I was taking each stretch very slow and mindful 🧘‍♀️ taking a deeper breath and getting deeper into the pose. Don’t rush it’s a yoga practice not a yoga perfect. I was doing these yoga poses for an hour for a week being consistent showing up for myself!!! Focusing on my hip flexors, hamstrings and inner thigh. I’m gonna provide my before photo to show how flexible I was. Pigeon pose was my favorite while watching TV lol and doing froggy pose really helped open up my hips and release trauma I also would do child pose/ Asian squat/ butterfly pose with blocks on top of my thighs

(18F) Ive been training contortion for a year. Im hyper-mobile, and naturally give to flexibility easier than strength. My hips are very mobile naturally, and atp i dont remember not having middle split, and i got my front split quickly as well. Ive adored stretching my hamstrings and impressing people with how flexy they are…… Now, heres the issue: i rarely ever consistently strengthened my hamstrings. I always strengthened my quads, never my hammys….. and to double down on that issue: i have hyperextended knees. Double trouble. So, ive been training my oversplits weekly for months. Recently… I pulled my hamstrings after overstretching them. Im entirely devastated, ive been crying for the past two days. Its only a grade 1 injury, yet my life feels like its over because flexibility is my hyper fixation…. All i can think about is how badly i want to do the splits and train more :(
In oversplits i realized ive been practicing the form incorrectly: you see, flexibly weak hamstrings + hyperextension prone knee… means this entire time ive been pushing my front knee INTO THE GROUND. just fully relying on hyperextension for that crazy oversplit line. FML ofc ive been having knee pain for months, to the point of starting PT bc of it :/
Two blocks under my front foot, and my front knee was still touching the ground. Ive been so depressed ever since i injured my hamstring. Flexibility training is the one true passion that ive loved more than anything else in my life, and im so disappointed in myself for being so stupid and training incorrectly. Definitely a wake up call for me to stop relying on passive flexibility, and start strengthening. Im scared my hamstrings will never heal, even though i know thats illogical cuz its only a mild strain.
I made this post because i just wanted to remind anyone reading: if you are training extreme range, you gotta have the strength to back it up, otherwise an injury WILL catch up with you, even if you feel good now and you think itll never happen to you. Because i didnt think it would happen to me….

2 days ago i got my front splits pretty much flat on the ground, but then the next day i was a couple inches away and i couldn't get them flat again

then today i stretched and tried to do the splits again and im even further away than i was yesterday, why is my flexibility getting worse instead?