Thread: Do any of you supplement for flexibility?

I ran across this website pushing supplements to increase flexibility and for once I am really tempted.

I've struggled with flexibility my whole life and I do stretch but it takes me mad amounts of time to see any progress at all.

I'm looking at this site and I'm thinking that it might be a diet element I'm missing. Have any of you tried this supplement or something like it. Or do you follow a special diet to make you more bendy?

I want to be able to do the splits at least once in my life!!! Advice please?

Here's the site I found:

Yoga Poses & Yoga Exercises are NOT Enough for Flexibility

There's a pill for everything. That sounds bizarre...a little too good to be true.

I'm actually breaking ground on my splits by practicing the motion every day, with warm muscles. After I practice dancing, I get into the closest thing to a split that I can muster and hold it for 2 minutes or more. I do it while watching TV. About three weeks into it, my crotchal area is getting closer and closer to the ground, and the feeling of discomfort/stiffness is going away.

I don't think there's an overnight fix for flexibility - just patience and DAILY practice.

sounds too good to be true.
satin-i'm working on my splits too! hehe i tried this morning to see how far i can go (just to see how much i have to work with) and i'm not as far away from completing a split as i thought i was! yay! :) :)

Is crotchal a real word? Aren't you working on a special dictionary?

*Technically* crotchal isn't a real word. It's a distant cousin of crassel. You wear a crassel to emphasize your crotchal area.

Though being an English major is basically good for nothing in today's job market, it does give you the liberty of making up words. So I'm gonna roll with it ..g.:

Crotchal is a great word! Here's a word created weekend before last in post-show conversation between me and a musician in a band.

What happens during your performance when the band kinda sorta knows the song you asked them to play for you but actually not exactly really:
awkwardity

Ok sorry, couldn't resist. I admit I know nothing about supplements for flexibility.
again!
Rosette

I think that if you are working on flexibility, it is a good idea to take supplement which help to support muscle repair as well as joint and skeletal support. I'd have to look up the muscle repair, but I believe it's an Amino acid. For Joints, triple flex, for skeleton, calcium.

That, practice, patience and acceptance of your personal limitations.

{{{HUGS}}}

I take supplements, but also work on core strength. You can't have flexibility without strength. I tend to lower muscle tone so I have to work harder, but I also have less flexibilty so have to work harder at that as well.

Keep at it, don't give up!

I am not sure about a supplement but several months ago I was a foot off the ground ( I had a baby and found myself MUCH stiffer than ever before in my life). I started dancing a lot again thus was stretching more and started to see SLOWWWW progress. So I got online and looked up ways to increase flexibility FAST. There is a program (it is strict and, hard, and yes you do have to work at it) but basically you stretch for 15 minutes EVERY day for the first week. Then the second week you stretch for 2x15 minute sessions. Then the third week you stretch for 3x15 minute sessions (each session at least 2 hours apart). Et Voila, you should have your splits. After one week of this regiment...I can do right and middle. My left side has a little ways to go. But tenacity WORKS!

I think that would work. If you stretch out after every dance session/class, you will gain flexibility. You have to do the right stretches and hold them long enough to be effective, but not too long or the muscle starts contracting (or so my PT explained).

If you sit a lot, you will naturally have shorter hamstrings and tight glutes/lumbar region.

After going thru rehab for my back, I was finally able to touch my toes without bending my knees, I'm fighting to keep that.

Originally Posted by bdlana

I am not sure about a supplement but several months ago I was a foot off the ground ( I had a baby and found myself MUCH stiffer than ever before in my life). I started dancing a lot again thus was stretching more and started to see SLOWWWW progress. So I got online and looked up ways to increase flexibility FAST. There is a program (it is strict and, hard, and yes you do have to work at it) but basically you stretch for 15 minutes EVERY day for the first week. Then the second week you stretch for 2x15 minute sessions. Then the third week you stretch for 3x15 minute sessions (each session at least 2 hours apart). Et Voila, you should have your splits. After one week of this regiment...I can do right and middle. My left side has a little ways to go. But tenacity WORKS!

What program was this? Is it a specific set of stretches or is it just do what you want for the required times? Sounds interesting.

Shems, I'd be hesitant about supplements. I wasn't able to find anything conclusive in my admittedly cursory google search.

What worries me is the misinformation in that link. Ignoring the first two rules, (the first is just plain wrong, the second is deceptively phrased), the third is the biggest case against these supplements.

