WAG Stretching

[Nicolegymnast101]

I am a level 7 gymnast and I am not very flexible I was thinking about stretching 2 hours a day. Any ideas of stretching? Make me a 2 hour stretching plan!

 

[JBS]

Start with splits, shoulders/thoracic region and pikes. Make sure your body is loose and warmed up...then stretch for 15 minutes 2x per day.

2 hours per day is too much.

 

[Nicolegymnast101]

Start with splits, shoulders/thoracic region and pikes. Make sure your body is loose and warmed up...then stretch for 15 minutes 2x per day.

2 hours per day is too much.

What is like a good stretching routine everyday?

 

[Sgavallas]

2 hour stretching plan... Haha, tell someone to sit on you during your splits or push you down on mats with legs on em.

 

[Kiwi]

In what ways are you not flexible? e.g. splits? pike? bridge?

 

[Nicolegymnast101]

In what ways are you not flexible? e.g. splits? pike? bridge?

My legs and back. Like I'm a power gymnast. Not a flexible one.

 

[gymmom1974]

From a therapist's standpoint, 1. Make sure your muscles are warmed up before stretching (some sort if cardio first), 2. It's better to stretch for shorter periods of time, more times a day (so, stretch 10-20 minutes, 2-3 times/day vs 2 hours, one time a day).

My DD has a flexibility problem, also, partially due to a growth spurt last year. She didn't have her splits good before that anyway, but really struggled after the growth spurt. She has (and still is) working hard stretching hip flexors and hamstrings desperately before sitting in her splits. She still struggles with shoulder and upper back flexibility...

 

[Kiwi]

Have a look at Lisa Howell's Front Splits Fast program (from Perfect Form Physiotherapy). It is expensive, but I've had great value from it. It is a different approach to flexibility from your standard static muscle stretches. Sometimes the restrictions on your flexibility may not be where you think they are. (For example, tight abs can restrict your bridge/backbend, tight pecs can affect shoulder flexibility, leg flexibility problems can sometimes be more in the calves than the hamstrings). Massage techniques can also help with flexibility. Lisa has a website called the Ballet Blog with lots of great articles, and she has some youtube videos about flexibility. It is aimed primarily at dancers but the flexibility information is just as good for gymnasts.

 

[BlairBob]

How far away from your splits are you on the floor? Can you lay your chin on your shins in a pike? Can you get your shoulders over your wrists in a bridge?

As a L7 gymnast, you should be able to start off with holding each position for 1-2 minutes at a time besides the bridge.

For all of those positions, do some warmup to get warm, then start off with 20 seconds, then 40, then 60, then 120, then 180 seconds. Go up a minute at a time until you can't/don't want to do it anymore. Ideally, at least 2 or 3 minutes per stretch possibly up to 15 over the course of weeks or months.

You might have to lay off doing this every day. Maybe do it once, then rest 2 days to let the tissues recover. In between days, you might be able to stretch a bit but not as seriously.

 

[Nicolegymnast101]

How far away from your splits are you on the floor? Can you lay your chin on your shins in a pike? Can you get your shoulders over your wrists in a bridge?

As a L7 gymnast, you should be able to start off with holding each position for 1-2 minutes at a time besides the bridge.

For all of those positions, do some warmup to get warm, then start off with 20 seconds, then 40, then 60, then 120, then 180 seconds. Go up a minute at a time until you can't/don't want to do it anymore. Ideally, at least 2 or 3 minutes per stretch possibly up to 15 over the course of weeks or months.

You might have to lay off doing this every day. Maybe do it once, then rest 2 days to let the tissues recover. In between days, you might be able to stretch a bit but not as seriously.

I can put my shoulders over my wrist and I have my left and middle splits. I'm like 4 inches from my right. But my back seems to be the biggest problem. I can hold each on for about 4.

 

[BlairBob]

Back not very flexible?

Are you talking about "Scorpion" and yoga/contortionist like flexibility?

Honestly, it's a nice parlor trick. It's good for some choreo and a ring jump.

But you have 2 out of 3 splits. Implement that protocol with your right split.

Lower back and middle back flexibility is not something you are going to turn into gumby all of a sudden and it's not extremely useful.

Some of it can be worked to some degree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQhyiQKqkW4 Look up Yoga Locust videos and progressions. You might get somewhere with it.

As for pike flexibility, do it with a straight back; do it on a set of stall bars (hold the bars while hanging in pike) and do some targeted stretches for the hamstrings.

 

[Hayleigh]

Try putting your right foot on the floor beam and have Someone push your hips down.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I'm with BlairBob on this one. There's a certain point past which back flexibility (or what we usually think of as back flexibility) stops being useful for most skill progressions.

Now, shoulder flexibility on the other hand....