How to do a split if you are already over twenty

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If your parents in childhood sent you somewhere to ballet or to acrobatics, then you are most likely one of those lucky ones who know how to sit on the splits. But what if childhood is over, and the ancient dream of splits still bothers you? Is the train gone, or is there still a chance?

How do the splits. Video instruction from Lifehacker

Of course, not everyone will be able to do the splits the first time, someone may need a week or a month. But by repeating these exercises regularly, you will improve your stretching and strengthen your muscles:

If the twine is something more symbolic than yoga

For some, twine is nothing more than a good stretch, healthy ligaments, a yoga exercise. But for me, as a person who grew up on the action films of Jackie Chan, Van Damme and Donnie Yen, it was something much more important and symbolic. Already in my student years, I reproached myself for the fact that in the seventh grade, when I went to hand-to-hand combat, I did not show due diligence to sit on the splits. And when I was 20 years old, it seemed that time had passed, that I was old and that I shouldn't even try to do a split.

A miracle happened - right after university I went to study in China. This university turned out to be a very strong wushu school, whose adherents regularly take first places in all-Chinese wushu competitions.

It's one thing when you live in the world of pedestrian office workers who don't particularly ask questions about stretching, but it's quite another thing when you find yourself in a training room, where absolutely everyone, even children, twists somersaults, flasks and splits. In such an environment, being the greenest, oldest and most non-technical student, you somehow begin to reach upward. This aspiration, as well as the advice of the wushuists, helped me to sit on the side split in less than a year of training. I put their knowledge and experience into a list of recommendations for those who want to do the splits.

How do the splits. Instruction from the champions of China in wushu

1. Forget deadlines. There are no "New Years" or "two months in advance". The haste in stretching is bound to lead to injury.
2. Less heroism. It is better to go slowly and systematically towards the goal for half an hour every day than rare, but pounding workouts for several hours at a time.
3. Get to know your body. Although we are all similar anatomically, each of us has our own characteristics: the structure of the hip joint, the elasticity of muscles and ligaments. For example, with a varus deformity of the femoral neck, a person simply physically cannot sit on a transverse twine. Therefore, if your brother-acrobat approached any one method to sit on the twine, then it is far from the fact that the same method is suitable for you. During training, you must independently determine your problem areasthat do not allow you to sit on the twine. For example, I had no problems with the popliteal ligaments, they stretched well. But the ligaments at the thigh were like wood. Therefore, I paid more attention to them.
4. Drink plenty of water. When you drink enough, connective tissue slides over the muscles, but when there is not enough water, the fascia can stick to the muscle fibers, reducing the range of motion.
5. Start training graduallyby gradually increasing the frequency of stretch marks. I started with one workout every two days and went up to three workouts a day.
6. In the evenings, our joints and muscles become 20% more elastic, which reduces the risk of injury and allows for better results. In the morning, you can do dynamic stretching to relieve the feeling of stiffness and tightness after sleep, but do not seek exploits immediately after waking up.
7. Before stretching, be sure to warm up your leg muscles: run, do air squats and regular warm-up exercises for 10-15 minutes. Stretching on a warm body reduces the risk of sprains.
8. Distribute the load. When you sit in a split, it is tempting to sit closer to the floor with your knees. Remember, if your knees or back hurt while stretching, you are doing it wrong.
9. There are two types of splits: dynamic (when you swing your leg - split on impact) and static (sitting on the floor). It so happens that a person can swing his leg to the state of a twine, but cannot sit in it on the floor. It also happens the other way around. These two types of twine complement each other, so they should be developed in parallel. Dynamic stretching must be fully controlled, without jerky, jerky movements, otherwise the swing can result in injury.
10. When you stretch, then pull the sock towards you, and not from yourself (as in ballet).
11. When you are in a static state, you do not completely freeze, but you continue to lightly oscillate - up and down, like a string - at a frequency that is convenient for you.
12. Figure out how to let your feet slide on the floor. It can be both socks on linoleum, and shoes on the spitting of a ushuista.
13. Be extremely carefulwhen third parties offer to "help" you. Nobody, except you, can know in what state your ligaments are now. The coach is not a psychic. How many stories have I heard about a coach who "accidentally" tore someone's ligaments. As for me, all these paired stretching-constrictions with the help of a partner pursue one goal - to make the process more interactive and complex. By and large, you do not need anything for the twine, except for the legs and floor.
14. Relax … For the body, stretching is an unnatural activity. When stretched beyond the normal range, the muscles contract automatically to prevent injury. Learning to relax and breathe evenly while stretching will help you deepen the split faster.
15. Stretch every day. Unlike strength training, which requires rest and recovery, stretching does not require such breaks. To do the splits faster, stretch every day, seven days a week.
16. Use a hot shower. After a hot shower, your ligaments will be more susceptible to stretch marks.
17. Use a timer. Sitting on a twine set a stopwatch in front of you … Start small, like 30 seconds, and gradually work your way up. These measurements will also help you feel your progress more clearly. Instead of the timer, you can use your favorite music, in which you are guided either by the words or by the beginning of the chorus.
18. Sign up for a section where twine is appreciated. For example, acrobatics, yoga, break dance or martial arts. It doesn't matter if you know how to sit on the twine or just work in this direction. A person is a social being, therefore any "public" training, and even more so in a circle of like-minded people, will morally support you and give you additional motivation.

Each person may have their own favorite and more effective ways of stretching: someone will sit in a "bow tie", and someone will swing their legs more - that is why I did not describe any exercises here, you probably know them. If not, then you know where to find them.

The most important thing is to remember that with due perseverance, people sit on the twine at 30 and at 40, the main thing is to believe in themselves. When, a few months later, I finally managed to sit in my side splits, our main wushu player smiled at me and said: "功夫 不负 有心人" - which means "if you work hard, you will definitely achieve success."