Practice What You Teach: Jump Splits??

“Mom, how are your jump splits?” says my daughter. Me,”My what? What do you mean?” I immediately have a vision of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders… She then jumps in the air, does a leg split and lands in almost a full split on the floor. It was pretty impressive and I laughed because I can’t imagine even attempting to do that!

Aubri had just been showing me one of her latest dances she had choreographed. She was planning to make a dance she could teach me and I could learn for my birthday this year. (It’s 6 plus months away which she thought would give me plenty of time to learn it!!) She was hoping to put a jump split into the dance and wanted to see how close I was to being able to do one.

My daughter has been trying to teach me how to do jump splits! Check out tomorrow’s blog to learn about how I’m doing and the lessons I’ve learned while practicing!! #Pilates #pilatesblog #playmore

A video posted by Rivercity Pilates (@rivercitypilates) on Dec 18, 2016 at 6:42pm PST

When I mentioned I couldn’t do a split she asked to see mine. So I tried. Then she says, “We’ll have to just practice holding your split so you can get more flexible”. Since I’m no where close to being able to do a full split the practicing was not so easy and fairly uncomfortable as I had to hold my body weight up with my upper body so I wouldn’t hurt something! She notices this and says Mom maybe you can try a ball and pulls out an exercise ball from her closet. Sure enough I was able to hold my split somewhat comfortably sitting on the ball. After she had me hold the front split on the ball she said now try your split again. Sure enough it was better than my first attempt. I can honestly say that being able to do a split was never a goal of mine, but after our practice time I was starting to think it might be a fun challenge to work towards!!

Lessons learned from my daughter this week:

There is value in trying something you probably would have never thought of on your own. My body can always use movements that help open my hips and stretch my leg muscles. Practicing my splits with my daughter was a fun way to work on something my body needed!
We are usually much more capable then we realize. Sometimes it just takes someone else to help us realize that we could actually accomplish something that our own mind wouldn’t even consider. Practicing a split is something I don’t usually do because it seems pretty out of reach for me. But clearly after a little playing around and a prop to help me out, I found a way I could easily practice!
Props can be an amazing tool in helping you reach your movement goals. OK, I know this as a Pilates teacher, but it was a nice reminder that sometimes someone else’s keen eye and creative ideas(even if she is only eight!) can be a huge help in finding and using a prop that helps your body move better and create more balance in your body.