SPLITS Arghhhhhhhh

[flow]

I would like to know people here heard of "pavel tsatsouline relax into strech"book.He was training the "spietnaz" Russian special forces:and had for mission to make them fall into full splits in...ONE MOUNTH!

Well for me it sounds more like 6 mounths.But i find it very efficient and quicker than all these stretches i used to do before(and more painfull though).

Does someone knows him and his techniques?Has someone tried before or heard of it?Requesting all opinions.

I also wonder if someone has special trics for stretching...serious ones please!

[plumflower_pm]

why do you want to do splits?

[shaolinstylee]

flexibility is crutial for muscle control.. Muscle control is good for good martial arts...

[flow]

I just want to be flexible,so i wont crack if i try to kick high.And as i want to go to China,i'd rather be flexible before to avoid they're tortures.Do you know that before 40 yo you can achieve a full split?"cause most people say after 18 it's too late...Wrong.
yea muscle flexibility seems to be more than important in martial ars!Cheers

[zachsan]

oh yeah, this is the guy who wrote that "naked warrior" book about body weight exercises. that one got pretty popular i think.

i don't really know anything about him, and this is a shameless generalization, but it seems like everyone who wants to teach MA in russia claims some sort of connection to spetsnaz. and a lot of those guys blend reality and fantasy without a second thought. read his stuff, but if it starts going the direction of telekinetic KOs and what type of music you should be listening to, you'll know to stop taking him seriously.

[blooming tianshi lotus]

My splits are great and I hear you on why you need it!!! Have you tried pliates or yoga???
Sound sissy but callesthenthenics are something you can't replace. Check out www.aerobicsozstyle.com for some really good quite cheap dvds they can ship to you at nxt top nohting. Better than any explanation you'll likely ever get on the boards!!!

cheers

Blooming Lotus

[shaolinstylee]

There has been some talk about a bunch of Pavel's stuff on the kfm boards...

might want to snoop around there.

[flow]

[QUOTE=blooming tianshi lotus]My splits are great and I hear you on why you need it!!! Have you tried pliates or yoga???

Sounds great!Could you tell me
How old are you?Since when do you work on your flexibility?How long did it take you to achieve a full side split?

Yea i'll have a look at the yoga stuff.Actually i'm getting more stretchable than ever thx to tsatsouline,but i always need some tips and i'd like to hear from someone that achieved a split after 18(i'm 22 and getting ready to go from boxing to Shaolin gong fu lol!).

I'll also have a look on the forum gracie mille stylee.
Ok i'm just trying too keep faith,i'm kind of stubborn,I WILL DO THE SPLIT ARGHHHHHhhhhhh:::......

[Asger]

I'm working on the splits too. been sorta slowly approaching the full splits for a few years (im 19 now). There has been obstacles like injuries (i pulled the right side of my groin) and illnesses (appendix hell) and various preoccupations (school).
I can just advise you this: don't try that one month bs unless you have a very qualified teacher. Injuries are to easy assimilated. Take it easy, relax, breathe deeply, keep the knees straight and do streching as often as you can.
Focus on your breathing and relax... if you're good at it, you will realize that it's mostly the nerves stopping you.
Also be very attentive to what kind of pain you feel. You have to know the difference between good pain and bad pain.
During the most rigorous periods of my training my knees took heavy toll. Therefore i rubbed on Dit Da Jow which helped radically and enabled me to continue.
The frontal splits are easy but the side split is more difficult to achieve, and should really be worked on every other day and everytime you attempt the splits you should always atleast get to the point you reached last time, otherwise you will not improve.

[Asger]

why do you want to do splits?

As to become more flexible. Flexibility and stamina and the basic prerequisites if you want to reach any level in kung fu.

[blooming tianshi lotus]

[QUOTE=flow]

My splits are great and I hear you on why you need it!!! Have you tried pliates or yoga???

Sounds great!Could you tell me
How old are you?Since when do you work on your flexibility?How long did it take you to achieve a full side split?

Yea i'll have a look at the yoga stuff.Actually i'm getting more stretchable than ever thx to tsatsouline,but i always need some tips and i'd like to hear from someone that achieved a split after 18(i'm 22 and getting ready to go from boxing to Shaolin gong fu lol!).

I'll also have a look on the forum gracie mille stylee.
Ok i'm just trying too keep faith,i'm kind of stubborn,I WILL DO THE SPLIT ARGHHHHHhhhhhh:::......

I've always been pretty athletic , and as a boxer you sound like youre in some good shape yourself . But as only really a long distance / cross country / beach marathon runner and feild athletic / netballer / half assed dancer until I was about 14, I didn't really pick up my flexibilty ( despite other gongfu ) until the last several years ( 4-5) , asin to easily spilt. I think I'd recommend pilates over yoga though, because it focusses more on tendon and muscle and joint conditioning , as opposed to yoga who works more on organ health combined with muscle lengthening. IMO , it's just a better more efficient better value deal for your time and effort.
I don't know if I buy this " double your flexibilty " thing overnight everyone rants about, but If you do it daily, within a month, you will find double ++ gains in flexibilty and within several months, from total cold stiff as a board, you should be at a satifactorily bad full nth/sth and east weast soon after that, depending what you have already. I think you'll find though that men tend to get a better east /west and women nth/ sth before the other. Either way, the only way to get there is to start working on it.
Also, align your spine when sitting ( knuckles down, belly button to spine back straight shoulders loose and hand off your chair / toilet seat / t-section bench join / parellel heighted ???? whatever, etc in your best gymnastic style, planted knuckles / palms for a sec until your on free hang, shake it down and stretch your spine up through your upper back ........then when you get strong you can bring your legs up to horizontal and drop it through again as though your hanging from a monkey bar.) ) Stretch your hip joint out as often as you can through the day aswell ( ie : - hoike a leg up to a bar and work hip angles and torso heights at different lengths "out " of your hip running your chest down your calf, toe in toe down, toe side then switch ( all with chest to calf , hands to toe / foot ball centre foot as poss ) , shoulder blades down and loose, spine straight and gaining distance via the lengthening out of your hip!! ). Don't forget to work it from the back aswell, like a back kick ankle to bar come standing folded body straight plant leg, palm / back of hand to floor calf stretch. If you pull out from your hip here to get down further, it is an awesome stretch and will definately improve you sooner.

Have fun with it .

BL

Btw : I am 30 ........... every day for a whole other yr........ ish

[flow]

excellent i appreciate your reply,see you later and thanks,good continuation for now!

[Asger]

I was just wondering... when you see a monk perform a split his upper body is vertical aligned. Which is easier: body vertical and upright or parallel with the floor?

[flow]

well...both i guess!But completely parallel with the floor(back totally staight) seems harder to me.

[blooming tianshi lotus]

Wrong again.......


When you do it on the floor, you get the resistance base of the floor to help take some out of your tendons. Standing verticle is 2 .5 X harder and even then there are fine motor influences that make a whole other differnce.

I had a great post I spent 3/4 hr preparing for you last night with an awesome step by step stretch workout and other helpful snipits , but I can't find it so must 've left it at home.
I'll see what I can do about it for you tommorow. It's worth comming back for though because this is the type of info you search and search for often with no joy but only need once. Cheers til then ,


BL