0115 The Flexibility of Backwardness

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By the time Chen Jue entered Tianyu, he felt as if his legs were turning into stiff zombies, making his steps more like hops than strides. Unexpectedly, once he left Tianyu, his body seemed to regain its vigor once again. However, to accelerate the recovery of his legs, he had to clear out all the hard-earned free attribute points he had accumulated in one fell swoop.

“Out with the old, in with the new.”

“Keep pushing forward!”

Chen Jue hailed a cab back to his apartment. Along the way, he admired the dazzling lights that adorned this burgeoning city and felt acutely aware of how much more effort he still needed to put in.

...

Back at the apartment, he followed his usual routine of soaking in a medicinal bath. The rehabilitation center only had showers, which didn't offer the same level of relaxation as a herbal soak. After the bath, Chen Jue began applying medicinal salves in cycles to his hands, feet, and joints where ligaments were concentrated. He had purchased plenty of circulation-promoting wine and bone-penetrating ointments specifically for his daily training regimen.

He also took some whey protein powder recommended by Li Rui, knowing that daily meals alone wouldn't suffice for muscle gain. Given that Chen Jue wasn't picky about his diet—often indulging in high-fat, high-calorie Chinese dishes—supplementing with these additives was essential.

“Classes and training during the day, relaxation at night,” Chen Jue noted as he glanced at the densely packed schedule on the wall and then at the periodic training guide sent by Li Rui. It included plans for nighttime yoga focusing on fascia and ligament stretching and muscle relaxation.

Yoga, originating from ancient India, was a spiritual practice systematized around 300 BCE by the great sage Patanjali, who synthesized various indigenous disciplines into the “Yoga Sutras,” defining the eight limbs of yoga. These eight limbs are: external discipline, internal discipline, posture regulation, breath control, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and absorption.

The yoga most people practice today is a modern adaptation, primarily involving posture regulation (commonly known as yoga poses), breath control, and meditation for mental balance.

“Using yoga to improve flexibility, huh?”

“That sounds worth learning,” Chen Jue thought after reviewing the material, reflecting on his current flexibility status.

After a period of intense training, although Chen Jue had significantly improved his strength and physical fitness—some aspects even reaching the level of national athletes—his flexibility remained unsatisfactory. For instance, in the forward bend stretch, whether standing or seated, he could only just touch the top of his feet with his fingertips; reaching his toes was still a stretch.

Years of prolonged sitting had led to lumbar disc herniation and aging, coupled with some spinal deformation, making it impossible for his back and waist to bend normally. Before acquiring his current stats, he couldn't even touch the top of his feet. Only through gradual training had his stiff back and waist regained some elasticity.

Still, this level of flexibility was far from that of a true expert.

Seeing the yoga videos Li Rui sent, where practitioners could easily press their heads to their knees, sparked a lively thought in Chen Jue’s mind.

Take his afternoon jump training, for example: a person’s explosive leg power is crucial, but the ligaments also play a vital role. If the skeleton is like the body of a bow, then muscles, fascia, and ligaments form the bowstring. Without a highly elastic string, the bow can never unleash its full power.

Chen Jue had slowly strengthened his muscles through high-intensity workouts, so naturally, he couldn’t neglect training his ligaments and fascia. Yoga’s remarkable effects had caught his attention, inspiring him to improve his flexibility.

After all, Chen Jue’s goal was to become the strongest human in Hexagon City. Only bulking up muscles indiscriminately might leave vulnerabilities.

Yoga was complex and couldn’t be mastered just by watching tutorials. After studying the theoretical aspects, Chen Jue searched for professional yoga studios near Jiang University, bookmarking several highly rated ones to visit and check out the environment when he had time the next day.

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...

After completing his nightly health care routine, Chen Jue comfortably went to bed. The next morning, he followed his usual routine: water, supplements, then upstairs for eye and ear massages. Nearly an hour later, he earned 0.01 free attribute points, and his proficiency in the Ear Care Exercise soared, triggering another upgrade.

——————

[Ding~]

[Proficiency reached 100%, skill level increased.]

[Ear Care Exercise Lv2 → Lv3]

[Your understanding of ear acupoints has deepened significantly, and your massage techniques have greatly improved.]

[Long-term ear massage has effectively stimulated and exercised your atrophied auricular muscles, significantly enhancing your hearing.]

[Physical Constitution +0.01]

——————

Seeing the prompt on his stats, Chen Jue grinned: “Another perfected skill! My hearing is definitely getting better!”

Closing his eyes, he carefully picked out background noises from the rooftop of his apartment. His hearing range now extended from the security guard’s radio at the gate all the way to the sounds of cars starting up on the dead-end road outside.

He could distinctly hear the roaring and vibrations of cold engine starts, exhaust emissions, and the friction of tires against the ground, all intertwined.

