Dough too elastic to work with...

Making bagels or challah...the process of forming the dough into 'ropes' is brutal..a real battle. It seems to have a mind of its own. It springs and shrinks, nothing like I see in the youtube 'how tos'.... I try and coax it into an even rope like shape and it fights me! I end up with a lumpy, thick, thin stretch of dough that, when proofed, still shows some signs of having gone through a war.  What am I doing wrong??