Splits: mission impossible

[gogy]

I have been doing lots of streeching lately I am 24 years old and I think I have chronical inflexiblity. in my full side split I lack around 60 cm to floor and in front splits around 30 cm to floor. Is there any way or training routine which would enable me to do full splits one day. I had lots of injuries in taekwondo due to not being flexible twice knee and ankle injuries all on left leg.  What I do lately I put on my leg on gymnastic ring one is on floor and do swings and I attempt splits on sand. 

 

regards

[Merunas Astrauskas]

I am not an expert on stretching but I can tell you what helped me get from 60cm to my current ~5cm off the ground. As far as I can tell static stretching has been a waste of time. What really helped me was to stand up and slowly lower myself into the split while fully supporting my body weight on my legs. Sometimes I use the wall to help my balance. After lowering into the split I try to rise up on my feet by pushing them into the ground (Obviously socks and a slippery surface are essential). Progress has been slow but constant. I do this about 2, sometimes 3 times a week. In addition to that I incorporate PNF stretching at the end of the session. Sometimes, with a good warmup and after some stretching I am able to lower myself to the ground.

Here is an image I found on google that does a better job showing what I mean.

 

Hopefully Stretch One will expand my arsenal of techniques.
 

[Connor Davies]

Stop trying to do the splits.  Start again at the butterfly, and when you can touch your chest your feet and hold it, move onto the pancake.

[Daniel Burnham]

I have been doing lots of streeching lately I am 24 years old and I think I have chronical inflexiblity. in my full side split I lack around 60 cm to floor and in front splits around 30 cm to floor. Is there any way or training routine which would enable me to do full splits one day. I had lots of injuries in taekwondo due to not being flexible twice knee and ankle injuries all on left leg. What I do lately I put on my leg on gymnastic ring one is on floor and do swings and I attempt splits on sand.

regards

Trying to push and achieve this in one day is dangerous and irresponsible. It is a good way to cause injury though.

There are a few stretches that will help. Butterfly is good for starting the spread of the hips and stretching the groin. Pancake is also very useful. I suggest to be able to put chest to ground in pancake. You should also be doing frog stretches to spread the legs even wider.

All of these can be done in a pnf fashion but you should be careful to start slow with no more than two hard sessions a week. When you find a new range of motion you should relax and take deep breaths and hold the position for 10 breaths or about 30 seconds. Accumulating 5 min on any muscle group is a good ideas though you don't have to do this on one stretch or one type of stretch.

It took me just a few weeks to go from 8 inches to right off the ground. I am now able to lower into it and sit without too much trouble.

[Karl Kallio]

IMO people will have different rates of flexibility acquisition, and different techniques will work better in different situations, so don't get frustrated if some guy only takes 4 weeks to get 180º in his split and you're still feeling like a rusty clothespeg.  That being said 180º splits are possible for almost everyone, they are not super contortionism and you  should be able to get there with an appropriate investment of time.

 

Some things that I think help with flexibility:

 

1) Warm muscles stretch better than cold, exhausted muscles get injured.  Warm as in body heat from use, not turning up the thermostat.

 

2)For every big tough stretch like splits there are a whole bunch of baby-step stretches that you can (and should) do beforehand.  Depending on your current ability you will need to spend more or less time on each preparatory stretch. 

A laundry list for middle splits:

Butterfly,  warrior II, side angle, triangle, half moon, pancake, frog, cossack, half frog/half split, leg on a ballet bar (to side), split on floor with legs in air, split sitting facing stall bars, full middle splits.

A laundry list for right/left splits:

all the hamstring stretches you can think of: standing pike, sitting pike, downward facing dog, leg on a ballet bar (in front), grab heel of one leg and pull towards chest (knee bent or straight, foot flexed or pointed, sitting standing or lying down),

all the lunges variations  that you can think of: Warrior I, reverse warrior, regular lunge (body forward upright or leaning back, back knee on ground or straight, hips square or open), pigeon, king pigeon, back leg on a ballet bar (knee bent or straight)

splits with your hands on chairs so that you can relax, splits with the knees bent and slowly extending, splits leaning forward, standing splits hanging on to stall bars (looking up or looking down)

 

3) PNF is great, but there is no need to start out heavy-handed.  Warm-up, do static stretches until you understand your current ROM then do PNF.  If you don't usually do it keep it light until you understand your current tolerances, you can always do it harder the next day.

