floor, back on the floor, arms across body (or behind back etc), head/top-body back (hunt for tight spot) Upgrade: use weight overhead/horizontal. 3 sets, 1min set/3min rest.
  • The kick: also do knee stretches here
  • “The most important step you can take toward legendary flexibility development is to move into and out of the most stable, full range of motion positions possible every time you move.”

Conclusion

Just do it (ghehe).