Moreover, Chen Jue felt himself consciously controlling his auricular muscles; his ears began to twitch rhythmically, like two tiny fans flapping.

If only his ears were a bit larger, he joked inwardly, maybe he could flap like the monkey king’s companion and take off on the spot.

“Still not quite there. If I could fold my ears inward to close off the entire ear canal, that’d be a natural noise-canceling headset,” he mused, experimenting with ear movements.

He found that changing the angle of his ears enhanced sound reception from certain directions, somewhat like a swiveling radar. After spending some time understanding the mechanism, Chen Jue realized even these seemingly useless vestigial organs had their purpose.

In the days of primal hunting or chaotic wars, this heightened hearing ability alone could have given him a survival edge over others.

But modern society no longer required living off the land; such superhuman hearing rarely found practical use.

“Better to have it than not!”

“Maybe it’ll come in handy someday,” Chen Jue reassured himself. Mastering the directional sound-enhancing ear movements, he headed downstairs and drove to the park for morning exercises.

...

Wu Fang appeared fully recovered from the flu, having changed into a thicker tracksuit and was leisurely practicing Tai Chi near the chess table.

Seeing Chen Jue approaching, she greeted her father briefly, then blushed slightly and jogged over: “Want to join me for morning exercise?”

“Sure!” Chen Jue’s eyes brightened. He noticed Wu Fang was becoming more proactive toward him.

After greeting Wu’s father, who gave him a knowing, “You’re a lucky guy” look, Chen Jue and Wu Fang chatted as they slipped into the nearby grove.

They skipped Zhao Jianguo’s Tai Chi class and instead headed to the grassy lakeside area where they often filmed videos.

Wu Fang carried a white waxwood spear with red tassels, indicating she planned to practice spear techniques instead of rope darts today.

Before starting, she stuck the spear into the lawn and began warming up under a ginkgo tree, bending down and mounting, then doing forward and backward rolls, followed by leg lifts resting on the tree trunk to perform standing splits and stretches.

These were basic flexibility exercises in martial arts; if anyone else was doing them, Chen Jue might have simply admired them inwardly.

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Most of these moves, aside from the rolls, Chen Jue couldn’t attempt at all.

But watching Wu Fang’s graceful figure execute such challenging splits and stretches, Chen Jue swallowed hard and thought, “Those unrealistically long legs! And these secret moves—Wu Fang really is the eternal goddess!”

Wu Fang probably caught his awkward gaze; she flipped backward, performed a split with legs pressed flat on the lawn, stretched her upper body straight, and with a faint blush asked curiously, “How do you usually train your basics?”

Chen Jue turned red too. What martial arts basics? His dart skills came purely from brute force and repetition. He honestly replied, “My flexibility is poor; I mainly focus on muscle training.”

After explaining, he stretched his waist, mobilized his wrists and ankles, then began various fancy push-ups on the grass.

Without a pull-up bar, calisthenics couldn’t fully showcase their power, so push-ups were his main option.

Spotting the ginkgo tree Wu Fang used for leg stretches, Chen Jue propped his foot on its trunk and tried handstand push-ups with support.

This was the preliminary move for the Russian dip, one of the five legendary street workout techniques. Mastering unsupported handstand push-ups would get him closer to performing the full Russian dip.

“Too reckless!”

“You could easily injure yourself training like that,” Wu Fang admonished, spotting Chen Jue’s impulsive nature at a glance.

She squeezed her legs inward, stopped her split, then stood upright like a pencil from the lawn. Walking over, she gently corrected Chen Jue’s handstand push-up form: proper waist and abdominal support, leg elevation, and shoulder-to-arm alignment.

Once Chen Jue adapted to the correct posture, Wu Fang assisted him by carefully lifting his legs forward until he completely let go of the tree support, moving across the lawn in a handstand walk.

After several assisted back-and-forth circuits, Wu Fang let go, and Chen Jue maintained a stable handstand without leg support. She smiled knowingly, “You did it!”

Chen Jue focused fully, casting aside earlier distracting thoughts, and carefully practiced ten standard unsupported handstand push-ups.

Unexpectedly, his stats prompted:

——————

[Ding~]

[Completed a session of intense anaerobic exercise; your entire muscle group has been thoroughly worked.]

[Prolonged handstand activity stimulated your inner ear vestibular system, effectively exercising your cerebellum and slightly improving your balance.]

[Strength +0.01]

[Mentality +0.01]

——————

First update of the day~

Feeling good today, starting early.

P.S. You can test your own flexibility with the forward bend stretch: touching the ankle or top of the foot is failing; toes is passing; touching the ground is good; palm flat on the ground is excellent.

Master level: head touching the knees!

(End of chapter)