I'm not far into my learning, so I'm hitting road blocks on a pretty regular basis. The wushu fist forms have been great to work on, but some of the movements I've taken on, so far, have been difficult, if not impossible, to complete. Having reached a point in my second form, where I can perform at speed, I've started to seriously pursue the flexibility I need in order to move forward.

As someone who's never been particularly agile or flexible, stretching has recently become a big part of my day, and it's not an easy part. With a week's worth of stretching behind me, I was finally able to kick above my head, without spending the next two days hobbling. That's a result, already, but in order to reach some of my far loftier goals, I will need to master the forward and side splits - something I would never have seen myself doing, before I took on this great art.

And that's the first major roadblock.

To begin with, my legs were pretty much limited to about 90°. It took a few days of the new stretching routine, before I could see any additional movement, but when it started to emerge, it was far more exciting than I'd expected. Perhaps, because it was a step forward, or maybe because that's when it really settled into me that I'm actually doing this. Either way, a few extra inches of movement is good for anyone, and not least, for a martial artist.

My stretching regime, in the first two weeks, consisted of a number of mildly painful positions, held for just long enough that I didn't feel like I was going to break anything important. Along with these, my ability to sink into, and stay in, the major stances, did significantly improve.

There are quite a few stances to learn, as you can see, here:

To achieve a flowing movement between these somewhat difficult postures... more stretching!

With high kicks checked off, this is my next goal.

Update:

2 minutes forward plank
2 minutes reverse plank (facing upward)
15 side crunches on each side
30 seconds straight leg lift on each side (90 degrees)
20 double leg lifts (from laying flat to feet above head)
40 single leg lifts each side
70 ma bu squats
40 gong bu turns (180°)
40 high kicks (above head)
80 knee lifts (knee touching chest)
2 x 20 seconds ma bu
4 x 1 minute split stretch (one leg flat, other knee into armpit)
3 x 1 minute center split stretch (as low as possible)
4 x 30 second side split stretch (one leg forward, one leg back)
4 x 30 second half split stretch (same, but back leg bent at knee and sitting on foot)
2 x 1 minute outer thigh stretch
2 x 1 minute pyramid stretch
1 minute butterfly stretch

I increase each of these by a set amount, each day (for example, 70 ma bu squats today, 75 tomorrow, then 80).

After the stretching portion is complete, I go back to my wushu form practise and try to go a little deeper, a little faster, and a little harder than yesterday. One step at a time, improvement comes.