Prior to creating a program or choosing one from my selection, you will need to read this material to grasp a greater understanding of what should be included in your custom program and what to expect from mine.
Every program I offer to you on this site has a basic structure. When creating your own you should have this structure or something similiar:
Goal: _______
Program type: _______
Time it will take: _______
How many days a week you will be doing this: _______
* A small list of warm-up exercises *
* A small list of other fun things to do when stretching * (Optional)
* The actual program itself * (List of flexibility exercises)
Goal: This is what you wish to achieve. Higher kicks, splits, or both? Since I expect you have read the principles of flexibility section and the other previous sections I discussed the 3 types of flexibility in, you should know what you need to do to meet your goal.
Program type: What type of program is this? What is the name of it? The program you choose or create will correspond to your goal. If you wanted higher kicks for instance you would have a dynamic flexibility increase program. If you wanted to obtain the splits, you would create a static flexibility increase program.
Time it will take: Time yourself the first time you go through your program and round it up to an even number. Take that number and add 7-10 minutes or more for a warmup. The sum of these two amounts will be your minimum program time.
Example
49 minutes 21 seconds was the time it took you to finish your program for the first time. You also did an 8 minute warm up. Round it up : 50 minutes program time and 8 minutes worth of warm up = 58 minutes. Round up one more time : 1 hour program. Timing yourself helps give you an idea how much time you will be spending on the program. This makes it easier to incorporate into your schedule and motivate you if you suddenly feel like stopping. I highly recommend timing yourself in the manner I described. How many days a week: Improving flexibility requires lots of time and commitment. You should decide how many days a week you think you will need to do this to meet your goal (Or if it's a program I made then follow how many days I described in it).
Warm-up exercise list: If you are doing this seperate from your training sessions then you are going to need a warm up. Often you may run out of warm up ideas, so writing down a list of exercises will help you add some variety to your warm ups.
Entertainment: The whole point of following a stretching program is to increase your flexibility, but you can make it more enjoyable by doing other things at the same time. Reading a book, watching TV, listening to music, or doing homework are just a few things you can do to making stretching more interesting. Be sure this does not distract you though. Keep aware of what you are doing and focus on the stretching above all.
The Program: The most important part of the program is the program itself! You will need to find some stretches and write down which muscle groups you are working on. We will cover what exactly will be included in your program in the next few sections.
I have actually made a program for myself and wrote it down on paper. This is an example of what one of mine would look like if I made one.
Here is a program written in a good ole' notebook!
(Note: It's spiral bound :)
I have the goal, program type, time it will take, and days of the week all set up (the stuff highlighted in orange). Check out the lightning bug I drew in the upper left!
A closer look...
I love Fiji water! And yes, I am a hotdog! Oh... Who said you can't decorate it a bit if you're really bored haha?
Below in the blue highlight I have the warm up exercise list (mine is short, just three exercises) and some entertainment ideas.
Here is the actual program and the list of stretches.
Warm up for 8 minutes here, then it lists some stretches and a bit more.
The second half of my program.
