No sport can give a person such freedom of movement as gymnastics. Good stretching promotes a beautiful body shape, good posture, and normalization of the intestines and genitourinary system. That is why today many are interested in how you can do the splits in a week without the risk of injury. Of course, 7 days is a very short period of time, but doing the splits pose is quite possible for it. Even if it is not possible to achieve the final goal and the stretching is increased slightly over the course of a week, this will still relieve a person from muscle pain after physical activity and speed up the recovery process. In order to avoid injury, it is very important not to rush and master the gymnastic exercise gradually, especially if the muscles are not stretched at all.
Doing the splits from scratch in a week
In order to stretch your muscles well in a short period of time without getting injured, the body must be prepared in advance for such loads. You need to perform a set of exercises daily to prepare your legs for wide spread. It is very important not to rush and allocate at least 1 minute for each exercise. Every day this period of time can be increased. All movements must be smooth, be sure to be performed with a straight back and with correct, measured breathing.
Many expectant mothers are also interested in learning how to do the splits in a week. The fact is that good stretching helps to prepare well for childbirth and facilitate its natural process. Experts recommend that pregnant women concentrate on preparatory exercises, which also tone the muscles well. You will be able to do the splits completely after the baby is born.
We train our hands
In order to try to do the splits, you need strong arms, because... You will need to support your body weight. Therefore, it is necessary to do exercises on your hands.
It is very useful to do push-ups. They strengthen both the muscles of your arms and your spine, which is important for the splits.
If you haven’t done push-ups before, you need to do it gradually. On the first day, it is enough to do just one push-up. On the second, you already do two push-ups. And so on. Every day we add once. And so on until 10. After the tenth day, we begin to reduce it by one. And so on until once. This way you won't strain your arms too much, but at the same time train them.
Preparatory exercises
In order to quickly do the splits (in a week), the leg muscles should be prepared. To stretch the longitudinal twine, wide lunges are a good preparation. To perform them, you need to stand straight, with a straight back and take a wide step forward or backward. In any case, the front leg should bend at the knee, and the back leg should remain straight, preferably parallel to the floor. You need to hold out in this position for at least a minute, swaying periodically.
Is it possible to do cross splits in a week? This will be much more difficult to do, since in this position there is no natural movement and the muscles will be much more difficult to prepare. The best warm-up exercises for this pose are bends, rolls and butterflies.
To bend, you need to sit on the floor with straight legs and back. Spread your lower limbs slightly, clasp your feet with your palms and press your body as hard as possible to the floor. You need to stay in this position. There is a similar exercise for stretching the hamstrings - the “fold”. In this case, you need to sit on the floor with your legs joined together and try to press your forehead to your knees.
After completing the exercise, you need to sit down with your feet together, but your knees spread to the sides. With your hands you need to press your knees to the floor, first by swaying, and then hold your legs in this position. For convenience, you can attract a partner who will press your legs to the floor, spreading them like the wings of a butterfly.
How to do the cross splits in a week? To do this, you must perform rolls. To do this, you need to stand up, spread your legs as wide as possible and alternately squat on one leg, then on the other. From side to side you need to roll along a straight line formed by your legs apart, slowly and pressing as close to the floor as possible. At first, you can help yourself with your hands to maintain your balance, but later the exercise should be performed only by moving your legs and pelvis.
How to do the longitudinal splits at home
This is the simplest variation of this pose. While in this position, the muscles that are used when a person walks work. This option is the easiest to do. It won’t take much time to be able to take this position; you can learn at home.
To achieve this pose, you need to do the following exercises, they are quite simple.
Pose of a person running
Lunge with your right leg, bend it and position it so that you can lean on your foot as much as possible. The lower part of the limb should be perpendicular to the surface of the floor. Place your hands on opposite sides of your feet and lean on them, your head remains straight, your gaze is directed into the distance. Stay in this position for about a minute, rock, then push with your arms and tighten your inner thighs.
Virabhadrasana
This position naturally continues the previous pose. Keep your torso straight and arch your spine. With your palms clasped, stretch up and move your shoulders back.
This exercise has a strengthening effect on the thigh muscles and has a positive effect on the back. Breathing remains even, gaze is directed into the distance, facial muscles are relaxed.
We bend while in a lunge
This exercise perfectly tones the muscles of the so-called “front” leg, making them elastic. Remember that all movements must be done for all parts of the case. Engage the left and right sides of your torso.
Lower the limb that is behind you down and kneel. The second limb is located perpendicular to the floor surface. Clench your fists and rest on your lower back (you can use your palms), make a maximum bend, throwing your head back. Do not lower your head at the same time.
