I'm not sure if the right word is suppleness or flexibility.. but my legs seem REALLY tight.. I've never had to pay much attention to stretching but with muscle growth mainly my hamstrings feel like elastic bands.. I can't get near touching my toes from standing.. and can barely kick past my waist now.. any advice on how to become more flexible? As it's really holding me back with sprinting also and I'm sure it affects my muscle fatigue.. appreciate any suggestions..
You should consider flexibility training just as important as your conditioning, strength/power, recovery and skill sets...
Dynamic stretching will help - use it as part of your warmup, along with mobility drills targeting your problem areas. For hips, lower back and hamstrings google 'DeFranco's Agile 8" for starters.
Static stretching should be done once warmed up or following a workout/training session. PNF stretching is particularly helpful (essentially holding a static stretch against pressure for 8-10 seconds and then sinking into a deeper stretch once the pressure is released...easiest with bands/partner to assist).
However, foam rolling or myo-fascial self release is just as important imo. If you imagine a tight muscle as a rubber band with a knot in it...how effective would stretching that rubber band be? Foam rolling can remove those knots and allow you to stretch more easily. As an added benefit, foam rolling can greatly assist with your recovery following a hard workout.
Dynamic stretch/mobility prior to training
Foam Roll,static/pnf stretch post workout
Don't take a day off, ever, if you can especially at first. It won't help. It may seem tempting, especially when you're really sore, but it doesn't help. Even a day or two is enough to lose progress.
Always do your splits, front and central. Hold all your stretches for 20 seconds, more if you feel OK to, but you can strain yourself even if it doesn't feel like you are during the stretch.
Do your straddle stretches on the floor. Separate your legs as much as possible and reach forward. Inch forward while breathing until you can touch your face to the floor. Then your chest. (Once you can do that you're well on your way to doing central splits!)
Do standing forward stretches where you put your heel to the floor, and the rest of your foot up and bring your head down as far as possible. Hold this one as well as doing a range of motion up and down.
Use a wall to stretch, with your heel on the wall as high as possible. Keep inching higher and higher as you exhale. You'll keep making progress. Just don't push anything, because pulling a hamstring will put you back to square one.
Flexibility is probably the easiest aspect of 'fitness' to attain (supposedly!), so browse the net and see what works for you.
Maybe so, but it still takes a lot of patience and hard work. Have people push you when you feel like you're at a wall and aren't making any more progress.
And it's also easy to "lose" as well, as injuries and neglect can lead one back to where they started with a whole lot of work to do again. Once you get there, you have to maintain a lot.
Does your school/gym have a bar or set of bars along the wall like they do in ballet schools? Those are really great for your hamstrings and can help you feel comfortable enough to just use a wall as in the video above (p.s. check out her other wall stretching video).
You can use a partner for this one too: put your heel on their shoulder while both standing and start stretching, touching your nose to your knee or shin then change and let them stretch. This is common in kung fu schools in China and is something you can easily teach to people.
I have very short muscular legs. So I was always under the impression I was stuck with tight and badly flexible legs. I would never incorporate kicks into MMA fighting because of this. Well I had hand surgery and I thought I will take the 3 months to improve my kicks and flexibility. Slowly but surely I am getting increased flexibility in my legs with a 20 min stretch after my workouts.
Also what seems to help is I sit in the sauna to do my stretches. I do very slow stretching. I do 5 different types of stretches with 3 sets of 10-15 seconds each. Took a while for me to see results but I am pretty happy I am actually hitting head kicks without falling over or losing my balance.
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