I wrote this for another forum, but figured someone here might like it too. If you’re in Yonghe and have time between 8-10am you’re welcome to join me out streching. It takes about an hour and I usually leave the house around 8 or 9.
If any of you are really hardcore about… well being hardcore, you:
[ol][li]Can do the splits (all three) already or[/li]
[li]Are constantly trying to figure out how to achieve them.[/li][/ol]
Well, I fall into B and have only ever been able to do those 2 forward splits (which are pretty easy to get.) I’m now on a mission for all three again, but I think experience and committedness are on my side this time.
I’ve read from many sources that if you are in decent shape, then max flexibily (that would be the splits) can be achieved in about 2 months of daily streching, but it has to be done right. Today is day 5 of 60 for me and I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far + what I’ve read. First off, there’s an FAQ you should read online if you haven’t read it already.
[Stretching and Flexibility - Everything you never wanted to know]
If you’re hardcore, you’ll read the whole thing… thrice. But here are some highlights and tips from me.
First I do some joint rotations.
[quote=“That FAQ on Joint Rotations”]The general warm-up should begin with joint-rotations, starting either from your toes and working your way up, or from your fingers and working your way down. This facilitates joint motion by lubricating the entire joint with synovial fluid. Such lubrication permits your joints to function more easily when called upon to participate in your athletic activity. You should perform slow circular movements, both clockwise and counter-clockwise, until the joint seems to move smoothly. You should rotate the following (in the order given, or in the reverse order):
- fingers and knuckles
- wrists
- elbows
- shoulders
- neck
- trunk/waist
- hips
- legs
- knees
- ankles
- toes[/quote]
I do it in the order given.
For warming up I just run (for about 5 minutes), but I do different things to make the run more interesting, backwards, those high knee things, those kick your ass with your heels things, sideways, that cross step thing footballers do, etc. Do whatever you want (but do it for at least five minutes,) but that’s what I do.
After that it’s streching time. I’m doing this JUST to get the splits. There’s a section of the FAQ dedicated to that, read that part now:
[Working Toward the Splits]
Read that? Good. Now for the PNF part. PNF streches are to be done every other day. There are three kinds of PNF streching techniques. [Read about PNF streching here] The type I use every other day is the hold-relax:
[quote=“PNF Stretching”]the hold-relax
This technique is also called the contract-relax. After assuming an initial passive stretch, the muscle being stretched is isometrically contracted for 7-15 seconds, after which the muscle is briefly relaxed for 2-3 seconds, and then immediately subjected to a passive stretch which stretches the muscle even further than the initial passive stretch. This final passive stretch is held for 10-15 seconds. The muscle is then relaxed for 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique.[/quote]
So what I do is get into the passive streching position. When I’m comfortable (after about 5-10 seconds) I “isometrically contract” the muscle. Relax for a few seconds, then go down deeper into the strech than I initially was.
PNF streching can only be done every other day.
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NOTE: DO NOT OVERSTRECH!!!
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When I was young [Note: sounds funny, but most of the kids posting on this forum are like 15 
] like most of you seem to be, I would strech too hardcore (but in a bad way.) Then I’d be hurt and couldn’t strech for a few days, then I’d so it again, repeat. A small amount of pain is probably OK, but you should not be tearing up (crying) while you do these streches. You should feel really good and streched out afterwards. Just after 4 days I went from 110 degrees to 125 degrees (based on one of those strech machines in our dojo.)
I was thinking about making a movie of all the different streches because they might be hard for some people to visualize just from reading the text, but I haven’t yet.
Good luck and happy streching!