Hello,

It's my 1st message on the forum don't be hard on me. I'm 17 years old now and I always love gymnastics on TV or watching contortion. In the last 2-3 weeks I began to stretch 1 hour a day in my living room every part of my body ( back, legs, hips, etc).

Right now I can, after 15-20 mins of stretching, I can tough the bottom of my feet ( on at a time not 2 together ) on my head when I'm on my belly and stretching my back and I'm maybe 6-7 inches from a split in both directions. Of course, when I'm in these positions I feel a stretch and not pain. I was wondering, because I didn't see that much improvement in those 2-3 weeks, when I'm gonna ba able to get to a split position or a cheststand??

I'm really close to quit this whole thing but I know I would love to be able to do those positions because I know I will do those position over and over ans over again if one day I will do those position.

I fell down right now and I need some cheer up. It's more work than I thought of doing a split or a cheststand. I thought one hour a day will be enough to see improvement but I guess not.

How I can make my journey more enjoyable and be able to get faster to my goal split or cheststand because when I will able tot do thsoe position, I will be more confident of going forward to bigger goals

Thanks a lot !!!

I'm afraid all I really have for you is patience. I can really understand your frustratiom, but all it really comes down to is your natural flexibility. You could be really flexible - naturally and it's just taking a while to warm up. Or you're not and so you'll have to work harder to reach you goal. You could stretch for longerthan 1 hour, and please make sure to warm up first - jog in place for a few minutes, do a hundred jumping jacks. Something like that to get your muscles warmed and loosend up, that way, you'll get more from your stretching, and you probably wont feel it from day to day. But mostly, just enjoy the stretch, it can be very relaxing if you know how to appreciate it

Happy Holidays!

~TayGurl

hey,
i was confused are you a gymnast or not? and heres to your splits question. it will take a while to get your splits down all the way,it took me about a year ,but i also had a caoch that made us sit in them untill they were all the way down before we could practice. also you said when you were stretching that you werent feeling pain just stretching, well if you want to gewt them down as soon as posible then you will have to push them down so you do have pain. still after i have done almost 7 years of gymnastics my coaches still push me almost to the point of crying and not being able to breathe.

here are some i deas for getting them down the first one is to put a paper plate under your back knee and your front foot, another is to stack up some books and put your front foot up on it. you can also have someone grab your hips and push down, it works best if you breathe in and on the breath out u relax so u will slide down, also while doing that hold your arms in the air.
another is to lay on your back and while keeping one leg completely on the floor wrap a jump rope around your foot and pull it down tourds your face.when your doing the one lying on the floor make sure your hips stay sqaure which is hard to explain but, its like making sure that one isnt higher than the other comming off the floor and so its like they are in a straight line with each other.

well i hope that helps ill
try to think of more for you

~berlin~

you should PM hamfist on here, he is a contortionist trainer and he will be able to give you advice!Good Luck1
Dee

Ballet classes would help your flexibility!

Kev