Dance

Humans have danced since man started coming together in tribes, perhaps before that. Dancing has forever been an expression of both joy and ritual celebration.

Bologna History

The Lighter Side of History

(Which means some to no historical facts and a whole lot of bologna)

The origin of dancing is directly related to the discovery of fire. It so happened that after man first discovered fire, many would sit around this fire and chant their chants in praise of fire while banging on logs and rocks. Many logs and sticks were continually placed into the fire to keep it going as humanity had not yet figured out to make fire. These burning logs and sticks created many burning embers and even hot coal like lumps of simmering fire. One day, while the tribe happily banged on logs and rocks while chanting their praise of fire, the crackling and popping fire expelled one of these hot lumps of "coal" out onto the ground where a man was leaving the chanting circle to go relieve his bladder of the fermented rotten fruit juice that made fire chanting so pleasurable. As he was looking for a private tree by which to relieve himself, he accidentally stepped on this ejected lump of "coal" and instantly began hopping up and down, contorting in agony as he staggered in a drunken circle about the fire. Coincidentally, this motion of body coincided with the beat of the chant. This became the first known dance and from that time out, humanity endeavored to stock up on fermented and rotten fruit juice so they might happily dance to the chants in praise of fire.

Another warm-up is kneeling on one knee and pushing the other leg straight forward. For example, if you kneel on your right knee and push your left leg forward and stretch, then you'd be helping your left split. You could also lie face-down and prop your legs up into a frog position. Push down to stretch the middle split.

After some fresh warming up, it's time for the real thing. Just stand in a straddle position, and slowly lower yourself and spread your legs little by little. Keep going until it starts to hurt, then let the pain be just bearable enough, but don't stretch too much to make the pain unbearable, or else you might rip a muscle. Once you've gone the lowest you can with pain just bearable enough, stay there for about a minute. Through doing this frequently everyday, you should be able to go a little lower with less pain every week until your legs form a 180o angle.

For a different practice, lie down flat face-up, and use your hands to pull one straight leg toward your chest, so your knee goes toward your chest. Hold and feel the tightness for a short while, then repeat with the other leg.

For the best flexibility, repeat the whole process in all 3 ways: left split (left leg forward, right leg back), right split (vice-versa of left split), and straddle split (left leg pointing left, right leg right).

Stretch everyday by doing butterfly, straddle, and lounges.

Practice obviously helps. Practicing smartly helps even more.

Overview - First make tired the muscle about to be stretched then stretch it.

Note - For this type of exercise the muscle recovers VERY fast so it ends up that you need to tire it for about 16 seconds then stretch it for about 12. After twelve the muscle has recovered and is back to fully resisting you thus much of any further stretching action is wasted.

More detailed:

Tire the muscle using the position of the stretch to allow more specific stretching of the right muscles.

SPLITS (side)

In a left or right side split, the front leg is stretched on the underside of it, while the back leg is actually stretched mostly at the front of the hip joint and the thigh's top. So get in a split position and squeeze the front leg downward against the floor using the muscles in the back of it about to be stretched. Squeeze the back leg downward also. This uses the hip flexor (it's at the hip) which is the one that actually keeps you form reaching a split the most. This whole action is as if you're trying to close your two legs back together. Do this squeeze 16 seconds then relax for 12seconds in a split lower than you think you can go AND SITTING UP TALL.

SPLIT (straddle)

Sit on your bum facing a wall. Straddle as wide as possible pushing your crotch toward the wall (feet on wall) Squeeze against the wall as if your trying to close the legs back together. Use same squeeze relax stretch method described above.

Or, use same method as side split but your on your hands or elbows with legs in straddle splits and squeeze against the floor as if your trying to close the legs.

YEP IT IS PAINFUL. That is why most folk can't improve their spits. They are to wimpy to do it themselves. But that is normal. Body has a built in *Wimp System. IT HAS TOO. You just have to learn to use it to your advantage. That wimp system in the body is powerful. If you stress the Wimp System by not giving in to it, the Wimp System will then tell the body to make adjustments to relieve the stress being placed on it allowing it to once again be Wimpy. In this case it will tell the body to get more flexible so the split position being done no longer stresses the Wimp System.

Repeat this whole process 3x at least. (Tire out phase and stretch phase)

*Wimp system is complex and the name Wimp System is my own term for it. I also call it the human Lazy Side.