Why not?

So while I'm still really enjoying 9 Round, I'm very aware that it does nothing for flexibility.  And recently starting to realize I'm losing what very little flexibility I ever had - particularly my hips and my hamstrings.

I am aware that yoga might help this, but so far I've hated every type of yoga I tried with a passion, so  convincing myself to go to a class in my limited free time when I'd rather do pretty much *any*thing else -- seriously, cleaning the dog crap out of the yard ranks higher in enjoyment value.   And, because I've never managed to do it consistently AND I'm completely inflexible, doing any home-based program, like the MANY I have access to through BeachBody (of P90X3 fame), is not going to get reasonable results.  And again, I'm unlikely to stick to the program.

So I thought okay...  I have to do something...  A real program is out...  And the rest of me is still moderately flexible.  So let's find something that's reasonable and focuses on target areas.

Introducing the 30 Day Split Challenge!

Lol jk.  Well, only partially.  It IS, in-fact, titled "journey to splits" but I have zero belief/aspiration/intention, of achieving that.  Even for she who takes on ridiculous challenges, that's a little much.  I could never even do them as a bendy little kid.

BUT - what do you need to do the splits?   Flexible hips and hamstrings...   hmmm - pretty target area.  So I did some research and found a zillion options to learn to do the splits, and eventually one that I thought might actually address my specific challenges.  So this is 30 days, about 10 mins / day. You do exercises 1-5 every day (1 min each side), and then one more.  So on day 6, you do exercise 1-5 + 6, on day 10 you do 1-5 + 10, etc.  

Care to join me?

About the only real rule is EVERY day.  And from the couple reviews I read, this is important ;).  Okay - I can follow 30 days.   Some of the pictures aren't quite as clear as I'd like (eg - is that foot straight or on an angle?) and a three of the days have exercises that essentially ARE splits, so, well, suffice to say I won't be looking anything like that ;).  Meh, she's wearing pink yoga pants, it's a pretty safe bet I won't be looking like any of them *g*. But for instance, 5 and 10 are the same exercise.  5 uses a cheater band and is currently about my level.  I don't see any chance whatsoever that in 5 more days I'll suddenly be able to do 10!

I do understand that stopping at 30 days and not continuing to do *some*thing for flexibility will completely undo any progress made -- future Lauren can deal with that ;).  I'm well aware that I work well in bite sized challenges *g*

So anyways - day 1...  All good.   Sure the ego takes a hit with just how inflexible I am.  And it definitely raised questions about the movements -- slight shifts change what hurts dramatically.   But as all the hurting is in places that need to be more flexible, I'm not being too picky ;).  But I could mostly do the exercises and when I was done I was done.   Ditto for day 2.  But on day 3, my hips hurt through the day.  It took till stretchy time (which for me is after work) for me to put the pieces together.  Day 4 I was dreading a little -- mostly cause I was sore most of the day.  Not something wrong sore, similar to gym sore except literally in my hips which is not an area the gym really targets.  Hmmm arguably knowing that is what set me on this in the first place, but apparently there's a difference between knowing theoretically and knowing intimately ;)

Day 5 is tomorrow.  I'm definitely feeling it, which tells me something is happening.  I've quite happily deluded myself into thinking it's clearly positive change ;).  The goal is to be able to roundhouse kick the big round bag at the gym (last time that was an exercise I could barely do it on one leg with zero strength and not on the other.  It's was pathetic)

So I'll check back in later and we shall see.  Since I took zero measurements of any time, this will be a pretty subjective assessment on my part ;)