How to do Middle Splits - Stretching and Flexibility Program: Fastest Scientific Flexibility Program for Middle Splits

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How to do Middle Splits - Stretching and Flexibility Program

DISCLAIMER These programs are not intended to rehabilitate any tears in muscles, ligaments, or tendons, or to be used as specific therapy from any surgeries. These programs are not meant to replace a physical therapist or a doctor’s diagnosis of an area that has not been properly assessed. Not all exercise programs are suitable for everyone. You should always consult your physician or health care specialist before performing any of the exercises in this program. Especially if you have any chronic or recurring physical conditions, and/or if you are pregnant, nursing or elderly. The instruction presented herein is in no way intended as a substitute for medical advice or counseling. Always contact your physician or health care specialist if you have any questions regarding your physical conditions or about the suitability of any of these exercises for you. You should always warm up for a few minutes before beginning any workout, and you should never exercise beyond the level at which you feel comfortable. If at any time you feel you are exercising beyond your current fitness abilities, or you feel discomfort and/or pain, you should discontinue exercise immediately or move down to a lower level of exercise within the program and reconsider the use of Easy Flexibility Programs or of the particular exercise or routing causing the discomfort and/or pain. All exercises and use of this program are performed strictly at your own risk. The user assumes all risks of injury in the use of this and all ElasticSteel Corp, EasyFlexibility, Zaichik Stretching Techniques, et al. programs. By using these programs, the user agrees that ElasticSteel Corp. EasyFlexiiblity, Paul Zaichik and its affiliates and its assigns will not be held responsible for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages, complications or injuries that may result from the use of this program.

By use of this program the user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless ElasticSteel Corp, EasyFlexibility, Paul Zaichik, it’s parents, subsidiaries, shareholder, officers, directors, employees, agents, suppliers, and distributors from any and all claims, actions, demands, suits, losses or related damages (including attorney fees) connected to or deriving from the use of the EasyFlexibility, Kinesiological Stretching Programs, Zaichik Stretching Techniques. This includes but is not limited to such claims made or incurred by the user or any third party arising out of, or relating to the use of EalsticSteel Programs, EasyFlexiiblity programs, Zaichik Stretching Techniques or Kinesiological Stretching Programs. This program is for private home use only. It is not authorized for any other use. Any public performance, copying or other use is strictly prohibited. Duplication in whole or in part of this program is prohibited. All other rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book, in part of in whole, may be reproduced, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, photographic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from ElasticSteel Corp., except for brief quotations embodied in literary articles and reviews. For permissions, serialization, condensation, adaptations, write to [email protected] Copyright © 2022 by ElasticSteel Corp.

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the EasyFlexibility Strength & Flexibility Splits Training Program! We are going to start this book off with a question that is most likely the first question you have. Why are there different levels? Why are there different programs, beginner, intermediate and advanced programs? Shouldn’t there be one program for all splits or for all hamstrings or for all hip flexors? Why are there separate programs? To answer that question, EasyFlexibility programs are completely different from everything you have tried before. These are programs that have been practiced, put together and changed many times to get the perfect programs. Thousands upon thousands of people got their results fast and safe with our programs. So, our programs are tested. What we found after teaching our programs to people of different levels and ages, and different ability levels, is that there are different challenges in terms of which muscles prevent the increased range of motion at different angles. So, a beginner for side split whose angle is under 135 degrees will have different challenges than someone who is intermediate or advanced. Because, Easy Flexibility programs use proprietary Zaichik Stretching Techniques, each muscle is isolated and each muscle is stretched fast and easy using the Zaichik Stretching method. Isolating each muscle allows us to focus specifically on the need of the person at that level. Doing stretches that do not benefit that person at that level only wastes time, energy and recovered resources. Recovered resources means the following: Once the body has to adjust to an exercise whether it is stretching or strengthening, it takes some resources to adjust and to heal. The more muscles that are trained, the slower the progress because there is more adjustment.

