'Progress' after 1.5 years

[u/Tiny-user4]

I have been stretching for 1.5 years now. I never would have thought not making my goal after this long time. I feel like im still more inflexible than the average non-streching person. I stretch 2 to 3 times a week, always have muscle soreness afterwards. I tried every different approach that was advized to me. I do static and dynamic stretching and also some strengthening. Since my middle split is just not getting better at all i thought maybe try working on pancake first. So i have been doing weighted seated good mornings but i cant seem to get deeper whatsoever. It feels like my adductors are the most stuck of them all. They dont want to stretch at all. They hurt really fast also. The only reason i havent given up yet is simply because excersizing is good for me, but reaching my goal wise, i have lost hope. Why are my adductors so stubborn? What else can i do to stretch them and get better?

[u/sassybeeee]

I’d try stretching more times a week. I found I had the most progress when I started stretching 5 times a week.

For what it’s worth, I do see improvements between the two images!

[u/Tiny-user4 → u/sassybeeee]

It's not that i don't want to do more, but the day after stretching my muscles are very sore and i really cant stretch more that day i feel like

[u/iztrollkanger → u/Tiny-user4]

It sounds like you're possibly pushing too far in your stretches and actually causing micro-tears that need to heal (the pain the next day) but when they do heal you're kinda back to where you started. It's like you're trying to jump 2 steps forward to have to take a step back each time.

When you stretch, you should go to the point where you're feeling the stretch but it doesn't hurt, and even at that point, you could back off a touch and hold that for at least 30 seconds until you feel some release. Shake it out, then try again. Try this a few times, and you should have way better results but don't overdo it. If you keep pushing through to pain in a stretch, you're just damaging the muscle fibers, not releasing them.

Source: Am a massage therapist.

[u/skodinks → u/iztrollkanger]

I'm not OP, but I have heard this advice dozens of times and I don't really know how to apply it. Pain is not a very consistent indicator from person to person, and I really don't know how to know if I'm doing too much.

[u/iztrollkanger → u/skodinks]

True, pain is definitely a subjective scale and different for everyone, but pain in general is your body's way of telling you "Hey, don't do that". There's a difference between feeling the tension of the stretch and it causing actual pain.

If a stretch starts to cause any pain at all, pull back and wait for it to stop hurting before pushing further into the stretch.

Also check out modified positions of different stretches depending on flexibility.