Stretching Tips

BATH BEFORE YOU STRETCH, bathing in warm water warms up your muscles so you can stretch easily or stretch after practicing your ballet.

STRETCH IN THE NIGHT TIME, you feel all tight in the morning because you sleep in basically the same position but late in the afternoon your muscles are nice and loose from a day's work.

DO SOMTHING TO GET YOU HEART PUMPING, ride you bike around the block ( well I can't do that) or run to get some post for your Mum (Hmm... Not that I can do that). You NEVER want to stretch with cold muscles it does not help and it hurts a lot more.

WEAR SOCKS, it helps a lot to wear socks when you are stretching because socks slide more smoothly when doing splits than bare feet or ballet slippers.

WATCH T.V Okay, sorry, maybe I'm being a little vague. Just watching TV won't get you flat in your splits. But if you watch TV while stretching, you can be distracted from the pain and don't get bored. Holding your splits is much easier to do while watching Nutcraker or Swan Lake. 

THE MORE THE MERRIER, Try stretching every day, even on Sundays. It's better and a lot less painful than just stretching once a week.

TAKE A BREAK EVERY NOW AND THEN, if you go on a week-long holiday,  don't stretch, take a break, but don't take a break in the December holidays; you won't stretch for a long time and when you start ballet now you can't do splits any more.