In other words, if you are working on a bench press or pushups, you can also do dips and you can also do shoulder presses. However, this will put effort and take away energy from the muscles. This is not optimal for a specific goal. Let’s say that your specific goal is to increase the number of pushups or to increase the amount of weight you can bench press. And to do that you decide that you will also do dips and shoulder presses while training for your ultimate goal. While, in theory, dips and shoulder presses would help you, in practice they would actually slow down your progress! So, in practice it is best to focus on the specific goal, and this is exactly what we do with our programs. The reason they work so fast and get you the results that you’re looking for, is because we focus on a specific goal and once achieved, move on to the next goal. This is the reason that thousands upon thousands of people worldwide achieve their flexibility goals fast, safe and easy. Again, it is because of doing many things at the same time and seeing no progress, we focus on one thing at a time and get you the results. The next logical question you may have is, what is this Easy Flexibility system and what are Zaichik Stretching Techniques?

In short, Zaichik Stretching Techniques are muscle isolation techniques, where one muscle is stretched at a time. Because, remember, if you’re working on any skill, whether it is a split, forward bend or back bend, one muscle can prevent your whole body from doing that skill. So, besides isolating one muscle at a time, Zaichik Stretching Techniques use a principle of target and leverage. In short to understand this, any muscle has more than one movement that it does. For example, your Hamstring extends the hip, it also flexes the knee. It also assists in rotation of both hip and knee depending on the position. So, you can see the muscle does more than one action. Zaichik Stretching Technique utilizes the fact that when the muscle moves and gets elongated as one of its actions, and then comes back to

normal range, there is a little bit of space to stretch the muscle easily and without pain.This is what allows the practitioner of the method to see instant flexibility results! Each Zaichik Stretching Techniques, ZST for short, has a special name such as ~Integrity~, ~Peace~, ~Content~, ~Equilibrium~, ~Balance~ and so on. The EasyFlexibility system is a well-developed system that been shaped over many years of practice and observation and through primary and secondary research. Easy Flexibility System uses retention exercises or supporting exercises to support the flexibility and retain the flexibility that is gained during each session. In other words, if you start at 90 degrees range of motion and at the end of the session, you have 110 degrees range of motion, it’s great. But if the next training session you start at 90 degrees again and you end up at 110 degrees again, then you are not really retaining that flexibility and you are not really progressing, although you have progressed in the specific training session. You also want to progress from session to session, not just inside one training session. What we have learnt through our research is that to retain this flexibility specific supporting exercises unique to our method must be employed. With these movement and habituation exercises, there can be strength exercises in long ranges and short ranges of muscle contraction. These exercises reinforce the flexibility, protect from injury, and allow the flexibility to be carried into a specific skill such as a high kick in Martial Arts, or Developpe in Dance. So, if in one training session, you started at 90 degrees and you got up to 110, in the next session you don’t start at 90 again, you start at 93 or 95 or 96 degrees and then you aim for not 110 but for 113, 115 or 118. This eventually leads to mastery of the skill and EasyFlexibility system is unique in this. Now in case you interested in how the Zaichik Stretching Techniques were discovered, Paul Zaichik the founder of the EasyFlexibility has always been interested in flexibility training, this was the interest of his research in school, and this was something that he thought originally based on older assets available such as Yoga Polaris, TNF and other.

One day Paul watched one of his friends who was a professional swimmer, trying to stretch his shoulder which was injured, and he noticed that his friend, trying to do an internal rotation, have adjusted his body slightly and moved his shoulder into horizontal flexion. Once he moved his shoulder out of horizontal flexion, he was able to automatically get deeper into the internal rotation. On observing this, Paul quickly realized that he did two actions focusing on the same muscle group. Paul, then repeated the same technique and realized that he also has instantly gained flexibility. Trying to check if this applies to other muscles, Paul has developed techniques for every muscle group in the body, checking it with the same result, every time he got instant flexibility gain, no struggle and no pain. Paul, then, began to experiment with these techniques, teaching them, and seeing quick progress, yet seeing no retention or very little retention. So, adding strength exercises has broadened the retention. Then the programs began to form for each specific skill, for each specific muscle group, for each specific sport. A skill such as a split, a sport such as Martial Arts, Dance, Yoga, Gymnastics and for specific muscle group such as Hip flexors or adductors (remember, there are six hip flexors and four adductors) and they all do something slightly different. For example, all hip flexors flex the hip but they all do something else at the same time so, each specific Zaichik Stretching Technique or each ZST is slightly different focusing on the actions of those muscles. So, this is how the EasyFlexibility System was discovered and how over time it took its shape.

The Program In this program, you are going to get a very specific routine. It is going to start with a warmup. The warmup is very specific to the skill at hand. The warmup for the Hamstrings will not be the same warmup for the hip flexors, it is not going to be the same warmup for shoulder flexion or extension. Thus, the warm up is very specific. Next you will learn ZSTs for the muscles that need to be addressed in this skill at specific level (in this case, the intermediate level). And next after that you will learn the strength exercises also called the supporting exercises or retention exercises (by the way not all exercises are strength exercises, some are just movement exercises). So, they don’t require powerful contractions. This manual is short and straight to the point. It doesn’t contain fluff. We can increase this manual up to many pages with all kinds of diagrams, a lot of scientific pictures and explanations but you are here because you just want to learn how to master your skill.

Frequency of workout sessions: How to practice the EasyFlexibility program. First you do the warm up once. After the warmup, there is a round of all the Zaichik Stretching Techniques, followed by all the retention techniques. That is one round. A round may contain five Zaichik Stretching Techniques and three supporting exercises. A round is repeated in the beginning about two times and the maximum results come up to five to six rounds. So again, stretching exercises plus strengthening exercises equals one round. Then you repeat the stretching exercise again, follow that with strength exercises and that is two rounds. When you are just starting out, you will do one or two rounds until you don’t feel sore. Once you can do one or two rounds, and you don’t feel sore because the body is doing new movement, you can do three rounds and eventually build up to five to six rounds. Please do not start with five to six rounds, your body is not ready for that and you will not get the benefits of five to six rounds if you start right away with that. We recommend starting twice a week which means Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday and so on, and do that for two to three weeks and then three times a week. If you have experience with stretching and strengthening and are working out and you are not sore after each training session, you can then do three times a week right away. We don’t recommend training with our program more than three times a week, since your body needs time to recover. You will start to see progress even if you perform two rounds. However you will see the most progress at five to six rounds. This doesn’t mean that

by practicing three rounds or four rounds you will not achieve your goal, you still will achieve your goal, but you will achieve it faster if you go to five to six rounds. It is not necessary to do that, it simply speeds up the progress but only if you build up to five to six rounds gradually, not right away. Short summary of training frequency: • Start with 1 – 2 Rounds. • 1 Round is ZST’s + Supporting Exercises. • Train 1 – 2 times a week. • Build up gradually to 5 or 6 rounds (whichever you can handle). • Increase number of workout sessions up to 3 a week with 1 day break in between.

THE WARM UP It is very important to begin any workout session with a proper warm up. To begin we start with the joints warm up.

Wrist Circles:

• Perform 10 repetitions in one direction.

• And 10 repetitions in another direction.

Elbow Circles:

• Perform 10 repetitions in one direction.

• And 10 repetitions in another direction.

Shoulder Girdle Circles:

• Perform 10 repetitions in one direction.

• And 10 repetitions in the other direction.

Head Circles:

• Alternating side to side, to the right,

• back,

• left,

• and forward.

Arm Circles:

• Perform 10 repetitions forward.

• And 10 repetitions back.

Hip Circles:

• Perform 10 repetitions, starting with the right side.

• Back,

• Left,

• And forward. • Perform 10 repetitions in the opposite direction.

Knee Circles:

• Put your hands on the knees and perform 10 circles, in one direction, starting with the right side,

• Back,

• Left,

• And forward. • perform 10 repetitions in the opposite direction.

Foot and Ankle Circles:

Right leg up and:

• Perform 10 repetitions in one direction . • And 10 repetitions in the other direction.

The other leg up: • Perform 10 repetitions in one direction. • And 10 repetitions in the other direction.

Knee Lifting:

• Stand with your heels together and toes apart. • Turn out at the hips.

• Lift the knees in the direction of the toes.

• Place the foot down.

• Lift the other knee. • Perform 20 repetitions, alternating sides.

Side Lunges:

• Stand with your feet wide apart and lunge to the Right with your right leg.

• Come back to the center.

• Lunge to the left with your left leg.

Cossack Squat Alternating Sides:

• Stand with your feet wide apart and legs turned out, toes out to the sides.

• Squat/Lunge to one side.

• Come back up to the center.

• Squat/Lunge to the other side.

Lift Leg with Knee at 90 Degrees:

• Stand with your heels touching and toes out to the side at a 90 degree angle.

• Lift the right leg trying to touch the knee to the shoulder.

• Come back.

• Lift the left leg, and do the same thing. • Perform 20 repetitions, alternating sides.

Cossack squats performing a Full Turn:

• Drop down to the right leg.

• Turn chest to the wall.

• Come back.

• Switch to the left leg.

• Turn chest to the wall.

• Come back. • Perform 10 repetitions alternating sides.

ZAICHIK STRETCHING TECHNIQUES

~ Deference~ Deference -To begin, stand with your feet, shoulder width apart. -To perform this ZST on the right side, turn out the right hip so that the toes of the right foot point out to the side. -With your chest squared forward lean to your right and place your right hand on the floor inside of your right leg. -From here perform the first leverage by lifting the heel so that your knee travels a little bit up. -Do not move your torso. -As the heel drops back down, your body moves down at the same time. -The heel coming back down is you coming back from your leverage. While the body moving down a little bit is your first target. -Now repeat this two more times. If you are just starting out with this technique, in the very beginning you may want to do this only two times. Or you can do this 3 times. -Doing this technique for the second time, you will need to keep your torso from moving. -When the heel comes up, the torso doesn’t move. -From here without moving your torso, you perform a second leverage, by lifting a heel, and as a heel is coming back down, your body is coming down at the same time. -Your body coming down at the same time is your second target.

Perform this technique on both sides

~ Deference~ Starting Position: Get into the lunge position

Place your hand on the inside.

1st Leverage Move: Lift the heel.

1st Target Move: Drop the heel and torso lower to the floor.

2nd Leverage move: Staying in this position, lift the heel again.

2nd Target Move: Drop the heel and torso lower.

3rd Leverage move: Without moving your body, staying in the position that you achieved the second time, lift the heel again.

3rd Target Move: Drop the heel and torso lower than on the 2nd Target more to the floor.

~Integrity~ -To begin stand in a kneeling position -Legs wide apart -Turn your right leg out to the side -Now you are going to focus on your left leg, although you have turned out your right leg -From here lean to your right, so that your hips move a little bit to the right, your hips are now above your left knee in anatomical sense, your left hip is abducted -From here you're going to move the hips a little bit is the first leverage

forward. This

-As the hips are coming back you're going to move slightly to the right and this is your first target. -Staying to the right, keeping that distance that you have just moved into, you move the hips forward again, and as the hips come back you move to the right again. So, in this case, the space creating is the leverage in the hips moving forward and back. Target which is a space we want to move into. Perform this technique on both sides.

~ Integrity~

Starting Position: Get into a side lunge position.

Turn your leg out to about 90 degrees.

• The body is squared forward • The leg is completely out to the side.

1st Leverage Move: Move your hips forward.

1st Target Move: As you're coming back to the starting position move slightly to the right

2nd Leverage Move: Staying in this position, do the same thing you did in step 1, move your hips forward.

2nd Target Move: As you're coming back to the starting position move slightly to the right

3rd Leverage Move: Staying in this position, do the same thing you did in step 2, move your hips forward.

3rd Target Move: As you're coming back to the starting position move slightly to the right

~Content~ -To perform ~Content~ with the right leg, lie down on the left side, so that your right shoulder is above your left shoulder, and your right hip is directly above your left hip. -From here going to the right, directly up to the ceiling and over to your body, so that your quadriceps moves into the direction of your rib cage. -From here extend the knee as much as possible without discomfort. This is the starting position. -As a leverage you are going to extend the hip and the knee all the way straight and as the leg is coming back towards the body the knee will open up a little bit more. -Now again, you are going to extend the leg, and as the leg is coming back, the knee is going to extend a little bit more on the target. This is just a demonstration, you will not see large changes in the target as in the pictures, the changes will be there but they will be a lot smaller. When you actually perform this ZST there's going to be small changes which will accumulate overtime. Larger changes are demonstrated by the model so that the movement is easier understand. Do this ZST on both sides of the body. Starting Position: Lie doing on the side.

Bring one knee straight up to the ceiling.

Put one hand on your thigh, and one hand on your calf.

Here you need to bend the knee in and not articulate the hip, holding the leg.

1st Leverage Move: Extend the hip and the knee all the way straight.

1st target Move: Move your leg toward your body. Here the knee will open up a little bit more.

2nd leverage move: From the position that you just attained, again extend the hip and the knee all the way straight.

2nd Target Move: Move your leg toward your body.

3rd Leverage Move: From the position that you just attained, again extend the hip and the knee all the way straight.

3rd Target Move: Move your leg toward your body.

~ Esteem~ -To perform this ZST sit down with your heels on the ground, your knees are together, and your legs are together. -From here you will extend one leg out straight and bring it out to the side so that one leg is bent and the other leg is straight. -You’re going to work on the right side, so that your left knee is bent and your right leg is straight. -There should be a 90 degree angle between your left and right leg, so that the left leg is facing directly forward and the right leg is facing directly to the side. -From here place your body at an angle toward the floor between the left and right leg. -Aim your body toward the floor between your right and left leg. -From here, place your right hand, on the outside of your right foot, as a leverage. -Assisting with your right hand, aim the right leg inward, so that the knee cap of the right leg, and the toes of the right foot, are facing up to the ceiling. -Rotate the foot in, as a leverage, as the foot comes back, drop the body to the floor, as the target. -Keep your torso where it is, rotate the hip inward one more time, as the second leverage, as the foot rotates back up drop the body a little bit more.

~ Esteem~ Starting Position: Sit down on your heels. Bring one leg out to the side and the other leg on the ball of the foot.

Aim your chest right between the legs, 45 degrees in, and 90 degrees open angle between the legs.

1st Leverage Move: Use both the strength of your arms and the hip to

rotate.

1st Target Move: As the rotation comes back to neutral, drop your body lower.

2nd Leverage Move: Move back the foot rotation the hip and using the strength of your arm.

2nd Target Move: As you're coming back the foot rotation, drop lower the body (remember not to raise the body).

3rd Leverage Move: Use both the strength of your arm and the hip to come back the foot.

3rd Target Move: As the rotation comes back to neutral, drop your body lower.

~ Purity~ -To perform this ZST, come up on your knee and bring one leg out to the side. Starting with your right leg, turn your right leg out so that your toes are out to the side. -This is a slightly similar position to integrity, however, in integrity you would have been working on the left side, and here you are working on the right side. In integrity you would have the body move to the right, the hips would move to the right. -In this ZST, however, you are in a starting position with your right leg out and your toes out to the right. -From here you are going to lean forward and place your hand on the floor directly in front of you. -Now push right knee away from the body, this is the leverage. Leverage is you pushing with your right hand. -The knee coming back to the starting position and torso dropping down to the floor is your target.

~ Purity~ Starting Position: Come up on the knees, bring one leg out to the side.

Hand on the inside of the knee, leaning the body forward.

1st Leverage move: Push the knee back.

1st Target Move: As the knee comes back drop the body a little big lower.

2nd Leverage Move: Push the knee away.

2nd Target Move: Come back, drop lower.

3rd Leverage Move: Push the knee away.

3rd Target Move: Come back, dropping the body lower.

~Equilibrium~ -To do equilibrium get into a long lunch position with the back leg straight. -Place your hands on the floor -Your chest should be on your front quadricep. -From here turn the straight leg out, doing this on the right side, so that the left knee is bent, and your body is over your left leg. -Right leg turned out, you want your toes aiming to rotate towards the ceiling, as the toes come back down and the inside of your foot is on the floor, both toes and the heel, is on the floor, drop the hips a little bit lower. The hips should drop to the floor at the same time as the leg is turning back in. -Your leverage here is the external rotation of the right leg and your target is dropping the hips down. without lifting your hips up. -Rotate the right leg out as much as possible, perhaps you can only lift your toes a little bit off the floor and not rotate them to the ceiling which is OK. Drop the toes back down and as you are rotating your hip back in when you toes traveling back down to the floor drop the hips a little bit lower deeper into the target.

