New Splits Specific Regime Using Paul Zaichik’s Elastic Steel Method

As most of you are aware, I will be going for my 1st Degree Kick-boxing Black Belt exam this October / November please god. Only upon successful completion of the gruelling 4 hour grading which includes my organisation’s technical sets (all sixteen of them) sparring and heavy bag workout routines, will I have the pleasure of being acknowledged as a certified Kick-Boxing Instructor.

Now as someone who takes her craft extremely seriously, I cannot and will not acknowledge myself as a skilled martial artist until I can perform the splits!  *I am deadly serious*

For me, being able to perform the front and side splits is EVERYTHING when studying martial arts! Not only does it show off your flexibility and agility… it greatly helps with ones kicking ability and height, thus allowing the person to execute impressive and devastating kicks during competition.

All of the legends within the martial arts scene can effortlessly perform the splits and have always had the mindset that if I instruct my clients / students to perform an exercise, stretch or technique I cannot consistantly perform myself… I have no right to be teaching them!

Slightly going off of topic, I take my role as fitness trainer extremely seriously and point blank refuse to be a half ar*ed fitness professional that just takes peoples money whilst being negligent in demonstrating to their client, students the correct technique through his / hers own bad habits or lack of knowledge (the countless amount of times I see this is astonishing).

Rant over, after endless amount of days and hours  researching split specific exercises to incorporate into my training regime, I decided that Paul Zaichik’s Elastic Steel Method entitled  “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Splits and Flexibility DVD” was the programme for me to finally be able to conquer my all time nemesis with the hope of performing the splits successfully once and for all!

elastic-steel-splits-and-flexibility-download-martial-arts

The in depth kinesiology detail Paul goes into on his taster You Tube videos uploaded, assured me he know’s what he is talking about hence choosing his method to aid me on my splits journey.

This 2 hour, in depth instructional DVD contains 10 sections to help you get ‘Splits Ready’

  1. The Power of Massage
  2. Joint Mobility
  3. Posture
  4. Basic ‘Light’ Stretches
  5. Static and Dynamic Conditioning
  6. Extended Length Conditioning
  7. Stability Circles
  8. Leg Raises
  9. Reciprocal Stretches
  10. Deep Stretches

The idea is to complete the ‘Light Stretches’ section everyday *I will do this in the morning before work* and for the ‘splits specific stretches’, complete the Massage, Split Specific Warm Up, Light Stretches, ELC and Deep Stretches every 48 hours.

The other sections should be completed when resting from ‘Splits Training’ subject to your ability to comfortably perform the exercises.

I will be posting weekly articles of my splits progress right here on This Woman’s Word as well as demonstrating some of the stretches used within this DVD. I will also be going into greater detail about the ‘Elastic Steel Method, founded by Martial Arts Practitioner Paul Zaichik within these articles.

This road ahead will not be an easy one as I am not naturally flexible like my younger Sister’s and forever experience discomfort in my hip flexors when attempting to stretch that little bit further. That said, it does not mean I will never be able to do this… it just means that I would need to work extra hard, be dedicated and fully commit myself to the task in hand to achieve this personal goal of mine.

We can do anything we put our minds too, it’s all about having a positive approach!

Day 1 of  my new ‘Splits Training’ starts tomorrow, so you can look forward to reading what type of stretches I had to perform and how I found my first day under this new stretching regime.