Lose 20 with Al - Week Three

I wish I could touch Al Roker like that... I have the evening all planned out in my mind. Candle-light dinner, the whole nine yards. Sometimes I lay awake and cry at night because it will never happen.

too bad he had garict bypass .. easy way out , lazy bastard

This is very interesting. How intense should the contractions be? At what speed should they be performed ie; from extension to flexion? I tried it but felt a great deal of straining with the upper body when doing the lying hamstring stretch.

Your legs are stronger than your arms so you will need to use less resistance when stretching your hamstrings. More info on the FAQ on the Flexible Strength website.

Each of the 16 meridian muscle groups correspond to one of 16 classical Hatha Yoga poses.

Ah ok, that's cool. It's like yoga but with more resistance work during the poses.

I think this is pretty interesting, but what is this program trying to achieve primarily? Greater flexibility? or increased strength?

This program aims to achieve both greater flexibility and increased strength, among many other improvements. Instead of flexibility being defined as range of motion, it is defined in this program as the ability of a muscle to maximally contract throughout it's entire range of motion.

cool, cool.

maximally contract, meaning that the muscle is at it's peak efficiency throughout the whole movement. Thus making the entire movement require the same exertion. Is that what you mean by maximally contract?

Too bad I can't afford to have somebody there to push against my movements every time I stretch/workout.

Yes, a muscle is at it's peak efficiency when it maximally contracts while being stretched. The key is that it takes twice the force to stretch a muscle than it does to strengthen it. So if you strengthen your bicep with 50 pounds, it would take 100 pounds to overcome the maximal contraction.

Ideally, Resistance Stretching will prove to be popular among people & there will be plenty of others available for you to trade assisted stretching with, which would circumvent the affordability issue.