Evaluation of Gicky's Stretch Routine

So, I know it’s been several months, but I did want to blog about the stretching routine I got from Gicky. I ended up getting five sessions out of him, though I only paid for four. He was a few minutes late to one of my sessions and insisted that that one was on him and that he owed me an extra session. OK, whatever dude. I’m not going to say no to a free personal training session.

All in all, I think the routine he designed for me is good. However, I still have some mixed feelings about the whole experience.

During the very first session, he had me do about ten squats. From this alone, he was able to determine several facts about me and some of my muscle imbalances. I was incredibly impressed when he said, “Do you spend a lot of time at a computer or driving?” That impression was almost completely erased when he said, during a later session, “I don’t think you have tight hamstrings. Who said you have tight hamstrings?” This was the point at which I wanted to slap him silly and call him Buffy. I, um, resisted this urge, thankfully.

So some of the things he noticed about me are that my knees track inward due to weak calf muscles, my adductors are overdeveloped, my glutes are weak, and my chest muscles are overdeveloped relative to my opposing back muscles. The routine he designed for me therefore involves torturing myself rolling on a foam roller on my calves, iliotibial (IT) band, adductors, piriformis, rhomboids, and pecs. I’m also supposed to identify at least one spot in each of these muscles/bands that is tight, and then hold those spots for 30 seconds on the roller. (Those of you who have used one of these torture devices know how super fun the rollers are.) He then gave me a bunch of stretches to do, which I hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Lastly, he gave me some strengthening moves to do for each of those weak areas he identified – my calves, back, and glutes. I’m supposed to do this routine after I exercise, when my muscles are warm, and I’ve been very good about doing this routine on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, after my cardio sessions. (I don’t bother doing it on Wednesdays or Fridays, since I have yin yoga and figure I get enough stretching there, and I don’t do it on Mondays after Group Power because then I would just never get home.)

So now that several months have passed wherein I have done this routine regularly, what do I have to say? Well, I definitely notice that the areas I have been stretching are more flexible and that my knees track more towards the middle instead of inward. However, my hamstrings? You know, the muscles I needed to stretch and the whole reason I went to Gicky in the first place for personal training? Yeah, those are still as tight as ever. I suppose if I look at it objectively, I can only sum this up in one word: FAIL.

I talked it all over with K-Dawg too, and I realize that doing so seems to have given her a very negative impression of Gicky. She was appalled when I told her he had said I don’t have tight hamstrings, and actually told me that I should cancel the remaining session I had with him and that I should use it with the trainer she most highly recommended. Obviously, I ultimately decided not to heed this advice, though I could tell that she now had serious doubts about his competence. I could see why she had this impression, but at the same time, I also understood his point of view. He’s looking at it more from a functional standpoint and identifying imbalances that affect me in my everyday life, not the imbalances that only affect me in Pilates class, and honestly, the hamstring issue only affects me when I’m trying to do certain Pilates moves. I also think that the stretches K-Dawg has shown me to target my hamstrings really don’t do anything for me. Mine are so tight that the stretches she has suggested end up being more of a quadriceps strengthening move rather than a hamstring stretch (I have to get into such a modified position that I have to bend my knees and it makes my quads totally flex).

I guess the bottom line is that I like the routine I got from Gicky, but in order to get my hamstrings stretched out, he’s obviously not able to help me. K-Dawg, whom I really like and admire, has also not been able to help me in the six years I’ve known her. (Side note: She recently realized just how tight my hamstrings are. She’s finally realized that the stretches she suggests don’t help me, and I explained to her how they make me feel more like I’m strengthening my quads. She even made me lay down in the middle of the locker room – yes, while women walked around me naked with their towels – awkward! – and felt how tight my hamstrings are when I lift one leg straight in the air and leave the other one down straight on the floor.) Anyway, although Gicky and K-Dawg both seemed aghast at what the other had said to me (“WHO said you have tight hamstrings?” “He thinks you DON’T have tight hamstrings?”), I realized that they’re not totally of opposing views; they’re just approaching things from different backgrounds and standpoints. The bottom line, Mango finally helped me understand, is that if I want to loosen my hamstrings, I’m going to have to design something for myself. I’ve had enough training and done enough exercise to really know my own body, and apparently it’s going to be up to me. I’ve recently reverted back to the hamstring-stretching-routine that I devised when I took yoga in grad school, and I’ve already noticed a tiny bit of difference in my hamstring flexibility.

At least I've seen some flexibility improvements in other areas from doing this routine. And at least he’s pretty.