Eric Wong Flexibility Techniques
Eric Wong Flexibility Techniques
Eric Wong Flexibility Techniques
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Congratulations.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lets Get FREAKY ................................................................. 4
Why Improve Your Hip Flexibility? ....................................... 5
Flexibility Defined ............................................................. 6-8
FREAKY Flexibility Technique #1 Scouring .................... 9-14
FREAKY Flexibility Technique #2 Banded Stretches ..... 15-17
FREAKY Flexibility Technique #3 - Core Stability ............ 18-24
Introducing the 3D Flexibility System .......................... 25-28
About Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS ............................................... 30
[HEADS UP: as you read through this report, youll notice some
words in RED. Make a mental note of these words as theyll be
important to remember when you get to the end.]
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Flexibility Defined
Before we talk about improving your flexibility, lets get clear on what exactly
flexibility is.
What were NOT talking about is being able to
wrap your leg around your head and behind
your back so you can take a swig of coke from
a plastic bottle.
While this is definitely FREAKY, the only thing
it will get you is some weird looks, and
perhaps, a spot on the roster of your favorite
traveling carnival.
So, from now on, whenever you read the word flexibility in this report, were
going to be talking about something called Dynamic Active Flexibility.
The definition of Dynamic Active Flexibility is: your ability to enter, hold and/or
exit a range of motion (ROM) through your own muscular effort with speed and
control.
Heres why this is important
If you increase your flexibility, but you dont have the strength to enter, hold
and/or exit the ROM, when you go into your new ROM, you have no control, no
stability and the joint can bang around inside there like a pinball.
This is not good for the joint and an injury can happen, which usually ends up
being a muscle or ligament tear.
Not good.
Plus, this definition holds the key to not only making gains in your flexibility, but
keeping them.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Because one of the biggest problems with most traditional types of flexibility
training is that the gains dont last.
Most people (myself and some of my athletes included) have gotten less than
stellar results from traditional old-school stretching, despite doing it diligently.
The reason why?
Because traditional stretching assumes that youre tight because your muscles
are short.
However, the fact is that there are a number of reasons why you may not have
the flexibility you desire. Thats why I wrote this report for you, to introduce you to
these concepts. Well get to those later
There are also 2 other main types of flexibility to consider:
1. Static Passive Flexibility - how far you can hold a joint in a position when
theres an external force (partner, gravity) that moves you into position, for
example, being bent if someone put the guy above in that pretzel-like
position.
2. Static Active Flexibility - how far you can hold a joint in a position when
you bring your body part there with your own muscle power, for example,
if youre standing and you kick your foot up in front of you as high as it will
go.
These 2 types of flexibility arent as important for most people, unless you
participate in the more artsy sports like gymnastics, dance or figure skating.
But dont forget about these 2 types, because as youll soon discover, theyre
important weapons in your arsenal to making fast and permanent flexibility gains.
One last point about flexibility one of the most important things to consider is
what your flexibility needs are.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Your goal should be to have the flexibility to do what you want to do properly,
and a little bit more for injury reserve.
Some sports have lesser flexibility needs than others, and in fact, in some sports,
too much flexibility can hurt because it can minimize the elastic component that
provides a lot of explosive power.
But thats another discussion for another day just know that the right amount of
flexibility is what youre after, not the maximum amount possible.
The easy thing to consider is if you have pain or youre limited in the movements
you want to do because youre tight, then you need more flexibility.
So now that were clear about what flexibility is, what it isnt and how much you
need, lets get into the FREAKY techniques that will help you go about improving
it quickly and permanently
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WRONG.
In fact, bed rest and stretching the back are 2 of the worst things you can do for
low back pain.
Another thing about Dr. McGill - he rocked the baddest mustache on campus.
Another technique I learned from Dr. McGills Low Back Disorders course I didnt
actually start using until I began my quest to finally fixing my tight hips
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In one of his classes, he had a volunteer lie down on a table and proceeded to
move their hip joint around in all different directions and in circles.
