Mike, sounds like you’ve done very well for yourself. If you haven’t already, it would be great if you’d post reviews of the books and DVD’s you mentioned.
Thank you, Steve, but does that mean I have to go to DD to review 'Beyond Stretching'? Am I allowed??
It's ok, I'm joking!
Seriously, Zach, Chris, and Joe have made some great points regarding the need for proximal stability for distal mobility, and the dangers of hyper flexibility. My limited understanding of the FMS, DNS, and McGill's research forms the core (pardon me) of the home practise that seems to have served me well (Pavel's influence should go without saying
).
Anecdotally, I've met several female instructors (or rather, 'models') of market driven, yoga/Pilates hybrids over the years and ALL of them suffered quite frequent bouts of low back pain regardless of their drawn-in navels and low back stretches (of course, they may have been drawn to those hybrids in order to 'cure' pre-existing pain, so there could well be a sampling error, but I imagine that their quest for the ultimate stretch didn't serve them well). Therefore, I can understand those who are cynical about the utility of so-called 'yoga' classes. The moral is, find a competent, principled teacher.
Kelly Starrett's anecdote regarding a yoga class he attended (and 'won') comes to mind (I heard this on his Creative Live presentation). He went on to cite Buckminster Fuller's notion of 'mutual accommodation' in respect to formalised systems of movement. If I've understood this correctly, all correct systems are integrated and competence in one should offer some carry over to another, they shouldn't clash (Olympic lifting competency transferring to a yoga class, in Starrett's example).
As Alistair suggests above, I'd like to think that a practise of mindful movement of whatever flavour (a TGU, a kata, a yoga sequence, a trail run) can be seamlessly integrated into a principle based system, such as StrongFirst. In my opinion, Gray Cook's notion of 'self-limiting exercise' fits in with this too.