If junk food hampers flexibility, as the site claims, then the answer is to begin a healthy eating program, not to supplement. The supplements can't erase the pizza the author blames.

Also, if the author stretched for 15 minutes every day and had a proper intake of nutrients, the effectiveness of the supplements should be called into question. What's more likely is the daily practice helped the flexibility.

I can't tell from your post if you are tempted to specifically try these supplements, or just attempt to begin supplementing in general. If you think it's a diet issue, it would be best to research and plan a diet for maximum health.

I feel your pain though! I'm also trying to increase flexibility and I feel like I've hit a wall!

That YogaBody supplement is classic snake-oil, right down to the writing style. Overly excited phrases, confusing diatribes, no sources, first-hand accounts of overnight changes, mysterious ingredients from "exotic" places, and supplementation that has next to nothing to do with muscle length, recovery, or connective tissue length. Bah!

A healthy diet in the general sense will of course help with one's flexibility as it will help muscle recovery and repair time. Also, those who eat healthy tend to be healthy in other ways of their life as well, including proper exercise, and this will factor in to your flexibility. A highly disciplined stretching program should help you get past that wall (assuming that your body can go past that wall and we aren't dealing with issues such as skeletal structure preventing a greater range of motion). I like that progressing 15 minute stretch schedule - I think I'll give that one a try!

part of our choreographies and also the study we have....I need to accomplish splits all three ways pretty much
I am pretty good on left and right but front still far...
I stretch using a lot of yoga stretches, like lunges, deep lunges, frog, pigeon, Sun Salutions, bow, boat...etc regularly at least 4-5 times a week.
I roll my IT and hip flexors with foam roller cause helps with relaxing the muscles
I also practice ballet stretches especially the high degages and sitting and lifting legs, and laying back the cross scissors and open to the side stretches
I take supplements like Bromelain, D-Flame for inflammation
Due to TUrkish drops I also take extra care of my joints and take Joint support that is herbal based has MSM, Bromelain...etc in it
I know that harmstring stretch and building muscles will also help with stretches and flexibility as well....
Taking protein after workouts will give food to your body as well.
hmmmm also not heat but ice for inflammed muscles is important.

The only thing I do is yoga. I do take a calcium supplement everyday but like Satin said, it takes practice over a period of time. While I am not doing any crotchal splits yet (although I did as a child) in time I think I will get there. And during the week I do some series of yoga stretching practices to help keep me limber.

Not to mention the strength yoga gives me as well - I've heard pilates does that too but I don't do that as much.

I'm currently nursing a groin strain which I got from stretching in a straddle sit after not doing much flexibility work for a while (that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it ). It's bloomin' painful, not to mention a real issue for a working dancer! Poop to the flexibility, I want my groin mended!

That site makes too many false claims for me to put any stock in the supplements.
Just as bone length is genetic, so is muscle and tendon length. These are tied to flexibility.
Yoga is SO varied. All the yoga that I've taken though has helped a whole lot to develop my flexibility. Helped me regain flexibility (and splits) after a pulled hamstring actually.
Pizza- If you order the cholesterol special pizza- it's not good for you in ANY way. If you make healthy choices (whole grain crust, light cheese, veggie pizza) you are putting more nutrition in your body and not contributing to an excess weight problem (depending upon serving size). Pizza itself doesn't make you stiff.
Neither does caffeine. Shems- you don't consume caffeine, so you are already following one of his guidelines and it has not served your flexibility goals.
He says to stretch daily. That's good common sense advise if you want to increase your flexibility anyway.

Everybody's scepticism has worked, I'm no longer tempted to try a supplement. But I still think there are diet choices I can make to help aid in my recovery and which will allow me to progress faster in my flexibility goals. This part continues to make sense to me. I guess I'll be hitting the bookstore for nutrition books.

Originally Posted by bdlana

I am not sure about a supplement but several months ago I was a foot off the ground ( I had a baby and found myself MUCH stiffer than ever before in my life). I started dancing a lot again thus was stretching more and started to see SLOWWWW progress. So I got online and looked up ways to increase flexibility FAST. There is a program (it is strict and, hard, and yes you do have to work at it) but basically you stretch for 15 minutes EVERY day for the first week. Then the second week you stretch for 2x15 minute sessions. Then the third week you stretch for 3x15 minute sessions (each session at least 2 hours apart). Et Voila, you should have your splits. After one week of this regiment...I can do right and middle. My left side has a little ways to go. But tenacity WORKS!

What website is this program on?