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Splits – How long did it take you?
I've been working on my splits 3-5 times a week for about six months, and although I'm further down than where I started, the progress is (a lot) slower than I expected. (My routine is to take a hot bath, then do about 30 min of stretches before actually trying the splits.)
I'd love to hear how long it took you to get down to the floor, where you started, what you did, and whether you had never done a split before. (I gather it's different trying to get them back than trying to do it for your first time in adulthood)
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89 Replies
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do you know the differences between passive, dynamic, or resistance stretching? have you tried all three?
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In a word: yes. Did you have a specific stretch or stretches in mind?
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It took me just over a year to get all the way down. I am the most unflexible person everrr. I worked on my splits approx 3-4 times a week. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. I kind of wasn't consistant and I have no one to blame but myself. But anyways, it took me just over a year to get all the way down. It's now 1.5 years and I still don 't feel comfortable getting all the way down. And there are still some days where I regress a little. Keep working at it. It can take a long time but you will get it if you don't give up. 🙂
I suggest working on your splits after a good workout. Your body is so warm and loose after and it can stretch much more. 🙂
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It took me about a year to where I could consistently and easily get into them. But for a few months I would get lazy and not stretch as often as I should… Once I started the foam roller and stretching lessons on here I started noticing a difference in about 2 weeks and then started progressing more quickly. You could also try searching stretching for splits on youtube… There are TONS of different stretches on there so you can find some that really help you 🙂
Oh and I never had my splits before… Or any flexibility for that matter lol you’ll get there! -
Are you tighter in your hip flexors or in your hamstrings? What kind of stretching are you doing now?
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Girls, I am doing my splits right now. After my dance rehearsals without stretching I always go almost all the way down, there's always 3-4 cm left. But when I try at home, it's nothing similar, and I really do warm up nicely at home, although, I don't have the conditions to get THAT worn out as I am during the rehearsals, and they are just two times a week. I've had thoughts of purchasing Aleathea Austin's DVD Pure Splits because I've heard some of you had good feedbacks on it. So is it really that good and worth the money?
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I am not super bendy to begin with, but I've been working towards the splits since the beginning of January. I have to say I am pretty close to getting the splits down packed. It took a lot of religious stretching. I hear you are supposed to stretch 3-5 times a day, but really I believe that is exessive and don't know how ANYONE has time to do stretchin g 3-5 times a day. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif
I personally like to stretch right before I go to bed because I find that it's super relaxing, helping me sleep much more soundly. My stretching session normally lasts roughly between 40-45 minutes. I try to stretch up to 5 times a week, once a day. I youtubed a "stretch exercise for splits" and got a pretty good one. I believe she might actually be a Veener as well https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_surprised.gif It's a super long one, but I mostly do the beginning stuff, skip the entire "do these stretches when you are in your splits" and only do 1 of the back flexibility stretch exercise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUcbQkVjk8
Hope that helps you as much as it's helped me!
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Aerial Amy – what kind of stretching would be best for tight hamstrings?
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And I would love to hear what to do when it’s tighter in the hip flexors…. If I could get those to let go I’d be there 🙁
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Here’s some help on hip flexors 🙂 http://aerialamy.com/blog/2012/01/17/tuesday-tips-hip-flexor-flexibility/
uT,what kind of stretching are you currently doing for hamstrings?
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You have a resource for stretching and splits right here as well. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gifI suggest working on the individual stretching lessons first, to learn proper technique, then move on to the routines. Train no more than 3 times a week. Unless you've been stretching regularly for years. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/
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Thanks for all the feedback guys. It's good to know that it's normal to take a year to go from no splits to the floor- that's what it's looking like for me. I don't really mind, as long as I know what I'm up against- I started out thinking this would only take a couple of months! (ha ha)
I just bought a subscription to the Veena lessons, so I'll check out the splits section. I also just ordered the Alethea Austin "Simply Splits" DVD (heard good things on another thread), because while my regular routine has been OK so far, I know eventually I will need more active and dynamic stretches to get that nice, flat jade.
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@A. Amy – um, just standard stretching like pike (standing and sitting on the floor), reverse lunge, etc. When I do them I have the tops of my legs engaged by pushing against the floor or by pointing and flexing my toes.
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UT– I would strongly recommend that you look up resistance stretching techniques for hamstrings… the work that you're doing now is passive stretching and I honestly find that it did the least for me personally. There's a link at the end of my hip flexor blog entry for more info, but you can also check out videos here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/resistance-stretching-with/id394928840?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 (a 99 cent iDevice app)
or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3zKTZFoiS4&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PL75DAB09D25825391
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Thanks so much, Amy! I’ve read half of Bob Cooley’s book and contacted Ellen for a Skype lesson a few weeks ago. I’ll follow up on that! Thanks for the links and your responses!!!
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I was just about to ask If you knew about Ellen! It’s always good to check out several options. What didnt work for you previously might work now or later on! 🙂
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I think it took me about 6 months to get the splits. However, I have to be very warmed up and stretched out. I still can't do splits at the drop of a hat. I'm not an expert, but what seemed to be a breakthrough for me iniitially was to spend longer sessions stretching for splits (like 30 min to almost an hour). After a while, it took me less and less time to enter into splits and I was able to reduce my stretching time. Also, a tip I learned was to try to get to the point that you can lift your hands up. Once you take your hands off the ground, gravity takes over and your body starts to slowly sink.
