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Okay, I have been stretching once or twice a day for the past two months, taking one day off a week for muscle recovery. I have noticed a large increase in flexibility in my hamstrings. My knees can almost go to the floor when doing butterfly stretches, but my splits feel like I have stayed the same. I am not in a school right now, so I may be doing an incomplete stretching routine. Please let me know what your stretching routine consists of.
Thank you
Go to www.dragondoor.com and check out Pavel's flexiblity book which has great concepts and techniques for flexibility. You can also go to Barnes and Nobles and see if they have his copy of his stretch book. You cana read it for free and take notes since your a student.
AI and PNF stretches is what you should study and not static stretches. I think balistic stretching is good for martial artists as well.
I've been doing yoga for five years. I can bend forward with straight legs, put my entire hands under my feet and still have room to bend my elbows. I can put my leg behind my head. I can stand on my left leg, grab my right foot and hold my right foot out perpendicular to the floor, and put my head on my right knee.
I am nowhere near being able to do a split.
I, of course, have no idea if this is true for you. I just want to warn you so you don't get too frustrated. You are limited by your musculature and bone structure.
It can be quite prohibitive of certain things for certain people.
I can tell you now that I will never be able to do a full split.
That's not true, if you can stand on one leg, and stick it out to the side, forming a 90° angle with both legs, this means you can do it with the other leg too, this means you can do a split. This is a factQuote:
Originally posted by eulerfan
It can be quite prohibitive of certain things for certain people.
I can tell you now that I will never be able to do a full split.
That may be true. I was talking about sticking the leg out to the front, though.
"You are limited by your musculature and bone structure."
I have found this to be true. I am quite flexible, but with certain stretches my hips limit my range of motion. I don't feel the stretch in my muscles at all. I just can't move my legs any further because my hip joints won't allow it.
If you're finding that your hip bones are limiting your range of motion it is more than likely that you're not positioning your pelvis correctly when attempting a stretch.
Do a little experiment. Stand up and lift right your leg to the side. Don't bend your body or rotate either foot, just lift straight up sideways. You'll find that you run out of range very quickly, somewhat less than 90 degrees. Now turn your right foot so that your toes point slightly upward and you'll find that your range of motion increases. Alternatively, bend your body slightly forward and the same thing will happen.
Basically, your hips have to be tilited forward in relation your legs. If you look at all the side kicks from any martial art, they all take account of this.
Here's a link
http://www.stadion.com/column_stretch6.html
...anybody want to share their stretching routines?
Thank you.