Not enough flexibility for proper form

🇬🇧 English speaking Forum
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There are a lot of these I just don’t have the flexibility for. I excluded ‘assisted standup’ from my exercises because my feet don’t naturally come all the way to my ass in one swift motion, and instead I’m awkwardly standing up. A lot of the exercises where you are meant to bring your feet as high as your wrists, I can’t get them that far (like today my workout includes ‘Froggers’ - I’ll be able to do the basic motion probably but not that far). Today’s cooldown has ‘toe reaches’ and there is no way I can put my palms flat on the floor without bending my knees.

I’m reasonably in shape (I’m a marathon runner and my doctor says I’m very healthy). When I finish a routine and it asks about how well I did, do I have to keep rating not-perfect-form? It’s not realistic that I’ll suddenly gain this flexibility, considering I’ve been like this as long as I remember (my fencing coach in college commented on my lack of flexibility in stretching).

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possible culprit: I did a lot of bicycling from when I got my training wheels off to the end of high school - but since I was a kid I never treated it as an exercise that I stretched for, it was just a thing I did for fun. So I had hella-strong calf muscles (I could do the standing calf-raise machine in my school gym on maximum weight really easily) but probably sacrificed flexibility.

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Hi @thodges314_freeletic

I was exactly the same way when I started with Freeletics 8 years ago. Years of football and lacrosse left me with all sorts of mobility and flexibility issues that restricted me from performing some of the movements (I consider yoga generally harder than Freeletics for this reason!). After a few months of training consistently with freeletics and just doing the best I could to get as close to proper form as possible, I noticed a significant improvement in my flexibility. A little over a year in and I was even doing unassisted stand ups (which I seriously never thought would happen in a million years!). So stick with it and do the best you can, it takes time but the body is very malleable and will adapt to the stimulus it is given.

I hope that helps :smiley: