Doing full splits for sprinters

    Posted In: Flexibility

        • Participant
          TW1573D RE4PE12 on February 14, 2009 at 3:32 pm #15364

          My flexibility is bad and want to be able to do a full split by doing some static stretching. Is stretching to increase to that level of flexibility bad for sprinters. I won’t be doing those before workouts or meets ofcourse.

        • Participant
          premium on February 14, 2009 at 5:43 pm #78013

          you dont need to be that flexible….there is a point when you become too flexible and it has negative effects

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on February 14, 2009 at 6:40 pm #78015

          Definitely not necessary. If I had the choice of 2 athletes and the only thing I knew about them was that one athlete could do splits and the other could not; I’d choose the one who could not in a heart beat.

          ELITETRACK Founder

        • Participant
          JeremyRichmond on February 14, 2009 at 9:25 pm #78016

          My flexibility is bad and want to be able to do a full split by doing some static stretching. Is stretching to increase to that level of flexibility bad for sprinters. I won’t be doing those before workouts or meets ofcourse.

          Dude, if your flexibilty is really bad at the moment just make it bad but don’t waste your time trying to make it great. Sprinting requires a stretch reflex.

          As for the full split? Even if I did believe in excessive stretching; why would you need flexibility in that direction (if its the sideways split you’re talking about). If it’s the straight split where you are facing your foot or knee, I’ve never seen a sprinter use that range of movement in a race.

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on February 15, 2009 at 7:25 am #78033

          I concur with above.

          Split in any direction = completely unrelated to sprint performance at best; and more likely decreased sprint performance.

          ELITETRACK Founder

        • Participant
          TW1573D RE4PE12 on February 15, 2009 at 12:10 pm #78046

          Oh, I see now. Thanks! I got confused because I’ve seen pictures of hurdlers jumping over hurdles and it looked like they are capable of doing a full split and I thought that sprinters need about as much flexibility.

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on February 15, 2009 at 12:15 pm #78048

          Hurdlers do need a little more flexibility than sprinters but many hurdlers couldn’t hit the positions statically that they do dynamically (when hurdling).

          ELITETRACK Founder

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