Deep Lunge
The starting position is the right or left leg bent, with which you need to lunge, the second limb remains behind. Place your palms on both sides of the leg that is in the lunge, while your elbows are apart. Stretch your chest towards the floor, it should move parallel to the floor.
Chest to floor
This exercise continues the previous one. Try to reach your chest and lower part of your face to the floor surface.
Twine in a longitudinal position Place the knee of the leg that is located in the back in close proximity to the floor surface, this way you will stretch the muscle tissue and warm it up. The final pose is a split in a longitudinal position or the maximum position possible for you.
Gradually, with practice, you will be able to do a full split. At the same time, the muscles will become more elastic, the body will become stronger, and the proportions will become beautiful.
Split in a transverse position, how to learn?
This pose is much more difficult to achieve. This pose is very useful. It strengthens the muscles in the pelvic area, has a healing effect on the genitourinary organs, makes the muscles more flexible, and improves the shape of the legs. This pose helps with diseases of the spine and promotes the formation of correct posture.
There are a number of simple exercises that will help prepare your limbs for doing the splits pose in a transverse position. Even if you don’t manage to take the desired position right away, these exercises are very useful, they will make your body beautiful.
Bend in a standing position in a wide position
If you want to strengthen your abs at the same time, first remove your palms from your back and place them on your stomach. But do not forget to be careful - do not immediately get carried away with excessive loads if the body is not properly prepared.
Slope parallel to the floor surface.
Stand up straight, breathe regularly, take a few deep breaths. Bend forward, with your back aligned with the floor surface.
With your palms clasped, extend your arms and hold them in front of you. Don't tilt your head, keep your eyes focused on the distance. Place your legs as wide as possible, so that the muscles are tense, this will help them warm up.
Deep bend with support on hands
Try to bend as far as possible while leaning on your hands. Position your legs so that your shoulders and elbows can fit at this distance. Bend over and place your hands on the floor. The shoulder girdle moves down and the pelvis goes up. Relax your neck and back. Don't bend your knees.
Make a few rocking movements, over time you will achieve the desired result. Don't try to get into the pose right away, do the stretches gradually and smoothly.
Deep bend with support on the forearms
After the muscles are prepared, you can do the previous exercise, only the forearms, rather than the arms, serve as support.
Squat Pull
This exercise belongs to the strength category and is not easy to perform. It consists of squatting with your limbs spread as wide as possible. You need to do about eight approaches, and increase their number with training.
Take the starting position - keep your arms straight in front of you. The toes of the feet are turned in different directions, this will increase the stretching of the muscles on the legs. Squat down smoothly, keeping your back straight. Turn your pelvis and spread your knees in different directions.
Stupas
Do a squat and stay in this position for as long as you can (at least half a minute). At the same time, keep your knees apart, hips too, keep your back straight, look forward.
Lunges
Many people did this exercise in physical education classes. Side lunges. Place your limbs as wide as possible and, alternating them, lunge. At the same time, bend one leg and extend the other.
This is a simple exercise that serves as a warm-up. Try to reach your shins, and, holding them, bend as close to the floor surface as possible. You need to do at least eight repetitions.
Preparing for the splits pose
The lower limbs need to be placed as wide as possible; this pose is very close to the split itself. Bend forward with your lower back level with the floor surface, supported by your elbows. Inhaling, tense the muscles on your legs as much as possible, exhaling, relax the muscles.
These are the final steps before the pose we are aiming for - the splits. Use your arms as support and do push-ups. They help strengthen all parts of the body.
Leg-split
Without raising your torso, try to lower yourself to the floor. If it works, try to straighten your pelvis as much as possible, place your toes on your heels, with your toes pointing up, and keep your back straight.
Don't forget that all exercises that serve as preparation have the same benefits as the splits. They normalize blood circulation in the back, help digestive activity and the functioning of the organs of the reproductive and urinary systems. Such training improves physical condition and external appearance.
Splits in a sagging position (the angle between one leg and the other exceeds 180 degrees) and supported by hands are poses from professional gymnastics. They can only be done after you have mastered simpler twine options.
In this video you can take a closer look at how to perform this exercise. Bye everyone, read other articles on my blog, for example how to strengthen your back muscles
Warm-up
Before starting intense stretching, the muscles need to be well warmed up. This rule should not be neglected, even if you can already do the splits completely. The fact is that one minimal wrong movement can be fraught with sprained ligaments or tendons even in a trained body, as evidenced by injuries even to professional athletes.
How to do the splits in a week? Before each lesson, you must perform the following exercises:
- Standing with a straight back, holding a support, swing your legs alternately forward, backward and to the sides. Bend your knees or slouch your back is prohibited.
- Place your straight leg on a table, the back of a chair or other high support that imitates a dance barre. The supporting leg should also be level, the angle between them is at least 900. Gradually bend towards the raised leg, feeling the stretch under the knee. Change legs and do the same.
- Also standing near the support, place the foot of one leg on the back of the chair, then gradually bending it, lean your chest towards the chair as much as possible. Swing closer and further from the support, hold on for at least a minute, and then change legs.
Stretching always hurts, so you have to be patient
Perhaps it’s time to hang a sign in every studio: “Do not tolerate pain!” Pain is a danger signal sent by the nervous system. Enduring pain is a direct path to injury. There is a pain scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means I don’t feel anything, and 10 means unbearable pain. So, in classes you should always be between 5-6 points. It can be a pleasant, sometimes nagging sensation, but not a sharp and burning pain. You should learn to listen to the body and recognize signals.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Warm up on the floor
To better warm up the muscles, you should also perform preparatory exercises before the main stretch. To do this, you need to sit on the floor with your legs and back straight and try to reach your head to your knees. In the future, you need to spread your legs and reach for each one in turn. When the angle between the legs is already more than 900, you need to bend towards the limbs sideways, raising the opposite arm above your head.
Another effective warm-up exercise will help you do the splits in a week. To perform it, you need to lie on your back, raise your straight legs perpendicular to the floor and spread them apart to the maximum distance. After a short pause, the limbs are brought together and the exercise is repeated again.
It is very important to complete all tasks regularly. To achieve results in a short time, you need to make every effort and remember about the structural features of the body. One person may be able to do the splits in just a few days, even without previous training experience, while another, with less pliable muscles and ligaments, will need more time for this even with daily exercises. The main thing is not to stop there and go towards your goal to the end, but how to do the splits in a week at home, read further in the article.
Varieties of poses
When talking about splits, many people only mean performing them transversely, but there are a lot of varieties of the exercise. For beginners, the first steps in achieving good body stretching will be longitudinal and transverse splits. You can perform them first with your hands, and then hold on thanks to your own balance.
When these steps are conquered, you can try to master the vertical and sagging splits. Such poses are performed in professional sports and are not always achievable by the average person.
Basic stretch
If the goal is both longitudinal and transverse twine, then you need to start with the longitudinal one. The fact is that when stretching it, the same muscles are used as during normal walking, so all movements will be as natural and familiar to the body as possible. The first thing to do after warming up is to take a runner's pose. To do this, you need to lunge wide and place your hands on the floor on either side of your front leg. The entire weight of the body should be transferred to the front foot, which stands as tightly as possible on the floor. In this case, you need to try to keep your back as straight as possible, look forward, the knee of the front leg is bent so that the limb is perpendicular to the floor.
You need to hold this position for at least a minute. You can periodically rock up and down and strain your inner thigh.
Complicated version
Since yoga is aimed at stretching muscles, many exercises for doing the splits in 1 week are borrowed from there. The next exercise will be warrior pose.
It naturally continues the previous one, so a person does not have to change his body position. While in a wide lunge, you only need to align your body perpendicular to the floor and raise your arms above your head, moving them as far behind your shoulders as possible. At the same time, your face should be relaxed, your breathing should be even, you need to maintain balance for at least a minute on each leg.
Important Tips
Before you start training, you should pay attention to a few important tips:
- Conduct classes at home regularly, at least 3-4 times a week . Constant slight physical activity will gradually prepare the ligaments for the splits;
- Exercises should take at least 30 minutes. Doing less training will increase the risk of injury;
- During the training process, you should not rush, it is important to be patient;
- If during stretching there is a sharp pain in the muscles, then you should complete the exercise;
- After finishing the lesson, it is important to allow the ligaments to recover and not overload them beyond normal ;
- It is necessary to ensure that the muscles are warm and if the room is cool, then put on leg warmers and socks;
- It is recommended to learn how to relax correctly - this will reduce the occurrence of pain during stretching.
You won’t be able to do the splits right away; stretching takes time and hard training.
Running and jumping will help warm up your muscles and prepare them for the splits.
Before moving on to stretching, you need to perform several warm-up exercises. Cardio exercises in the form of running, jumping, and squats will warm up your muscles before training. If you start stretching without first warming up, you can easily damage the ligaments. Warming up the muscles in the form of a hot bath or warming ointments will not give the desired effect.
Running will help you warm up your muscles before stretching.
During the exercises, it is important to watch your back; it should be straight. When performing exercises, you need to breathe correctly. During the stretching process, breathing should be smooth, without delay. Half of the exercises should be aimed at statics , and the other part of the training should be aimed at dynamics (swings).