 

4) Active is important and should be incorporated into every ROM (but doesn't need to be the only thing you do).  Also it can be progressive, often with beginners it seems that they do well helping out the active flexibility with their hands (or a partner's hands).  So for middle splits I might get the newbies to lie on their back with their feet in the air and open/close their legs.  The first two weeks I will concentrate on helping them keep their knees straight and their toes pointed, even if that means almost constant manual correction.  Once they can open/close with ok extension and only verbal help from me I make them put their hands behind their head so that the legs have to open/close on their own.   Once they can do that I start alternating one day with weight (500g each ankle at the start) and one day opening fast/hard.  Once that is ok they go over to the swingset and start doing "sliders" (one foot on a swing and opening/closing to side splits)  hanging onto the swing set pole.

 

5) Sometimes it is good to get someone else to look at you to see what should be done.  Human beings tend to rationalize and avoid the unpleasant but necessary stuff.   You could put up videos/pictures here or get your taekwondo instructor to guide you

[gogy]

Can you maybe put some videos for butterfly and pancake workout and for frog streeches? PNF exercises I am familiar with its you streech and hold your muscles for like 10 sec than rest and strech and hold again. Is there any thread on this website about useful pnf exercises for splits? thank you guys for your replies

 

About taekwondo instructor they do team training, but they don't care about individuals so I train with team only few months a year, I do most of my workouts alone as I'm not competitior anymore, but still I want to improve my basic technqiue and speed and power of kicks, where flexibility is essential. Also I heared professional athletes on olympic level in this sport do the same, most training do alone just sparring in team. Because imo you need several coaches and I am one of few which combines gymnastics with that sport and it works well for me. If I would be head of national team, I would put gymnastics coach for strentgh/flexiblity and athletics coach for conditioning in coaching squad. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0AJYEMJrEo

Are these exercises ok?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEGyP7EJAMA

and here is example what koreans did to me, I put legs on wall with my back on floor and I was screaming as hell and almost was in full middle split

[Connor Davies]

Yeah don't do the thing in the video with the guy screaming.  Come on dude, he's screaming.  What part of that makes you think it's a good idea?

[gogy]

Yeah don't do the thing in the video with the guy screaming.  Come on dude, he's screaming.  What part of that makes you think it's a good idea?

I dont support it but thats something what koreans do to young kids :/

[Connor Davies]

I dont support it but thats something what koreans do to young kids :/

I've seen other guys attempt the same stretch.  They always have this reaction.

 

All I meant is, why would you willingly subject yourself to that?  There's far less awful ways to train.

[David McManamon]

Flexibility just requires training and learning to listen to your body.  You will have to work out the scar tissue and knots from previous injuries using massage and movement.  Many people are inflexible from lack of stretching, learning to stretch will take some time but the mobility you gain will be worth the investment, at a beginner level find a yoga class you like and don't push too hard.

[Karl Kallio]

The thing is that the stretch itself isn't the problem, its that they are doing it in a dumb-a** way.  There are people who manage to do the safest exercises badly.

 

I would recommend starting out with something like these:

 

Maybe after a while trying an easy-ified version of this (has more dynamic stuff):

(maybe put the step under your stomach in the side split instead of under your feet)

[José Ignacio Varela Suárez]

When you want to gain flexibility you need 3 things:

 

1. Read "Stretching and Flexibility of Kit Laughlin" or visit his youtube's channel.

 

2. Be patient. You have to understand that flexibility does not occur in a brief period of time. You will need time so as to improve. Yes, there are methods that work better than others. But you will need time.

 

3. Be smart. You have to know what final stretch you can get ( In this case, splits). Once you know that, you have to know the muscles that limit that stretch. Once you know that, you have to know which stretches are safer and lighter in order to be able to progress to the final stretch. In other words, progression, like you do in strength training.

 

PD: 2 and 3 will be learned if you do 1.

Good Luck!

[Cody Ward]

In my opinion, many people like to overthink stretching.

Just do it consistently and push yourself through the discomfort. I went from not being able to touch my toes to full splits in 2 months.

[gogy]

I got the book from friend streeching with kit laughlin, I will definetly read it, hope it helps me Thank you guys for your tips& advices