tonyli wrote:
Either sitting or standing, place a tennis ball or a bottle under the arch of your foot. Put a moderate amount of weight on it, but not too much. Roll it forward and back for a couple minutes. This will help relax the connective tissue that runs from your foot all the way up your legs and back.

Just want to say thanks for this exercise too

Update to this:

I've got to say a big thank you for the help received through this post; I've made progress! Yesterday during physio, I was told I had an excellent improvement to nearly 90 degrees (though I was in tremendous nerve pain in my knee during passive stretching!) I now only have nerve pain to work through on my right leg, but a bit more tightness in the hamstrings on the left.

Any improvements for you, Jeltz?

Wu ming, congratulations! If you get a chance to visit Tom Kurz's site, he has some good exercises for building hamstring strength in stretched positions which will help shift the strain off your knee ligaments. I've also heard very good things about myofascial release therapy, which is a kind of deep tissue massage that loosens and reorganizes fascial structure to be more limber.

tonyli wrote:
Wu ming, congratulations! If you get a chance to visit Tom Kurz's site, he has some good exercises for building hamstring strength in stretched positions which will help shift the strain off your knee ligaments. I've also heard very good things about myofascial release therapy, which is a kind of deep tissue massage that loosens and reorganizes fascial structure to be more limber.

Thank you for your kindness and advice, will check it out - think I need it!

Wu ming347 wrote:
Any improvements for you, Jeltz?

Not much yet, I think I'm making some progress but its difficult to quantify.

I must say though that I am finding that I have my mussels more relaxed while kicking, and I think that is giving me more range of movement.

Cheers
Nic

Jeltz wrote:
Not much yet, I think I'm making some progress but its difficult to quantify.

I must say though that I am finding that I have my mussels more relaxed while kicking, and I think that is giving me more range of movement.

Cheers
Nic [/quote]

Surely that's got to be a sign of improvement?

Glad you're finding some difference - I've been back to physio weekly since my original response, and I have a lot more advice and some exercises that might help - will send you a PM so I don't clutter up the forums with it!