Sanchara
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well at the time I was only doing the warmup/cool down stretches at karate and warmup at vaulting. There was a bit of a trial and error phase sometime after I started competing in vaulting. Trying to follow the latest fads…but that only resulted in getting injured and having to take time off training.
I had a good chat with my personal trainer friend who was the most flexible person on the national team when she was still vaulting competitively at one point and she explained everything. After applying what she taught me I made significant progress seemingly over night ( in reallity it was about three months between fugly jazzsplits and when this picture was taken.) http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3174/phonepictures080.jpg
By sancharavaultrg at 2010-05-08I wish I had stayed consitant with it but 2010 was just generally a really bi-polar year for me. and I made no progress in building strength or flexibility during my battle with Annorexia Athletica 🙁 no matter how many hours or how correctly I trained.
I'm going to bug someone to take new pictures at the end of practice tomorow. 🙂 we'll consider that my starting point for all intents and purposes. ;P
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Other than having a….somewhat….ummm….less than modern looking? website (just my opinion as an industry professional – I really hope they didn't pay for it) I really think that our IF is doing a pretty good job and is really on the right track.
There are a couple cosmetic rule changes I'd like to see so that we are more like other artistic sports. the first one is that I don't think props should be allowed in compeition -now that dosn't mean we can have a gala show at the end of the compeition like Rhythmic Gym does.
like so
Competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nRFvuyEl8
Gala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQcEQ4Ddrc&feature=related
the other thing is just costumes/presentation. There really should be a limit on how much skin is to allowed to be exposed, and clothing should not be allowed to be removed. and serious dedictions for vulgarity. now thats not to say you can't dance however you like in your gala performance. Just not when you're in front of the judges. 🙂
annother example from RG
Comptition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4zrF0m2aA
Gala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBgBaGsHIdg
anyway…that's just my two cents 🙂
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My favorite straddle stretch is the warmup series I learned in karate. It both passive and active flexibility (how much you can get without resistance)
You start standing with feet together lean forward with flat back and touch the floor – hold this untill the muscles give in to the stretch (its a sort of "ahhh thats better" feeling) for most people this takes between 15-30 seconds – if its cold out or you have lactic acid build up in your muscles from yesterday's workout it might take longer so be patient and don't move on untill it does give in. You can help speed this up by contracting the opsite muscle group for a few seconds and then exhale and release.
Then walk your feet to shoulder width – touch your hands to the floor between your feet untill the muscles give in then grab one ankle and pull your chest to your leg. Hold this untill it gives in then do the other side, then do middle again. Next you walk out your feet to about double shoulder width aparat and repeat. Then repeat at almost as far as you can go. Then repeat at as far as you can go. At this point you should still be supporting your weight on your hands with your cute little bum off the floor. with your hands in front of you using the muscles of your legs to support you slowly sit down. This help strengthen the muscles in the stretch position. If you are flat on the floor at the bottom of the straddle you can prop one foot up on a something so you still have space under your bum.
Once you are sitting down reach with both hands to one foot and pull your chest down to your leg – hold it untill it gives in then do the other side. After that reach with the oposite hand over to your foot and pull your shoulder down towards the floor in front of your leg.
In general a thorough warmup and cool down with lots of repititon of stretches. will give you the fastest results. That being said nobody gets their splits or straddle-splits right away.
When you are stretching to improve flexibility do it after your workout when your muscles are tired. and hold everything for like three minuts. However don't hold it if it starts to hurt. But do go farther if you stop feeling a stretch.
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Thank you for the nice picture of a correct split VinterVlild 🙂
It's okay to do Jazzsplits when you are performing becuse you should never max out your range of flexibility in a performance/training. But when you are stretching having one of the hips in front of the other – or even worse allowing one of the knees to turn causes the ligiments to stretch rather than the tendons. Unlike tendons ligaments cannont "unstretch" so your knees become much weaker. and in a sport where the majority of the athlete are wearing six and a half inch heels you want strong, stable knees.
Now I skimmed throught the "splits in six weeks" programme and it seems that most of what she is talking about is correct. However I think her time frame is unrealistic. There is a thread on the Rhythmic Gymnastics forum I'm on about how long it took to get the splits. Most said six months to a year.
It took me a year stretching 3 days a week at age fifteen…. I just don't want anyone to get hurt. (my coaching insticnt kicks in whenever I see people doing something that they might hurt themselves with and I'm all like RAWR!!)
I'm not saying anyone is dumb or even wrong. I just care 🙂
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Gawkpop, bow/teardrop is easy enough to do like in the yoga picture with bent legs and legs appart – but not so easy to do like the picture of Alina I posted. 🙂 I wouldn't know anything about contortion lol…- I was working on the move with one of the coaches at gymnastics when this picture was taken.
Veena, no worries, I'm not begginer at all. I've been competing internationaly in vaulting for over two years and have been doing gymnastics for three months. 😉
I guess I should have said "when you have mastered" rather than "if you can do"
Oh something I accedentally left out of my frst post. Make sure to always stretch your back both ways equally. So if you do a bridge do a plough or something after it.
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would help if I'd included the line *blush*
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I was browsing the yoga site gawkpop posted a link to and I found this: this is the correct way to do the cobra.
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I find that one kind of difficult it's supposed to look like this eventually after years of hard work 😉 <a href="http://www.imagebam.com/image/856b5982203210" target="_blank"><img src="http://thumbnails16.imagebam.com/8221/856b5982203210.gif" alt="imagebam.com"></a>
Chest stand is one of my favorite back things becuse it is both strengthening and stretching. If you can do everything in my first post I can give some tips on it 🙂
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there are lots of good posts on the toe point thread. 🙂 check there.
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one thing I saw in every single photo was un-square hips. Stretching splits without square hips can be very bad for the knees. You wont be able to go as far with square hips but it will be better in the long run. The way I check to see if I'm square is by resting my hand on the middle of my bottom. If one cheek sticks up higher than the other than I'm not square.
Oh random FYI I was having a very hard time stretching the last couple of weeks becuse the tendons on the outside of my knee would feel like they were slowly pulling/tearing as I stretched long before my hammstrings, hip flexors ect. actually felt the stretch. After working the knots out of the while upper-calf, knee lower quad reigon the strange/painfull sensation went away. So moral of the story is watch out for knots.
I think I'll have someone take pictures of my splits when I go to the gym friday, that way I can participate in this thread too. 🙂
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http://thegymcoach.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bridge.jpg
this one is the correct one – the other link dosn't work right. It's annoying that this forum system dosn't have a preivew option.
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I swear that song is cursed.
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I think it's really easy to not actually know your correct shoe size… I was mesured at a shoe store once and they said I was a six so for years I bought size sixes and slowly developed a sheer hatred for shoes in general becuse every single pair of every shoe was uncomfortable. Then I borrowed my sister-in-law's vaulting shoes one practice and was amazed to find how comfortable a size five was lol.
The only shoes I have that are not a five are my Nike Shox – which run really small so I bought the six – I do wear them with my husband's socks tho…
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you're welcome 🙂