Progress: http://imgur.com/MTOR68A,JoQe21x,D7re1vh#0

I wanted to share my stretching story as motivation for other people who are like iron, not flexible at all, as some motivation that even very brief efforts will pay off quickly!

Warning: Wall of Text. I'm just trying to be conversational and tell my whole story in hopes that I can emotionally connect with someone and they can see themselves accomplishing the same thing! You can do it, too!

Story

So I've never been flexible in my hamstrings at all, which has affected my weightlifting (possibly the reason I have a lower back spasm), tennis (I'm decent but could be better if I found it easier to get really low when hitting), and so forth.

Well, I ended up playing someone in tennis who was way better than me, and it turns out he was once a coach for a Belgian university's team. He impressed upon me how much I needed to stretch to improve, and I'm already a pretty fine player.

That was finally what I needed to push me over the edge to taking this seriously. So as an experiment, I decided to work only one leg for a few days my own way, check to see if there was much improvement (with only half the time sunk in I'd otherwise do with both legs), and then decide whether it was effective enough to work the other hammy.

WAS IT EVER!

First picture is my left, unstretched hamstring. Second picture is the right hammy, which I was stretching since Sunday night. The third is the rope I used to help.

The Method

Basically I put my right foot heel first on a desk that was just below hip level. Then, because I have some heel issues (because of tight hamstrings and calves!), I rolled my foot slightly counterclockwise (inward toward my body, toe slightly to the left).

I put the rope behind my foot on the arch and grabbed both ends with my left hand. The idea is that any idiot can grab his right toes with right hand because you can remove the hamstring from the equation for the most part. But grabbing right with left forces the hamstring to be part of the equation. IF you can grab your right foot with your left hand, then you can touch your toes with the same hand (actually you can go further).

Then I put on a Game of Thrones episode on my laptop right in front of me and started gradually working my left hand down the rope toward my right toe. Eventually, I could get a knuckle past the toe, so I grabbed the toe with my left hand and switched the rope to my right to act as some added grip as I worked hand to toe.

I did this Sunday (barely got to the toe by about ten minutes of work), Monday (slightly further), Tuesday, and Wednesday, working further every time. Sunday and Monday I was not cold—tennis before stretching Sunday; weightlifting before stretching Monday. Yesterday (Wednesday) I kind of took a day off to do some work at night. Just a little light stretching.

You can see the progress. Third picture is where my right hamstring is now. I can really get past the toe!

Second picture is just the rope. The middle of the rope is actually a strap. It worked!

So, for those of you not flexible, try this! You can enjoy your favorite TV show and get flexible!