hey how long would it take to achieve this?

[LarryBeil]

my joints are kinda bad and im not too flexible i was wondering how long it would take to do the splits and become really flexible and will this help my vertical jumping abilities? how much? my age is 16 and 3/4 years old.

[UKfightfreak]

my joints are kinda bad and im not too flexible i was wondering how long it would take to do the splits and become really flexible and will this help my vertical jumping abilities? how much? my age is 16 and 3/4 years old.

How long is a piece of string!!!

It would probably be a good idea to go to Tom Kurz's column: www.stadion.com/column.html read through the columns and also read through the reports (this is all free) - then I would come back and ask more specific questions.

I'm sorry I don't have a simple answer - but if I did everyone would be walking around with a 6 pack with the ability to do the splits with no warmup!

[mmeloon]

my joints are kinda bad and im not too flexible i was wondering how long it would take to do the splits and become really flexible and will this help my vertical jumping abilities? how much? my age is 16 and 3/4 years old.

Flexibility and explosive power are two very separate things. The ability to do one should have no effect on the other.

As UKFightFreak says, there's plenty of freebies at the stadion website to help you with determining how quickly you can achieve the splits. Unless you have some pathology (which you can test for using the info in Kurz' columns), the limiting factor is probably not your joints but your nervous system. If you work diligently at it, you can probably achieve the splits in a handful of months.

As far as vertical jumping abilities, Stadion has a book on that very subject. Check out their site for more details.

-Mark

[LarryBeil]

i heard that if u become really flexible it can help vert, i have his book on stretching and i am puzzled on how i should have my workout.

any suggestions, i want to lift every day, like mon- fri, work like legs one day, back/chest another, arms blah blah one day, any good stretching routine with this that can produce effective results. im confused on relax stretches when to do abbductor flies etc and it states to do dynamic stretches 2 times a day, any suggestions would be good. thank you.

[mmeloon]

i heard that if u become really flexible it can help vert, i have his book on stretching and i am puzzled on how i should have my workout.

any suggestions, i want to lift every day, like mon- fri, work like legs one day, back/chest another, arms blah blah one day, any good stretching routine with this that can produce effective results. im confused on relax stretches when to do abbductor flies etc and it states to do dynamic stretches 2 times a day, any suggestions would be good. thank you.

Larry, I don't see how becoming more flexible would help with vertical leap. I would say that if you want to increase your vertical that you should do exercises specifically for that rather than trying to achieve some sort of "knock-on effect" from flexibility work.

When you ask for suggestions, are you looking for help only in achieving the splits and explosive power or do you have more goals in mind?

As far as how I work my flexibility work into my weight training, I will do a 5 minute general warmup (stairclimber) followed by joint rotations. Then comes dynamic stretches for the arms and legs as shown in Kurz' stretching book. Then I do my weights. By the way, I go with a full-body workout twice a week. It's easy to go overboard with weights but I'm a believer in making your weights workouts short and intense and focus on basics like they espouse over at Hardgainer. If you are lifting 5 days a week, your body is going to have a hard time squeezing in time for recovery. Anyhow, after my weights I do isometrics (front and side splits) and then passive stretching. That's all I've really done. I haven't done any specialized exercises like leg adductor flyes.

-Mark

[LarryBeil]

for my routine i lift 4 times a week, but i work different muscles each time i work out. warm up/dynamic/lift then isometrics abductor flies, then relax stretches, btw should i do dynamic in the morning and do stretching everyday what kind of routine is best for everyday i wanna become really flexible. thx.

[mmeloon]

for my routine i lift 4 times a week, but i work different muscles each time i work out. warm up/dynamic/lift then isometrics abductor flies, then relax stretches, btw should i do dynamic in the morning and do stretching everyday what kind of routine is best for everyday i wanna become really flexible. thx.

Larry, yes, I understand that you mean that you do a "split" routine for your weights but I beg to differ with your assertion that you are really working "different muscles each time". Did you know that your lats contract strongly during bench press? People assume that because the pecs and lats are on opposite sides of the body that one rests when the other is in action. The lats and pecs are not strictly opposites. For example, both work to adduct the upper arm. If you were doing a standard push-pull split routine and bench was on your "push" day, your back would be getting hit four times a week -- not two. And if you are doing squats or deadlifts, those exercises pretty much work every muscle from your calves to your traps (some would say to your facial muscles because of all the terrible grimises you are making when struggling with the weight! ) to some degree. Anyhow, you are free to structure your weight routine in whatever way works best for you. I just wanted to clarify the rationale behind me doing all my weights on one day.

As far as doing dynamic stretches in the morning, it depends on whether you need dynamic flexilibity or not. If all you are interested in is doing the splits, I think you could do without dynamic stretches in your morning routine.

I think you can do the same stretches every day with the exception of isometrics which should be used sparingly, as described in Kurz' book.

-Mark