He was demonstrating an assessment technique that hed do on a low back pain
client to investigate their hip flexibility, because adequate hip flexibility is
important to keep your low back pain-free.
You see, when you bend over, there are different strategies you can use
Youve probably heard the advice to keep your back straight and bend at the hips
and knees when you pick something up from the floor, as pictured below:
But heres the problem - if your hips are tight, to get down, the movement has to
come from somewhere and that somewhere is usually your lumbar spine, as
shown in the first image above. Doing this over and over will result in damage to
tissues in your low back such as your discs and ligaments and could have you off
your feet for a couple of weeks.
This is how having adequate hip flexibility is important for keeping a healthy low
back. If you have low back pain and youve got tight hips, unlocking them and will
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let you use the proper movement patterns and will go a long way to preventing
low back pain from ever rearing its ugly head again.
And one of the ways you can go about improving your hip flexibility is by using
the SCOURING technique.
Scouring moves the head of the femur, which is shaped like a round ball, around
inside the socket of the pelvis. Thats why the hip is referred to as a ball and
socket joint.
Think of what happens to a bowl that you ate chili out of thats been sitting on the
counter for a couple of days
Yes, your wife might say something like, Would you clean your damn dishes up
when youre done? Im not your goddamn mother...
But thats not what Im talking about
What happens is the leftover chili bits get all dry and crusty.
To clean it out, you need to use a heavy duty sponge and scour all the dried
bits off.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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This is what can happen to your hips the joint can get all dry and crusty.
Scouring your hips works the same way as taking a heavy duty sponge to the
chili bowl it helps to clean up restrictions, such as soft tissue adhesions, that
might be there by working the hip in circular motions through its ROM.
Now, I use 2 types of scouring when working to improve flexibility: active and
passive.
The technique I described Dr. McGill demonstrating is an example of passive
scouring. Passive scouring occurs when you use an external force, such as a
university professor or setting your body up in specific positions so you can scour
the joint with the weight of your body.
The key is to go slow and controlled when doing this, especially if someone else
is doing it, because you can get into some painful ranges of motion here. Be
patient and consistent and results will come.
Active scouring is when you use the muscles in the hip joint itself to create the
movement.
While active and passive scouring both address soft tissue restrictions, active
scouring also improves strength, since the movement is created directly through
muscular effort of your hip muscles.
It also improves control, which is a factor related to the neuromuscular system.
An exercise that employs active scouring is the Static Active (one of the 3 types
of flexibility - told you it would come up again) Standing Hip Rotation.
If youll indulge me and youve got a minute, you can do this exercise right now to
see what Im talking about.
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While the conventional wisdom is that your muscles are what limit your flexibility,
data proves that this is just partially correct.
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In his book, Science of Flexibility, author Michael Alter shares his research on
how much resistance to movement different tissues provide in the following table:
Muscle (and fascia)
41%
Tendon
10%
Skin
2%
Joint capsule
47%
As you can see, the joint capsule limits flexibility to a greater degree than your
muscles and is the soft tissue that provides the greatest resistance to flexibility,
proving conventional wisdom wrong yet again.
And if its limiting your flexibility, but all youre doing is a standard static stretch to
lengthen your muscles, then youre not going to be making any gains at all.
What a waste of time!
Anyway, to help you visualize how this actually works, heres an image I had
created where you can see the effect of the band and how it pulls on the femur
(thigh bone):
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As you can see in the image, while in a stretch, the addition of a band pulls the
femur forward in the joint, putting stress on the joint capsule, which is basically
like a big thick ligament that keeps the head of the femur (ball) connected to the
pelvis (socket).
Adding the band to stretches has definitely improved the effectiveness of them,
but you must be careful not to overdo it and add too much tension.
More is not better and I recommend you start with a light band that gives you a
little pull, and then slowly move up from there.
Gain too much flexibility in your joint capsule and you can end up with an
unstable joint, which is definitely something you dont want as it can lead to injury
to soft tissue such as muscles or ligaments.
But there is something you can do to mitigate this risk, which Ill share later.
