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Motivation for Stretching
The past couple months I’ve been trying to work on my stretching to increase flexibility but I just can’t keep up the motivation for it! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif Practicing tricks or doing strength training I can always get into but flexibility training… I guess I just find stretching boring… It seems to take so long and you’re just… stretching lol I don’t really know how to describe it but I just don’t find it remotely fun or interesting. Add to that the fact that obtaining flexibility requires a lot of time and practice… so does strength training but when you add in the "boring" factor to flexibility training, not being able to see any results either makes it really hard to keep up motivation for it. Plus, I’ve heard that if you miss even a day of consistent flexibility training, you lose some… so even if I go at it well for a couple weeks, if I miss a few days, I feel like it sets me right back to where I started. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif How can you motivate yourself to spend the proper amount of time stretching to increase flexibility?
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4 Replies
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Maybe you need to get a good stretch, pilates or yoga dvd, that may keep your focus and interest up.
I do a 1hr intense stretch class once a week which I love and really look forward to attending. I feel really amazing after the class (which also involves a cardio warm up), and even though it’s slow going, seeing results of getting closer to, or achieving the splits is really rewarding. I don’t think you really need to stretch EVERY single day, though of course it would help. If I skip a week it doesn’t make much difference to be honest, actually sometimes I find if I take a week off I get further down into stretches than if I hadn’t had the week off. Not sure why that is. -
There’s not much to motivate you apart from the distant prospect of being really flexible https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif There are ways to make it less boring though. I usually time myself, like I say I’ll be in a stretching position for a minute even if I die of pain. Setting a time limit motivates me to stay stretching longer because if I stop before time is over I feel like a total failure lol.
I also listen to music while I stretch, it diverts your attention from the pain. Sometimes I take down a large mirror from the wall and put it in front of me so I can see myself becoming more and more flexible, it’s strangely satisfying and decreases the boredom https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif Oh and when I stretch into the centre splits I just put my laptop in front of me and watch series.
If you have someone around you could do assisted stretching which is really useful! There’s lots of literature on it on the internet. When I’m home I have my mum help me stretch my legs and my back while we watch telly or something. Having someone help you is also motivating because you can relax all your muscles and don’t get tired of holding a position for too long.
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I’ll put my 2 cents in this forum https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif
Motivation for stretching has to be something you really want, because unlike learning a new move on the pole the results are not always right away.
You also have to make sure you are doing them right because other wise you will be spending time doing something that wont give you progress the next time.
The benefits of having good balance with your legs is incredible, every move on the pole can be alot easier with the strength and balance of a decent middle and side split.
I know because when I started training for splits in January I was like 4in off the floor, and now I’ve got a slight oversplit and a middle split , and it changed the whole way I feel when I am on the pole.
Some moves that I wiggled alot on to find balance became that much easier. You’ll find alot of the greats on the pole seem effortless and most of the time thats because their strength and balance is super increased with their splits balancing their hips out and creating good leverage. -
I maybe have a streching tip. For incase you want to strech your legs into sitting a split.
This method is common used by proffesional balletgroups.
Streching is less painfull in water. When your in a swimmingpool, look up a childrenspool, where’s less water. and do your splits there… you will see that it doesn’t pain
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