There are two types of twine: longitudinal and transverse. In the first case, one leg is in front and the other is behind. It is much easier to sit on it than on the transverse one. In the second case, the legs are spread simultaneously to the sides. In order to sit on the transverse splits, you need to pay attention to longitudinal stretches.
At first, you shouldn’t ask someone to help with stretching. It will be difficult for an inexperienced “assistant” to assess how to pull and with what force to press on the “student”. Such assistance can result in ligament rupture.
Increased load
A lunge with a bend will help increase the load on the muscles of the front leg. To perform it, you need to remain in the starting position, just resting the knee of your back leg on the floor. After this, you need to try to move your body back as much as possible in order to make a good deflection in the lower back. Your hands will help you control your body position. You need to place your palms or fists on your lower back and throw your head back.
It’s interesting, but even naturally flexible people can find it difficult to cope with such exercises, since the muscles here must constantly be toned in order to keep the body in the desired plane. Such training helps many people maintain their body in a toned state at all times, and not just quickly do the splits in a week.
If you bend your back leg at the knee, you can further stretch the muscles of the front thigh.
Contraindications to training
You should avoid doing the splits in cases where you have health problems. Below are the main contraindications for which it is necessary to exclude this type of training.
Contraindications to stretching
1Hypertension. With high blood pressure, additional stress can cause discomfort.
2 Spinal injuries. During training, back problems can provoke an additional risk of complications.
3Inflammatory process in the hip joints. Sore lower back
4Bruises of the legs, as well as cracks in the bones. Fissures in the pelvic area are considered especially dangerous.
There are a number of contraindications for stretching
Bruises, cracked bones, and other injuries are a contraindication to training.
During exercise, the body experiences stress. When your health is good, it is much easier to cope with minor discomfort. If there are contraindications to training, then it is much more difficult for the body to recover, and in this case the state of health may worsen.
Deep Lunge
To perform it, you need to do a regular lunge so that your front leg becomes perpendicular to the floor. After this, the depth is determined by the degree of inclination of the chest. While in a lunge, you need to place your palms on the floor, as if between your legs, place your elbows to the sides and stretch your chest towards the floor. First, you can stop at a position where only your elbows are on the floor and your bent knee is slightly higher than your back.
After this, you need to try to lean your chin and chest onto the floor. In this case, the back leg should be above the floor.
You can't stretch if you have back problems.
If you have acute back pain, you can’t exercise, that’s a fact. First, we remove the source, relieve the inflammatory process, and only after that we move on to classes. But problems with the spine - poor posture, hernia and protrusion - are extremely common in people. If you practice wisely, there will be no harm. On the contrary, stretching along with breathing and coordination and balance exercises can improve your back condition. Scientists have proven that if you stretch for at least 20 minutes a day, back pain will decrease after three months.
Photo: istockphoto.com
The final stage
After all this has been done, you can try to sit directly on the longitudinal twine. You need to try to keep your knees straight and not immediately fall to the floor. You also need to stay in a possible position for each exercise for a while.
After mastering this pose and strengthening your muscles, you can think about how to do the splits in a transverse position in a week. It is this kind of twine that helps make the shape of the legs more defined, has a healing effect on the genitourinary system and helps to form correct posture. Naturally, there are exercises to stretch the muscles in this position.
If you don’t constantly stretch, the splits will disappear.
If you practice with working amplitudes, constantly train the nervous system by working with muscles, and use the overload method, then you will be able to do the splits even after a month of break. The body will get used to it and remember everything you taught it. But you need to use all types of stretching (except passive!) and use what you have taught your body. Otherwise, rollbacks will occur without interruption.
Stretching is a great way to relieve fatigue at the end of the working day, tone your muscles, and improve elasticity and mobility throughout the body. However, just stretching is not enough; integrate exercises for control, coordination and strengthening of the muscle corset for maximum results.
Wide squat
In order to do the splits in a week, you need to tighten your inner thigh well, which the following exercise helps with. Your feet should be placed as wide as possible, with your toes pointing to the sides. Keep your arms straight above you to keep your back level at all times. You should squat as deeply as possible and do at least 8 approaches. In the future, the load should be gradually increased.
You can stay in a squat for at least half a minute.
Completing the stretch
So, how to do the splits in a week? The exercises described in the article are really effective, but not everyone can help them achieve results in just 7 days.
After doing all of the above, you need to spread your legs as wide as possible, rest your hands on the floor in front of you so that your body is parallel to the floor. The leg muscles can be tensed to increase the load. While holding this position, you need to try to go lower each time. To record your results, you can take pictures of your achievements every day; it is important that your socks are pointed up.
Only after perfect mastery of conventional twine, if desired, can you begin to stretch sagging or vertical twine. As a rule, such exercises are used only in professional sports.