For now, lets get to the 3rd and final FREAKY Flexibility Technique
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My boy Damian
My computer is having problems. Can you come over and take a look?
Thats what happens when youre 1 of about 5 Chinese guys in a school of
2,000
Anyway, we were both Kinesiology grads and we both ended up working at a
local big box gym in our hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is how
we started our first business together called xelf (our slogan was exercise. love
life.), which Damian still runs to this day.
And he often referred to me as Iron Core because of how solid I was during
core stability exercises and because Ive always had a fairly cut six-pack.
But Ive come to realize that my solid core was a by-product of something that
happened in teen years and NOT the result of any advanced training or intense
dedication to developing ripped abs.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Even though it was superficial, skin and fascia were cut through and whenever
these tissues are damaged, no matter the size, after they heal scar tissue results.
Obviously you can see I have a LOT of scar tissue back there.
The problem with scar tissue is that its not as supple as the original product.
You can only see it slightly in the pic, but my whole right side is tighter than my
left, including my back muscles, lats, hip flexors and hamstrings.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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To this day, I need to spend time addressing the right side tightness otherwise
Im prone to tweaking my back due to the imbalance.
But the tightness isnt just due to the scar tissue that formed, but also the
neuromuscular changes that happened as a result of the surgery.
You see, when I started moving around after 2 months of lying on the family
room floor watching Wimbledon AND the US Open tennis tournaments (thats all
that was on TV), any movements I would make would pull on the healing scar
and cause me pain.
So my friendly brain thought, I cant take anymore tennis. And I want to help Eric
with his pain. Moving causes pain, so Im going to help by limiting his movement.
To do this, Ill just tighten up the muscles that cause the movements that hurt.
Thats exactly how it went down and guess what it worked.
The muscle tightness prevented excessive movement, which allowed the scar to
heal.
But if this goes on for too long, two major changes can occur:
One, the muscles get used to this chronic tightness and can become tonic,
which means that theyre always on at a low level and facilitated, which means
theyre quick to fire, even when theyre not the right muscle for the job.
This happened to my right Psoas (hip flexor) - it became tonic and facilitated.
Two, because the brain doesnt like wasting energy, it shuts off other muscles
that might also be providing stability to the lumbar spine, since the psoas was
already doing the work. The muscles that shut off for me were the multifidus.
I discovered this when I was going through Paul Cheks corrective exercise
practitioner training
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Its all related to keeping the lumbar spine stable, aka core stability.
The lumbar spine is an area that is often injured and a common site of pain, as
you probably already know, since over 80% of the population experiences low
back pain at some point in their lives.
To keep your lumbar spine healthy, especially when youre doing something like
a heavy Deadlift, you want to keep it stable in a neutral position.
There are 2 ways you keep your lumbar spine stable: through global stabilization
or segmental stabilization.
Global stabilization is when the big abdominal muscles or muscles like the psoas
contract and keep your spine stable. The psoas is a global stabilizer - its not
perfectly suited for the job, but it can do it.
Segmental stabilization comes from the little muscles that run between segments
of your spine (your vertebrae). These muscles are ideal for keeping the lumbar
spine stable.
As you can see below, the Psoas (left) runs right beside the spine, similar to the
multifidus (right):
Notice how they both attach to the lumbar spine, but the psoas goes from the
vertebrae to the hip, while the multifidus goes from vertebrae to vertebrae. This is
the difference between global and segmental stabilization.
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Instructions
1. Get into the 4 point position with your legs and your hands opened at
shoulder width.
2. The hands should be underneath the shoulders with the fingers pointing
straight ahead. There should be a 90 degree angle at the armpit and hips.
3. Without shifting the body left or right, slowly lift one leg up until its straight
and parallel to the ground.
4. While holding the leg up, raise the opposite arm at a 45 degree angle.
Hold for 10 seconds.
