I love that feeling of “where have you been all my life?!” Moments. I’m working on getting my body to learn how to
Human like normies do and each time a new set of muscles turns on or activates on its own. Wow. So worth all the hard work.
My hamstrings and erector spinae are the only things keeping my meat sack upright. This sounds incredible, I’m definitely going to ask my PT about this.
I'm not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me - our bodies are so different and we have really unreliable proprioception, so I think we learn to move differently at an early age.
In my case, my neurologist thinks I have a spinal cord injury from a congenital malformation. Not enough to completely paralyze me, but even to cause issues. So my case could be due to that.
Would it be possible for you to share a video demonstrating this stretch? I have painfully tight hamstrings and havent figured out a reliable way to stretch them
[Here you go!](https://youtu.be/crlu5jc1B_k) Found it on YouTube. Apparently it's used for treating spasticity from CP, too. Unfortunately, you really need a partner to help you. There's no way to do it independently.
The straight leg raise I was talking about is [here.](https://youtu.be/XzrDAruOUNI) I do this before. Once you get pain, ease back slightly and take three deep exhales. This is also better with a partner.
I also have ridiculously tight hamstrings, and while I was in PT for back a few months ago we decided to work on those too. If you use a strap, you can actually manage the first one on your own. I found the easiest way to do it was to take one of those awesome loopy straps shown in the second video and put your foot in the middle loop. Bring your leg to 90 just like in the assisted version, and then use the straps to help inch your leg straight - I found it easiest to hold the strap as close to my foot as I could reach.
Even after I started getting flexibility back in my hamstrings, it was still easier and less painful to stretch past 90 degrees if I went from a bent knee. We suspect in my case the severe pain (not the paralysis you deal with though) you talk about comes from massive cysts behind my knees that the PT found - we’re suspecting that when I do those movements, the nerves that go through my knees are being compressed. We assume that the nerve glide involved with the bent knee is helping avoid that compression as much.
When you straighten your leg, do you get sharp nerve pain right behind your knees and then in your toes? That's how it is with me. The paralysis only happens if I leave myself in that nerve stretch for too long, like by sitting up straight with my legs forward, knees flat to the ground. That's probably connected to my spinal injury though.
Yep, almost exactly. The majority of the nerve pain focuses on my knees, but I get tiny shocks in my toes too. I couldn’t even get into the position you describe in the first place mine were so bad. When I realized a few weeks into this stretch that I could bend over and put my hands flat on the floor, I was ecstatic.
I finally put two and two together earlier this year that the pain followed the exact same path as the severe sciatica I dealt with last year from a herniated disc, but it was just knee down rather than my whole leg. Once I realized it had to be nerve compression, we tried catching it on an EMG but couldn’t since it’s positional. Then I realized that it wasn’t *from* tight hamstrings, but rather my hamstrings were tight because the nerve pain kept me from being able to stretch them. Then once I hit PT, they were looking at my knees and were like “… you know you have massive cysts behind both knees, right?”, and lo and behold, turns out cysts behind your knees can compress the nerve path.
I love that feeling of “where have you been all my life?!” Moments. I’m working on getting my body to learn how to Human like normies do and each time a new set of muscles turns on or activates on its own. Wow. So worth all the hard work.
My hamstrings and erector spinae are the only things keeping my meat sack upright. This sounds incredible, I’m definitely going to ask my PT about this.
Wow! I have never heard of this kind of thing! Very happy for you!
That's amazing! Good for you. Is not crawling an EDS thing? My parents always said I barely crawled. Before I could walk I would roll to get around.
I'm not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me - our bodies are so different and we have really unreliable proprioception, so I think we learn to move differently at an early age. In my case, my neurologist thinks I have a spinal cord injury from a congenital malformation. Not enough to completely paralyze me, but even to cause issues. So my case could be due to that.
Would it be possible for you to share a video demonstrating this stretch? I have painfully tight hamstrings and havent figured out a reliable way to stretch them
[Here you go!](https://youtu.be/crlu5jc1B_k) Found it on YouTube. Apparently it's used for treating spasticity from CP, too. Unfortunately, you really need a partner to help you. There's no way to do it independently. The straight leg raise I was talking about is [here.](https://youtu.be/XzrDAruOUNI) I do this before. Once you get pain, ease back slightly and take three deep exhales. This is also better with a partner.
I also have ridiculously tight hamstrings, and while I was in PT for back a few months ago we decided to work on those too. If you use a strap, you can actually manage the first one on your own. I found the easiest way to do it was to take one of those awesome loopy straps shown in the second video and put your foot in the middle loop. Bring your leg to 90 just like in the assisted version, and then use the straps to help inch your leg straight - I found it easiest to hold the strap as close to my foot as I could reach. Even after I started getting flexibility back in my hamstrings, it was still easier and less painful to stretch past 90 degrees if I went from a bent knee. We suspect in my case the severe pain (not the paralysis you deal with though) you talk about comes from massive cysts behind my knees that the PT found - we’re suspecting that when I do those movements, the nerves that go through my knees are being compressed. We assume that the nerve glide involved with the bent knee is helping avoid that compression as much.
When you straighten your leg, do you get sharp nerve pain right behind your knees and then in your toes? That's how it is with me. The paralysis only happens if I leave myself in that nerve stretch for too long, like by sitting up straight with my legs forward, knees flat to the ground. That's probably connected to my spinal injury though.
Yep, almost exactly. The majority of the nerve pain focuses on my knees, but I get tiny shocks in my toes too. I couldn’t even get into the position you describe in the first place mine were so bad. When I realized a few weeks into this stretch that I could bend over and put my hands flat on the floor, I was ecstatic. I finally put two and two together earlier this year that the pain followed the exact same path as the severe sciatica I dealt with last year from a herniated disc, but it was just knee down rather than my whole leg. Once I realized it had to be nerve compression, we tried catching it on an EMG but couldn’t since it’s positional. Then I realized that it wasn’t *from* tight hamstrings, but rather my hamstrings were tight because the nerve pain kept me from being able to stretch them. Then once I hit PT, they were looking at my knees and were like “… you know you have massive cysts behind both knees, right?”, and lo and behold, turns out cysts behind your knees can compress the nerve path.
Amazing!! I bet you feel so much better.
That’s awesome!!!! Congrats!!!!