Side Splits: How to Make Them a Part of Your Posing Routine
I was chewing on a second Parrillo Bar while going through my accumulated phone messages. I had just returned from giving a seminar at the martial arts
Side Splits
“Festival” held in conjunction with the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness Weekend. My seminar topic had been a popular one among martial artists: how to do the splits. One message was from Beth, a national-level fitness competitor living in Chicago. She had caught my seminar, and (according to the recording) had her training, nutrition, and posing routine relatively together - Beth wanted to incorporate a full split into her posing routine but could not quite get down into a deep and complete full split. Could the Evil Russian help? Who else could?
The morning after my presentation, Patty Schumacher, a martial artist with fourteen years of training behind her black belt, came by my booth. She told me that right after Sensei Pavel’s inspirational speech, she tried my split-approach in her hotel room (that very night) and low and behold, she did a full Chinese split for the first time! It is unrealistic for most people to expect to mimic Patty and drop into a full split overnight, but in six months even musclemen who can only touch other people’s toes can learn to split. And there is a bloody good reason to try. As I witnessed at the Arnold Classic, the cutting-edge bodybuilding posing routine can no longer be likened to a robotic-android demonstration. No longer is bodybuilding dominated by stiff-as-a-board in vitro specimens, so inflexible that they can only scratch their backs by leaning against a doorway and gyrating in order to gratify an itch.
Nowadays, to win points with the judges, a bodybuilder needs to demonstrate flow, grace and rhythm. IFBB professional bodybuilding has become a big cat show where ease of movement and animal flexibility score big points. Presentation counts, and can add or subtract from the scorecard as surely as how well the athlete hits the most muscular pose or how much quad separation he/she presents. This emphasis on presentation applies to both male and female bodybuilders as well as fitness competitors. A couple more IFBB pros have picked up on Flex Wheeler’s ultra-dramatic split used to highlight his posing routine.
Flex started the trend and several top pros tried to split (with varying degrees of success) at the Arnold Classic this year. If you follow the insider advice in this column, you can learn how to split, go down all the way, and score big points with both the judges and audience. There are two types of side splits: with your toes up and with your toes forward. This month I shall teach you how to do the first version, which is a lot easier to master and will serve as a stepping stone for the ultimate feat of flexibility – the toes forward straddle-split. Before we start the hurting, you must understand that you will never, ever, do a side-split of either kind without positioning your pelvis in one line with your feet! Leaving the glutes even a few inches behind the heels is a fatal mistake which keeps many very flexible people from going down all the way in a split. They either end up falling on their butt or sit down on the floor with their legs spread wide, but never wide enough.
The pelvic positioning is split subtlety, an insiders trick-ofthe- trade and something the devious insiders of the stretching racket would rather not reveal. Frankly, the fewer people that can do the splits the more accomplished and unique the stretch pros look. It must be your lucky day, comrade! First, I have given away a trade secret and now I shall declassify my method for mastering the proper hip-pelvis alignment in the quickest possible way! This “secret to kill for” is learning to perform a split with your butt against the wall. Once you are deep enough, the pressure of the wall on your back will push the hips through. Presto! You are the newest resident of Split City! •Sit on the floor with your back to the wall and place something moderately slippery under your feet.
If you exercise on a carpet, glossy magazine covers work well (I used Columbus tourist brochures for my demo at the Arnold). Thick socks are good on a vinyl floor, and you cannot do better than folded wash cloths used on hardwood. Skateboards are to be avoided. •Set a small step stool in front of you and place your hands on it. I do not use a stool in the photos because it would have blocked your view of the stretch. Spread your legs as wide as you comfortably can: don’t worry comrades, the comfort will end very soon! •Leaning onto the step stool, lift your butt about a foot off the ground and spread your legs a little further. Keep your toes pointing up. Keep your chest high and arch your back (as if you were squatting) throughout the stretch. For the record: powerlifters who want to squat or sumo deadlift with a wide stance should use this method as the wall split will help keep the hip and knee joints from being destroyed! •Shift your weight back to your legs.