5. Slowly return to 4 point stance.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the other leg and arm.
You know what I can show you better via video. Check the video here.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Proper execution of this exercise forces the multifidus to wake up. Once its
woken up, the brain tells the psoas it can relax, which is when the techniques
used to loosen up the psoas, such as stretching, foam rolling and various
therapies can work their magic.
So the neuromuscular system was the cause; tightness was merely the
symptom.
Its through experiences like this that Ive come to realize that stretching alone is
not the answer to most flexibility problems and now, you may realize that it not be
the answer to your flexibility problems, too.
Through the years of education, personal experiences and experiments Ive
performed on my athletes and clients, Ive come up with something that I call the
3D Flexibility System, which addresses ALL of the different factors that might
be limiting your flexibility
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* Models don't come with the car. And the car doesn't come with the car, either.
Soft tissue, neuromuscular and strength are the 3 main areas youve got to
address to ensure youre hitting the factors limiting your flexibility.
And beneath each of these 3 areas, 3 sub-factors exist, giving you a total of 9
Flexibility Factors to address to get quick and lasting results.
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SOFT TISSUE
NEUROMUSCULAR
STRENGTH
3 factors combined with 3 sub-factors each is what I call the 3D Flexibility
System. I also call it 3D because the specific exercises I prescribe ensure that
you develop your flexibility within the full range of 3-dimensional human
movement.
As you can see, theres a lot more to flexibility training than simply stretching for
your tight muscles.
You know what they say if you want real results, look at what everyone else is
doing then do the opposite. Take that conventional wisdom!
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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My intention with this report was to share how much deeper flexibility training can
get beyond the conventional thinking that stretching is the answer to all of your
flexibility problems, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Its taken me years of education and personal experience to learn all of this, and
then put it together into a simple system that anyone can follow.
Thats why Im super excited to share it with you - so you dont have to spend the
time, (tens of) thousands of dollars, or years of pain and frustration figuring it out
on your own - you can just piggyback off of the work Ive already done.
In reading through this report, something I mightve
mentioned mightve switched a light bulb off in your head and
had you think, Whoa, now I know why Im so tight.
If that happened for you, awesome, Im glad Ive been able to
enlighten you.
But if it didnt happen yet, dont fret, because Ive got a lot
more in store for you.
In fact, in an upcoming training, Im going to share with you one of the most
powerful flexibility sequences that only takes a few minutes, but will have you
feeling more loose and limber than you have in years.
It includes all 3 of the FREAKY Flexibility Techniques I shared in this report into a
single sequence.
Thats what I call efficiency.
With a scientific approach and a strategy, you can get better results faster,
because your methods are smarter than the old ways of doing things.
And thats what the Hip Flexibility Solution is all about - getting the fastest gains
in your hip flexibility youve ever experienced - period - resulting from the most
strategic program ever designed.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Hard work does NOT guarantee results. In fact, when you work hard using the
wrong methods, you might end up making things worse.
Intense effort + Inefficient methods = Frustration
Effective strategy + Effective methods + Hard work = Powerful results
The 3D Flexibility System is the overall framework that gives you the effective
strategy and methods.
So if youre not afraid of a little hard work, get ready for some powerful results.
Plus, Im going to reveal an embarrassing story that Ive never told anyone
before, which involves me basically doing the same thing as this bird:
Stay tuned.
P.S. If you got something out of this that you think will help you fix your tight hips,
share the love by clicking one of the icons below, or just go old-school and email
it to them. Youll forever be known as awesome for doing so.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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Eric Wong is a strength and conditioning coach trusted by some of the worlds
top MMA fighters and combat athletes.
He and his athletes have been featured in and on:
He continues to study, experiment with and create innovative methods that help
the 30,000 strong who follow him on his blog, YouTube channel and Facebook,
which includes not just professional athletes, but also men and women who want
the most innovative and efficient methods for improving their fitness.
Eric holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from the
University of Waterloo, is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through
the NSCA and holds a number of other certifications and accreditations.
Plus, hes a big fitness geek and cant get enough when it comes to learning
about health, fitness and the human body. Rest assured, youre in good hands.
Know Someone With Tight Hips?
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