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Splits – How long did it take you?
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Dwiizie, I had a great front split when I was 14/15. Until I came down with my body twisted one day and tore a bunch of ligaments in my right hip. That injury wasn't treated properly (a whole other parent thread) so it followed me around for years and years.
So, although I wasn't terribly athletic, I danced a lot and I know I could do it once upon a time. It just seems like it's taking so much longer as a middle-aged poler. I noticed that I didn't build strength up as fast as the younger women in my classes, so I'm working on the theory that all of it takes just a little bit longer when you get older. There's another woman in my class who seems to be somewhere between my age to maybe as much as ten years older, and I notice she gets hung on on the same tricks I get hung up on and usually, they are tricks that require extreme bendiness. We're both strong and we can both do most everything except these few tricks… Floating ballerina and allegra come to mind as examples. Funny, I can do a jade split, but it could be flatter.
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dedejoy- you can prob do the jade because it requires more hamstring flexibility than hip flexibility which might be tough due to your injury!
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You know, beanie, it never occurred to me until this thread that old hip injury could be what's holding me up now. I bet you're right.
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Hey everyone, thanks for the great tips, I've just started on my front splits journey, can anyone tell me, how many times a day do you stretch? So excited, I've dreamed of this forever! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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I had started working on my splits last spring and initially made progress, but then due to a busy school schedule, I got off track with my stretching and so my progress sort of plateaued, Unfortunately, I started to develop some knee issues that worsened. In the process of figuring out what the injury was and how it happened, I think that a big contributor was my splits training (I can identify a couple "cheats" I think I was doing that were bad ideas!).
Now that I'm stuck with this injury (right medial meniscal tear), I've obviously had to modify a lot of my dance-related activities. I've always been limited more by my hip flexors than by my hamstrings, but I'm not sure of how I can keep working on my splits training without making my current injury worse. I have a hard time keeping my leg fully extended or putting any lateral pressure on it (i.e. any middle splits training or child's pose is out of the question). Even kneeling on the floor is tough.
Hoping someone might have some ideas?
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@hotchocolate-1x a day for 4-5 days a week. I guess you could do 2x a day for maybe 3x a week or so. Whatever you are comfy for that. If you have the time for that then great!
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@LolaSlaytor – Perhaps you should concentrate on strengthening the surrounding muscles and avoiding lateral movements for now? Then hopefully in time your body will respond to the strength training, good luck xx
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lolalaystar- I have a knee inhjury as well I got more than 10 yrs ago.. I should have had surgery but I opted not to at the time. I cant do any lateral movements w out my knee snapping and causing me to crash to the floor. WHen my knee is acting up or Ive snapped it recently, I cant bend it all the way or straighten it all the way. It does seem to have healed to a point that if I am careful and have no snaps, I have full ROM forward and back so that I cando side splits, any middle slit stretching requires very careful attention w the lateral movement so I usuallly just skip it. I do all my knee holds w my opposite leg. I also previously broke my opposite shoulder severely.. I just modify everything. I can only do spins one sided using my strong arm, then leg stuff one sided… lol… feel all gimpy but manage to do most tricks one way or the other! Since your injury is new it will probably take you awhile to heal and get to the point of really knowing it and being able to safely work around it. Just wanted to give you hope that Ive had 2 serious injuries and I still pole and Ive gotten my left splits! Knowing I probably will never be able to do a circus climb drives me crazy! Switches back and forth from bad knee to bad shoulder!
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Started poling on and off since sept 2011 and started stretching for splits round about dec that year. I had no stretch routine, just attempted ‘splits’ whenever I fancied – managed to pull something in my right thigh – now it clicks 🙁
March 2012 realized my hips weren’t squared and back knee was facing out instead of facing down to the ground, so looked up splits stretching videos on YouTube and came across one by emotioncatcher.
3 days ago, started a proper gym workout session (cross trainer or bike for at least 20min) followed by proper stretching. Managed to get down to the floor on day 1 😀 !!
Can only so splits (side) when I’m nice and warm bur ah well, practise makes perfect.Is it possible to someday drop into splits without this much warming up??
Goodluck everyone xx
Ps. I’m fairly flexi to begin with and before starting my proper routine, was already couple inches from the ground both side and middle splits.
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Started poling on and off since sept 2011 and started stretching for splits round about dec that year. I had no stretch routine, just attempted ‘splits’ whenever I fancied – managed to pull something in my right thigh – now it clicks 🙁
March 2012 realized my hips weren’t squared and back knee was facing out instead of facing down to the ground, so looked up splits stretching videos on YouTube and came across one by emotioncatcher.
3 days ago, started a proper gym workout session (cross trainer or bike for at least 20min) followed by proper stretching. Managed to get down to the floor on day 1 😀 !!
Can only so splits (side) when I’m nice and warm bur ah well, practise makes perfect.Is it possible to someday drop into splits without this much warming up??
Goodluck everyone xx
Ps. I’m fairly flexi to begin with and before starting my proper routine, was already couple inches from the ground both side and middle splits.
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xying88 – As long as you continue to properly stretch with squared hips, you will easily drop split without a longgggg warmup. It takes time. I hit my full splits last October after 6 months. Then hit over splits 5 months later in March and drop splits felt so much easier. I felt comfortable sitting into splits (with arms up) maybe 1-2 months after I hit them. It comes with time and proper stretching. I do yoga 3x/week and one of them is deep contortion-like stretching. Pole 1x/week but the warmups are not enough to get me flexible like yoga.
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I don't stretch consistently, maybe once a week. But side splits came easy… I was able to do them when I was younger so I suppose that helped. Maybe three months to get my right split and I'm not far off on the left.
"Square" splits are knee facing down, right? That's how I do mine. I was always instructed to turn the knee out but that hurts for me… my jade split is awful urghhh
My middle splits are freaking HOPELESS. I'm at least a foot away lol and they just don't seem to budge at all. It just freaking hurts and I hate working on them and I doubt I'll ever be able to do them because I hate stretching for them so much.
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And I will echo that whether side or middle is easier just depends on the person… I have a friend who got center/box splits with very little effort but she had to work quite a bit at her side splits.
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Squared splits on the ground are where your hips are squared and not diagonal or uneven. Perfect square. Front leg with knee straight up, back leg with top of your thigh touching the ground and your knee facing the ground.
Jade splits aren’t really splits. Your knee rotates out along with your outer hip rotating out. Also keep your chest facing up to the ceiling, not towards your leg. This will flatten your jade even if you don’t have perfectly squared full splits.
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Just a question girls, I have found out "knots" on the behind of my knee and another one in the armpit.the one one the armpit is painful, you can actually see there is a knot visually, the one begind the knee is not painful if I touch it, but It hurts a bit in doing some movements. would you use a foam roller to release them or massage?I actually dont know if I have to put pressure on them or leave them alone. the knot on my armpit has been here for a while now, I thought at first it was beacause of me shaving.
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