~Equilibrium~ Starting Position: Go into a lunge position.

Place your hands on the floor. Toes forward. Keep the chest squared down, do not rotate the chest.

1st Leverage Move: Do external rotation with the extended leg moving the foot out, without moving the hips.

1st Target Move: Drop the foot and come down the body moving hips into the floor.

2nd Leverage Move: Do external rotation with the extended leg moving the foot out, without moving the hips.

2nd Target Move: Come down the body and move hips deeper into the floor.

3rd Leverage Move: Do external rotation with the extended leg moving the foot out, without moving the hips.

3rd Target Move: Come down the body and move hips deeper into the floor.

~ Balance ~ -To perform balance straddle your legs as wide as possible in sitting position.

-Lean forward till you feel just a slight stretch.

-Move your body to the right and as you're coming back to the center come down a little bit closer to the floor.

-Move the body to the left as you coming back to the center move your body a little bit closer to the floor.

-The Leverage here is movement to the side, and the Target is movement straight down.

-Aim to bring straight body forward and down instead of curving the back and dropping the head to the floor.

~ Balance ~

Starting Position: Get into a straddle position. Straddle as wide as you can go.

1st Leverage Move: Once you feel a slight stretch move the body one side.

1st Target Move: Come back and drop a little lower.

2nd Leverage Move: Move to the other side.

2nd Target Move: Come back and drop a little lower.

3rd Leverage Move: Move to the other side.

3rd Target Move: Come back and drop lower.

Flexibility Retention Exercises Unique Flexibility & Strength Supporting Techniques. Special techniques that allow you to retain your newly gained flexibility and connect it to your target skill.

1st Supporting Exercises: Resistance to the adductors:

Lying down on the back, both knees bend. Lift the feet off the floor.

Place your hands inside the knees and use them to push the knees out.

And back. Perform 10 repetitions.

2nd Supporting Exercise: Hip lifting, gluteus contracting

Bring the knees out to the side, feet together, keeping the knees as wide as possible.

Contract the glutes and lift the hips up off the floor and up.

And down. Perform 10 repetitions.

3rd Supporting Exercise: Knee lifting For this technique use a chair or any other object of similar height.

Bring your knees out as wide as possibe.

Lift your knees.

Kick the legs out.

Place them back down. Perform 10 repetitions

4th Supporting Exercise: Switching between horse stances and side front stances:

Get into a horse stance, hips are at the level of the knees, toes out 90 degrees.

Turn the right leg so toes are in the direction of the left leg.

And back.

Turn left leg so toes are in the direction of the right leg.

And, back. Perform 10 repetitions, alternating sides.

5th Supporting Exercise: Hip flexors contracting

Stand in a turnout as wide as possible.

Bring straight leg up, with a lot of control, starting with the right leg, alternating sides. Perform 10 repetitions.

6th Supporting Exercise: Cossack Squat

Perform a Cossack squat. Extend the leg.

Come up, switch sides.

Extend the leg. If you are not able to do this variation, just do Cossack squat back and forth. Perform 10 repetitions.

7th Supporting Exercise: The Frog

Get into a frog position.

Lift your right leg up.

And down. Perform 10 repetitions, alternating sides.

Important Notes: To keep track of your progress you can use our FREE stretch180 app. This Flexibility Measurement App will measure your splits accurately and tell you how many degrees you are progressing each training session. Track your progress. Give you an estimated date for full splits. Keep you engaged and motivated with your flexibility training. And keep you focused on your EasyFlexibility Goals! To learn more about this app https://www.easyflexibility.com/pages/stretch180

please

visit:

If you need a visual of everything that you learned in this manual we invite you to take our online course. To learn more about this course please visit: https://www.easyflexibility.com/products/side-splits-combo At EasyFlexibility we offer over 100 programs for all of your flexibility needs, as well as a series of programs designed to help with pain management. And an extensive blog that offers a wealth of information to help you with your training. We invite you to visit www.EasyFlexibility.com to learn more. You can also save 15% on your first order by using a coupon code "KINDLE15" at checkout.