Side Splits

[Chief Fox]

Over the past couple months I've been trying to increase my flexibility so I can do a side split or chinese split. A few reasons for this are 1. A side split not only requires a lot of flexibility but a lot of strength. 2. A side split takes a lot of commitment to acomplish 3. It's just something that I've always wanted to be able to do.

My intention is to be able to do a suspended side split on chairs or bricks or whatever by the end of January 2005.

I plan to use Thomas Kurz's method of stretching outlined in his book "Stretching Scientifically". You can find some articles on his technique here: http://www.stadion.com/column.html

The basic technique is this.
1. Do some dynamic stretching everyday to loosen up a bit.
2. Sit in a horse stance while flexing your inner thigh like your gripping the floor with your legs.
3. Relax from the horse stance, widen your feet and drop down into a horse stance again.
4. Slowly but surely increase the distance between your legs while in a horse stance. Eventually you'll make it to the full side split and have enough strength to slide your feet together in order to get out of it.
5. I also have one of those leg splitters. not the machine kind that you sit in. I have the one that has three arms. You pull the center arm to spread your legs apart.

I plan on doing the dynamic stretching in the morning with the horse stance training and then the static leg spreader at night while watching tv or something.

I'll post pictures of my progress in this thread. Anyone want to join in on the fun?

[Vash]

Good luck. Keep safe.

I used to be able to do them (Well, I still can), they just hurt my knees.

[red5angel]

I'll post pictures of my progress in this thread. Anyone want to join in on the fun?


I'm in! We should put together a program or something so we can measure against each other. I need more flexibility for capoeira anyway.

[Chief Fox]

red5angel, that's awesome that you're in. I could use the motivation. I'm all for setting up some kind of program. What do you have in mind?

Last night I tried some front splits and then used my leg spreader side split device for a while.

Thomas Kurz recommends flexing the muscles around the hip joint while performing a side split so I tried to do this while using my leg spreader.

I'm probably about 18 inches from a full side split and about 6 inches from full front splits.

[FngSaiYuk]

Would be fun to finally be able to do splits. I'll see about getting some pix ul'd soon so I(we) have a good idea of progress over time.

So how long do you sit in your horse stance in the morning right after dynamic stretches? And how many 'sets' of horse stances are you going for? At night, how long are you holding the static stretches for, and do you have 'sets' of stretches where you push out further each time?

[Chief Fox]

In the morning my dynamic stretches consist of basically straight leg swings to the front side and back. Like this: 12 front each leg, 12 side each leg and 12 back each leg. I start out very low and little by little try to increase the height.

I then sit in a horse stance for 1 minute, rest for 15 seconds, widen the stance a bit and then sit in a horse stance for another minute. I keep resting and widening until I can't do it any more. Usually I'm done after the forth set.

At night I hold my static stretch for about a minute and then widen it. Hold for another minute and widen. After I get to my max I rest for a few minutes and do it all again.

The biggest struggle for me up till now is motivating myself to do the morning routine. Hope this helps.

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[FngSaiYuk]

Tnx, it's a routine I should be able to stick with.

[stubbs]

I'm in!! I'd really like to be able to do the splits too. How are we all going to report our progress on here? Are those leg spreader things any good? They're cheap, so if they're any good I might get one,
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Ford cyclone engine picture (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Ford_Cyclone_engine)

[Chief Fox]

The leg spreader is ok. I think it's a good tool to use as a part of a routine but not your whole routine.

As far as tracking progress goes. I'm thinking that it will need to be done with photos. I'll probably take my first photos this weekend.

[red5angel]

I'll have to measure where I am now from the ground, I've increase quite a bit since I started capoeira. If I had to guess now I'd say I was about 12-15 inches form a full split when I'm warm.

hmmm program not sure. I say we just make sure we match up and see what happens. Or we can mix and do different things to see if somehting seems to work better then others, what do you think?


man, if I could do the splits I'd finally be able to go out for the cheerleading team!!! :D

[FngSaiYuk]

Originally posted by red5angel
man, if I could do the splits I'd finally be able to go out for the cheerleading team!!! :D

Y'know that whole hindsight thing? If *I* had to do it all over again, I'd have tried out for (and gotten into) the cheerleading team as well... ::sigh::

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by FngSaiYuk
Y'know that whole hindsight thing? If *I* had to do it all over again, I'd have tried out for (and gotten into) the cheerleading team as well... ::sigh::

I was thinkning this very thing while watching college football this weekend. Those male cheerleaders get to hang out with all the hot chicks. Throw them up in the air, have them sit on their shoulders, all kinds of fun stuff.

[FngSaiYuk]

Originally posted by Chief Fox
I was thinkning this very thing while watching college football this weekend. Those male cheerleaders get to hang out with all the hot chicks. Throw them up in the air, have them sit on their shoulders, all kinds of fun stuff.

And pay CLOSE attention to where their hands are when they're HOLDING THE CUTE CHICKS UP IN THE AIR!!!

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Chief Fox

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Sweet ASCII art!

[anerlich]

I was working toward the front split a while ago using Pavel's methods (similar to Kurz's) and gave myself a pretty bad hamstring tear from pushing the PNF too hard.

Hasten slowly, OK?

You CAN overdo this stuff, and a medium to bad injury will set you back probably a couple of months at least.

That said, go for it and good luck!

[IronFist]

^ Ouch! What happened?

[Chief Fox]

Originally posted by anerlich
I was working toward the front split a while ago using Pavel's methods (similar to Kurz's) and gave myself a pretty bad hamstring tear from pushing the PNF too hard.

Hasten slowly, OK?

You CAN overdo this stuff, and a medium to bad injury will set you back probably a couple of months at least.

That said, go for it and good luck!

This is great advice. Kurz has a warning in his book saying that if you push it too hard you could injure yourself. Thanks for the heads up anerlich!

So keeping this in mind. I may have reached the end of my leg spreader's range. The center handle has holes in it were you can adjust it's length. You make the handle shorter to increase your stretch. I'm on the second to last hole and I'm about 12 inches from a full side split. I'm not sure if the mechanincs of the spreader will allow me to go much further. ONe thing I've noticed is flexing the muscles around the hip joint really helps.

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Revised ASCI art for IronFist. :)

[Chief Fox]

Here's a link to the leg spreader that I have: http://www.martialartsmart.net/20-76.html

Just incase anyone is interested.

[norther practitioner]

I'm going to start after thanksgiving (OK I started last night, but lets be realistic.. I'm going to be at my girls parents for 5 days). I have a looooong way to go. My left hammie still bothers me from a bad pull in June.

[shaolinsoccer]

Get a massage on that hammie. It will help break through any scar tissue. Help get you going again.