Physiology of splits:?
Joint structure and elastic connective tissue dictate you range of motion potential.?
Some muscle fiber stretches (Intrafusal fibers reffered to as muscle spindles) but some are at rest during a full stretch. Connective tissue is made of tendon, ligament and fascial sheathing that cover muscle groups. When your muscle is elongated or stretched the connective tissue picks up the the remaining tension.?
You actually have to stress the golgi tendon to induce inverse myotatic reflex also called lengthening reaction. This is why you are more flexible after 10 min of stretching. Your brain tells you muscle to relax or un-contract.?
You can stretch for long periods of time but don't over load your connective tissue. You should feel the tension but not pain. It should be uncomfortable not painful. Over stretching can lead to injuries that lake a LONG time to heal.?
When I started I was pretty young but I was always stretching. Doing homework - stretching. watching tv - stretching. whenever i wasn't actively doing something - stretching. 10 minutes is a stretch warm up not a routine.
Here is Bill Wallace going his routine. Check out his whole series.
I was older than you when I started stretching for splits. I can do splits so no, you are not too old. The last part is the hardest so yes it is still possible that you will gain if you continue to stretch. However there are some people who simply can not do the split. That does not mean that you should now quit stretching. Any progress is better than no progress and even maintaining flexibility also takes work.
You are not too old. The joint at your hip is a balk joint so you can always develop flexibility there. What happens is that as you get closer to splits more of your leg is touching the ground in the stretch so there is less leverage on the joint and the stretch gets less effective. You can counter that by raising your feet on blocks or cushions to get a deeper stretch. Practising japana is also very helpful. Make sure your knees point up and don't rotate forward though. You do have to keep working at it a lot. If you inhale, tense and hold, then relax it helps you stretch further. Apparently the optimum is to stretch every 4 hours which isn't very practical but you can see that more is better.
I am 16 years old .. I have been practicing taekwondo for about 2 years now ... my side split have improved a little bit over the time but it stoped improving from a while (5 months) .. does that means that it's ny best and I can't do more and Is it possible scientifically that in my age I can have a full side split