Lately, some of my fav stretching poses are butterfly stretch and pigeon pose. I also like to do a diamond stetch (feet together like in the butterfly stretch, but with feet away from you instead of pulled in). While doing the diamond stretch I challenge myself to rest my head on my feet without using my hands.
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it took me 18 months of regular stretching (with two 2 week breaks coz i over did it and had to let my hip flexor recover) to get my splits on one side. Im still not there with my bad leg but its getting closer!
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It took me about 2 months of stretching 4 times a week please don't beat me up!!! I use a combination of Veena stretches, alethea stretches, and a few of my own. But my hip flexors are freakishly loose and when I lead my students through the stretch where you bring your knee to your chest I feel nothing. But to be honest if I didn't compete and see how valuable flexibility is for comps I wouldn't have worked to get them. I am not able to do them that well cold though unless I've stretched within a few hours. However after 5 beers at our employee christmas party I was doing the splits on the floor in the middle of the bar https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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Oh and to be fair I am a super slow learner in pole so I needed something to come sort of easy for me 😉
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1y 4 months and counting… I'm so frustrated with it that I miss words to express… sigh… but also so relieved to read that I'm not the only one pass the 1year mark.. I was starting to believe my hamstrings were hopelessly atrofied…. still not sure, but at least this gave a little bit of hope…!
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Thanks again everyone for your stories- everyone who has made any progress in their splits should be considered an inspiration, and proof that flexibility can get better, even if you can't always see it when it's happening.
@Legend – Don't get too frustrated! Right now I figure it might be another year until I have a real split. That's OK: one thing I learned from my dad, who was a marathoner, is that getting into the best shape your body can be in is also a psychological task; you need to keep your eye on the long term or you will burn out and give up.
It took me a long time to apply this wisdom to the splits, and realize that part of the problem is the psych-out factor. Few things feel worse than being in a dance class when everyone else goes down in the splits, and you're so far off the floor you're just trying to balance somehow! I seriously started about 18 inches off the floor. It also took me a long time to realize that a big reason I never really tried to get my splits until recently was the fact that I had to overcome my own negative feelings about the limits of my flexibility in order to face practicing regularly first. Unfortunately, when I did start to practice the splits, at first I pushed myself too far- blaming myself for not having my splits because I wasn't working hard enough- and then had to take time off to recover. What an excercise in frustration!
I may not be in the splits yet, but what I've learned along my journey, besides the psychological stuff is the following:
1) If you're working hard and are in pain, but not seeing results, you may be working too hard rather than not hard enough.
2) Using a foam roller first helps a lot (I have a lot of adhesions in my leg muscles from running for years without stretching), especially for those of us who can't afford a masseuse.
3) Make sure you're really, really warm. I found out the hard way that a "normal" warm-up doesn't cut it for me. I either have to run like two miles first, or if I don't have time for that I take a very hot bath.
4) I was told by an instructor to try doing my splits on top of a bolster or pillows, and this reduced the pain by at least 50%. And yes, I have made progress doing it this way.
and
5) You have the rest of your natural life to get into the splits! It will come in time. In the meantime, relax and don't hurt yourself. 🙂
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Thank you so much Elektra! 🙂 I hope you are right… it does make sense, I try to believe and keep positive.. there was a time I did, I started from a lunge also but, althought slowly, there was some progress from time to time.. now… some days just feels hopeless. I think I've tried everything at this point. well, everything I could on my own… cant affort a maseuse either.. I'm less than a yoga brick from the floor for months now, and no matter what I do or how I do it, cant go any lower… maybe its time to start saving for professional help. Its not just because of how I feel compared with other polers (thats bad enough..) but since I started teaching.. everytime I have to explain i cant do a split I want to crawl into a hole and cry myself to oblivion… such a bad exemple.. cant help to feel a failure and fraud somehow… anyway… happy stretching 😉
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I was in exactly the same position you were legend! for 6 months i just couldnt get those final 2 inches and i couldnt figure out why. I would push so hard to get there that i'd over do it and end up on the floor but spend the next 2 weeks in agony and be right back to where i started. i finally figured out 'the secret'.
there seems to be two parts to a good front split- front leg hamstring flexibilty and back leg hip flexor flexibilty. find out which of those two is holding you back. My hamstrings were fine (i can get my nose to leg in a pike) but my hip flexors sucked so I worked intensively on stretching my hip flexors and focused on that in my split training (eg. by pushing down my hips in a lunge and really arching my back) and within 3 weeks I got down to the ground comfortably and without pain or overstretching.
my mistake before this was leaning my chest forward and thus increasing my hamstring stretch (which i personally didnt need) and ignoring my hip flexors which actually required improvement.
sorry for writing an essay but hth! i was so excited to finally figure out what i was doing wrong for 18 months!
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Thanks for all of this! I am working on the splits as well. Not easy.
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