Casey Kill started this discussion ·
I just don't seem to be gaining ANY progress at all with my scissor splits!! Ive been stretching intensivly for several months now and just seem to be getting no where....Am I doomed to never be able to split???
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You should maybe try changing up your routine. Try Veena's stretching lessons or buy a DVD. :) If you think there is actually something anatomically wrong that is preventing your body from splitting, check with your doctor.
byrdgrrl ·
Also, you say that you've been stretching "intensively". If you work yourself too hard and don't allow your muscles to rest between sessions, you will actually make them tighter. Try taking a day off in between sessions and see what happens.
Please be very careful about stretching! If you push it too far, you can actually cause yourself to become less flexible- I've had this issue trying to stretching my hamstrings, and ended up worse for the effort and pain. You should feel tension, but certainly NOT pain when you are stretching. Give it time, breathe, relax. It will come in time. As Alethea Austin says in her DVD's... it took her 3 years to get to where she is now. Give your body the rest it needs, and please be gentle!
You should only be doing intensive stretching two maybe three times a week and just regular maintenance stretching on the other days. like Runemist said, if you overdo it you can cause stiffness and tightness in the muscles.
There are different schools of thought as to how often to stretch...even the experts disagree. There are different types of stretches - passive, PNF, etc. When to do it (morning, afternoon, evening) varies too as well as how long to hold each stretch. The most common mistake I see is that people only stretch one area - they want to do splits so they only stretch INTO the splits or they only stretch leg/hip/thigh muscles. If you aren't doing do, you have to stretch your whole body. If you think you are doing everything correctly, consult with a professional. In the very least try Veena's online stretch program here...it's very thorough.
As the above lovely ladies have said, and ALSO, I find flexy training a couple of days a week, for around 6-8 weeks, then having a week off, or maybe only one gentle day, makes a world of difference to my flexibility. :)
Thank you ladies for all the advice! This is pretty much a rough look at when and how I've been doing it--- On the days that I train/pole hard, I stretch lightly before and after a 10 minute warm-up, so about two songs is what it turns out to be. Afterwards I stretch to cool it down a bit. Couple hours later I do a light dance, and stretch hard....and same thing couple hours after that. On the days that I take it easy, usually sundays and mondays, I do simple spins, just a really light easy dance for awhile. Never really a specified time, just until I feel satisfied, and I just do a really easy simple cool down and stretch. So I guess what I'm really wondering if because I wasn't in dance or gymnastics or something that its put some sort of a hinderance on me. I'm by no means ready to give up at all. Maybe you guys had something work better for you over anything else. I want to know your indivudual secret tricks!!!
If it's not over stretching maybe it's the type of stretching you are doing? Have you also worked up to holding each stretch for 30 seconds to a minute? (I've heard for a stretch to be effective it has to be done longer than 30 seconds but I'm no expert or certified at anything so any of my advice is not any sort of official guideline) My individual insight: I made progress with the 6 week program and Alethea's pure splits. I have no gymnastics background and could never do the splits when I was younger.
Veena ·
@ Casey Kill, there is a lot of info on stretching and flexibility in the lessons here. I have individual lessons that break down each stretch and there are also 3 twenty min Flexibility routines. 2 for splits and one for back mobility. The "Getting started stretching" has all the info on how often to stretch as well as other info too. You may find answers by simply reading the lesson description too, so check it out. 🌸 https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/4dd66731-eab0-4b4a-aa13-41ad0ac37250
I feel your pain. I am not an inherently flexible person, and it's taken me a while to get down a routine that works for me. Judging by what you said in your last post, my guess is that you're training too hard. Stretching hard more than once in a day is not recommended. I also wonder if your "light dance" is an adequate warm-up for stretching hard. One of the things I've discovered is that I need to be SUPER warm to make progress without setting myself back. I usually do this by taking a hot bath before doing my flexiblitiy training, but you could also try hot yoga, or just exercising until you're sweating a lot first. Finally, progress-- while it should exist-- can be really slow. It's taken me about a year to get into scissor splits, and I'm still working on middles. I have no serious dance or gymnastic background and am 31, so it's an uphill battle, but not an impossible one.
RoseMay ·
Have you looked into PNF stretching? I've found that with passive stretching I could get my splits down to like 4 inches off the ground and then the progress stalled. Once I started PNF stretching in the split position from there I was down on the ground really quickly. To get the splits I did flexibility training for around 4 hours per week, usually on 3-5 days once per day, depending on how sore my muscles were. Also I've found that just dancing isn't a very good warm-up for flexibility training for me. I like doing dynamic stretches as a warm-up. I highly recommend following routines (DVDs or Veenas lessons) on a regular basis. You can throw your own stretches in before or afterwards. But those stretching routines will teach you technique and new stretches that you might not have tried before.
You guys are so helpful!!! I'm going to jump on every piece of advise I get!!!
