Day 21 - Middle Splits Challenge
I woke up and went to the gym for my regular exercises.
Came home and started core & regular stretches.
From there, I warmed up for the splits training.
The Training
It seems the reduction in the overall stretch exercises I've been observing over the last few days seem to be helping with the recovery.
During the warm-ups, I didn't push hard, just warming up the muscles.
Completed my usual warm-ups, including some straddle lifts, horse stances, hamstring stretches, and leg swings.
I realized I was spending too much time warming up (kinda dreading the split session) and decided to jump right in.
The Experience
Because my thigh muscles seem rested, I was able to push down on them without much resistance and I could feel some progress in the hip flexors.
The hip flexor muscles seem to be responding better now.
And yes, the sessions feel harder now as I'm feeling the stretches on the heels, hip flexors, and even on the arms.
I didn't realize it before, but these sessions actually do make me sweat!
But I always feel relief and great after completing the 5th set.
After the 5th set, I rested for 60 seconds and then, jumped into the front-splits.
I completed 60 seconds for each leg, rest for about 30 - 60 seconds, and switched legs; I completed 2 sets of this.
Once I was done, I quickly did about 5 mins of headstand training, which worked on my core as well as stability upside down.
Informal Sessions
For now, the only informal sessions I'm doing is warm-ups and wide leg horse stances.
I'm using those to maintain the flexibility I already have as well as build the strength to maintain them without too much warm-ups.
I also came across this site, which makes me more interested in building strength through flexibility.
I will accomplish this middle splits goal, even if it takes more than 30 days to get there; that's a promise!