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Splits – How long did it take you?
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I was just about to ask If you knew about Ellen! It’s always good to check out several options. What didnt work for you previously might work now or later on! 🙂
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I think it took me about 6 months to get the splits. However, I have to be very warmed up and stretched out. I still can't do splits at the drop of a hat. I'm not an expert, but what seemed to be a breakthrough for me iniitially was to spend longer sessions stretching for splits (like 30 min to almost an hour). After a while, it took me less and less time to enter into splits and I was able to reduce my stretching time. Also, a tip I learned was to try to get to the point that you can lift your hands up. Once you take your hands off the ground, gravity takes over and your body starts to slowly sink.
Lately, some of my fav stretching poses are butterfly stretch and pigeon pose. I also like to do a diamond stetch (feet together like in the butterfly stretch, but with feet away from you instead of pulled in). While doing the diamond stretch I challenge myself to rest my head on my feet without using my hands.
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it took me 18 months of regular stretching (with two 2 week breaks coz i over did it and had to let my hip flexor recover) to get my splits on one side. Im still not there with my bad leg but its getting closer!
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It took me about 2 months of stretching 4 times a week please don't beat me up!!! I use a combination of Veena stretches, alethea stretches, and a few of my own. But my hip flexors are freakishly loose and when I lead my students through the stretch where you bring your knee to your chest I feel nothing. But to be honest if I didn't compete and see how valuable flexibility is for comps I wouldn't have worked to get them. I am not able to do them that well cold though unless I've stretched within a few hours. However after 5 beers at our employee christmas party I was doing the splits on the floor in the middle of the bar https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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Oh and to be fair I am a super slow learner in pole so I needed something to come sort of easy for me 😉
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1y 4 months and counting… I'm so frustrated with it that I miss words to express… sigh… but also so relieved to read that I'm not the only one pass the 1year mark.. I was starting to believe my hamstrings were hopelessly atrofied…. still not sure, but at least this gave a little bit of hope…!
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Thanks again everyone for your stories- everyone who has made any progress in their splits should be considered an inspiration, and proof that flexibility can get better, even if you can't always see it when it's happening.
@Legend – Don't get too frustrated! Right now I figure it might be another year until I have a real split. That's OK: one thing I learned from my dad, who was a marathoner, is that getting into the best shape your body can be in is also a psychological task; you need to keep your eye on the long term or you will burn out and give up.
It took me a long time to apply this wisdom to the splits, and realize that part of the problem is the psych-out factor. Few things feel worse than being in a dance class when everyone else goes down in the splits, and you're so far off the floor you're just trying to balance somehow! I seriously started about 18 inches off the floor. It also took me a long time to realize that a big reason I never really tried to get my splits until recently was the fact that I had to overcome my own negative feelings about the limits of my flexibility in order to face practicing regularly first. Unfortunately, when I did start to practice the splits, at first I pushed myself too far- blaming myself for not having my splits because I wasn't working hard enough- and then had to take time off to recover. What an excercise in frustration!
I may not be in the splits yet, but what I've learned along my journey, besides the psychological stuff is the following:
1) If you're working hard and are in pain, but not seeing results, you may be working too hard rather than not hard enough.
2) Using a foam roller first helps a lot (I have a lot of adhesions in my leg muscles from running for years without stretching), especially for those of us who can't afford a masseuse.
3) Make sure you're really, really warm. I found out the hard way that a "normal" warm-up doesn't cut it for me. I either have to run like two miles first, or if I don't have time for that I take a very hot bath.
4) I was told by an instructor to try doing my splits on top of a bolster or pillows, and this reduced the pain by at least 50%. And yes, I have made progress doing it this way.
and
5) You have the rest of your natural life to get into the splits! It will come in time. In the meantime, relax and don't hurt yourself. 🙂
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Thank you so much Elektra! 🙂 I hope you are right… it does make sense, I try to believe and keep positive.. there was a time I did, I started from a lunge also but, althought slowly, there was some progress from time to time.. now… some days just feels hopeless. I think I've tried everything at this point. well, everything I could on my own… cant affort a maseuse either.. I'm less than a yoga brick from the floor for months now, and no matter what I do or how I do it, cant go any lower… maybe its time to start saving for professional help. Its not just because of how I feel compared with other polers (thats bad enough..) but since I started teaching.. everytime I have to explain i cant do a split I want to crawl into a hole and cry myself to oblivion… such a bad exemple.. cant help to feel a failure and fraud somehow… anyway… happy stretching 😉
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I was in exactly the same position you were legend! for 6 months i just couldnt get those final 2 inches and i couldnt figure out why. I would push so hard to get there that i'd over do it and end up on the floor but spend the next 2 weeks in agony and be right back to where i started. i finally figured out 'the secret'.
there seems to be two parts to a good front split- front leg hamstring flexibilty and back leg hip flexor flexibilty. find out which of those two is holding you back. My hamstrings were fine (i can get my nose to leg in a pike) but my hip flexors sucked so I worked intensively on stretching my hip flexors and focused on that in my split training (eg. by pushing down my hips in a lunge and really arching my back) and within 3 weeks I got down to the ground comfortably and without pain or overstretching.
my mistake before this was leaning my chest forward and thus increasing my hamstring stretch (which i personally didnt need) and ignoring my hip flexors which actually required improvement.
sorry for writing an essay but hth! i was so excited to finally figure out what i was doing wrong for 18 months!
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Thanks for all of this! I am working on the splits as well. Not easy.
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Great advice everyone! Sometimes backing off and stretching less is a good thing. It's not a race, so there's a benefit to being kind to your body and accepting where you are in your flexibility, AND pole journey at this moment. It's difficult to be content with where we are, but it makes for a more positive out look and then in turn, I think we end up seeing better results, because we're more relaxed with our progress and ourselves. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_flower.gif
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Well I am a beginner of it all…just got my pole and will be doing lessons here and also learning to do the splits….wish me luck!
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beaniegoesnuts – thank you so much! I think you've pinpointed what my problem is 🙂 Must get to work on my hip flexors – I'm pretty sure they are what's been holding me back! Thank you so so much :-)))
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@Legend–I feel your frustration. I teach pole too and I am not to full splits…yet. I am hopeful that they'll come! I've never been bendy. :/
My hamstrings are SUPER tight…I think that's what's holding me back.
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k, so I was not gonna jump in b/c I am post partum and have lost a lil bit of my flexibility, but until I was 30weeks pregnant I was doing splits all sides. It took 18 mo. 4x a week. for 15 min. To those who are almost there, you'll get there! I couldn't even touch my toes after my last baby and I did it. Looking forward to pushing new limits this timehttps://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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