Lean as much of your bodyweight as you can reasonably handle onto your outstretched legs. At the same time inhale and tighten up your entire body, especially your hamstrings and groin muscles. Flex your glutes and abs as well. Pinch the floor with your heels, as if you are trying to slide upward. If you succeed and actually start to ascend, load the hams even more. The only way to go is down! It is important to build up this muscle tension gradually, over a period of a couple of seconds, to minimize the possibility of an injury. Peak the tension at about eighty-percent of your maximum and keep it there. •Start breathing – but in a very shallow fashion. This way you can maintain tightness in your abs. At this point your butt is against the wall and your hands are barely touching the step stool. Your arms are ready to catch you if you goof up, but they are not carrying any weight - unless your hams are very weak.
Your heels dig hard into the floor as your hamstrings and adductors keep flexing. •Maintain steady tension in your legs, glutes, and abs. This is crucial. If you semi-relax your leg muscles, you are wasting your time. You need to be able to put up with the progressive fatigue and pain of an extended isometric contraction to make the wall split work. •Hold this tension until your hamstrings and hip adductors literally collapse from exhaustion. It may take a few seconds or it may take a few minutes – but it will eventually happen. It will not be enjoyable, but that is irrelevant. •When you feel your tired quivering muscles involuntarily relaxing, use your contrast breathing and let out a sigh of relief. Contrast breathing will help your beat-up hamstrings and inner thighs go limp. This is precisely what we want: first we tense the target muscles until they spaz-out, then we sink into the stretch using contrast breathing.
The degree of stretch will increase as your exhausted body slips down the wall. •Make a point to only allow your feet to slide out to the sides, rather than slide forward. Otherwise, you defeat the purpose of the stretch. To maximize safety, only go down an inch or so before catching yourself with your hands (remember the stool?). Adjust your weight using your arms and the stool. If this explanation is too complex, buy my videotape Beyond Stretching. On second thought, buy my videotape anyway, even if everything is perfectly clear! Back to work: •With hands still on the stool, shift your weight back to your heels, flex your hams into exhausted submission once again. Keep plugging away until you are sitting down on the floor with your shoulder blades touching the wall and your legs spread wide. Then lift yourself up with your arms, spread your legs even wider, and start all over. •Repeat the drill until you get tired or your range of motion stops improving, whichever comes first. Once you have hit your limit for the day, pack your gym bag. Rest for two to five days before you split again, preferably right after your next leg workout. When you can do a full, toes-up side split against the wall, ditch the wall.
The only technique change you should make for free splits (no wall) is that you move your hands off the stool and behind your back as you make the landing approach. Without the pressure of the wall, you have to push your hips forward with your arms. There are at least three reasons to make the wall split a regular part of your training. First, this procedure improves flexibility and helps improve your odds against blowing out your knees during a squat – particularly if you allow them to bow in. The ballet hip turnout, delivered by the wall-split, will make the task of tracking your knees over your toes a lot easier. Second, the wall-split drill will allow you to widen your squat and sumo deadlift stance without grinding your hips and knees to pulp. A super wide squat and Sumo stance can potentially boost a powerlifter’s total and expand their assistance exercise arsenal.
Parrillo Protein Bars
Bodybuilders and fitness athletes who take up mutant wide-stance squats as a result of their newly found flexibility will be excited at the new muscle development and striations that suddenly appear in the most unlikely places. Lastly, full splits done onstage during a posing routine is extremely dramatic and can translate into a competitive advantage. Nothing in bodybuilding is quite so impressive as seeing a heavily muscled athlete effortlessly slide down into a full-split to conclude a killer posing routine. I have my own selfish reason: if we can get bodybuilders to incorporate these flexibility movements into their posing routines, spectators will start treating bodybuilding contests like athletic events. Flexible bodybuilders performing athletic posing routines will quickly dispel the notion that bodybuilding is nothing more then a human version of a cattle and livestock auction. Until next month Comrades.
Parrillo Performance
(800) 344-3404
Recent Entries
- Good Fats for Good Health
- Bodybuilding after Y2K
- Vitamins and Minerals Part II
- Shape Up in Eight Weeks The Easy Way
- Kelly Greene
- Parrillo Bars for Every Fitness Need
- Regaining Your Weight Loss “Oomph”
- Jennifer Hendershott > USA Fitness Champion
- Intensity, Psyche, Concentration and the Mind
- The Five P’s
