#MiddleSplitGoddess – Day 2

Well now, today is the first day of me trying to get back on my (mostly) Paleo eating plan. I am not very strict with diets and what I am allowed to eat or not eat. I believe the body looks after itself and that if you exercise regularly you will want to eat healthy things. However, sometimes we need a kickstart and to test ourselves. I have been a bit lazy about cooking so a strict meal plan seams like the way to go. I am following this guide from PALEO LEAP. Its easy and intuitive and allows for a certain amount of practical flexibility while having an answer for most problems. I will update my progress with diet as I go forth with my #MiddleSplitGoals.

Today I am using a 5KG Medicine Ball to help me deepen and strengthen.

KickOff to warm up with:
20sec Tabata (3 cylcles of 3 sets): Burpies – which I HATE, Push Ups and Jack Knives
This acts as a rapid warm up, I take no breaks between sets and a 10sec break between cycles. Total Time: 3min 30sec. I then do 20 standing lunges and because its a Medicine Ball day, I use the ball, lifting above my head as I lung, arms straight but never locked. Then I release in the hips with rotations.

Now for the core part of the exercise, I want to use the weight of the Medicine Ball to strengthen the muscles needed for the split, then i want to stretch them out. To get the split I know i Have to go through discomfort and its not the easy stretch and growing we feel in the big muscle groups. This always feels wrong and that might be because I am asking my body to do what it cannot but my will is stronger than my limitation.

I am going to do 3 different exercises with stretches related and end off with a full stretch sequence.

1. 30 Squat Bounces, holding ball at chest followed immediately with 30 sec butterfly stretch, using the ball to stretch forward, then flipping this to a 30 second frog stretch. In the frog stretch make sure that the hip is inline with knees.
2. 30 sec Squat Holds, holing the ball out in front of you at the end position of the squat. Followed by one legged side splits from frog. The extended leg is on the ball being rolled further away. Holding for 1 minute on either side. Breathe into the pain.
3. 30 Deep Squats, from standing with ball above head to seated Indian squat with ball in front of you. Stretch immediately with pigeon pose, both sides for 30sec, then straight into stretch set.

Stretch set is going to be chilled as I was already in a fair amount of pain. So start with a straddle sit, lean left, right, pull forward to centre. From the roll forward into the middle splits. Ouch. then turn to left splits and then turn back to middle, repeat 5 times. Pausing after each turn to settle deeper into split. Do the same on the right side. End back in middle splits and stay there for 2 min, every 30 sec pay attention to your form, adjust as necessary and stretching deeper into split. after 2 min, walk forward onto toes and stretch out back, lower body to ground, release legs and try to walk.

Heres a weird video showing you the anatomy of the muscle groups involved. Its pretty strange, so follow this link to YouTube, not embedding that here.