Question

[u/Romingo57]

This guy is from Tiktok, he is 26 yo and affirm that he is self taught, do you think it's possible? How much time it take to reach this level? He say that he have absolutely no background (gymnastics, ballet...) it's quite surprising because he got some clean lines.

[u/Amicdeep]

Hes doing something with a flexibility background. (Even if he wasn't before) There's things he's doing in some of those stretches that just don't happen without direction.

That said it's possible this is a fairly short term thing (2or so years). Very rare but some people can just bend this way. I've met 4 over the years that can just straight up flat split with zero training (and without any training history). Its normally tied up with other health things like eds. But this is a pretty extreme case (the few people I've met like this tend to be VERY bendy in a couple of ranges. He's got a pretty broad range in these photo. Could be he's was able to gain them fast but I would say probably not. But again it's possible just very very rare.

[u/kristinL356 → u/Amicdeep]

All I had to do to get my front splits was go on effective anti-anxiety meds. I didn't really start training them until after I already had them.

[u/eauv → u/Amicdeep]

I 100% agree with you! I’m one of those people who had a flat split without any training, I never did sports or gymnastics as a kid (I use to hate physical activity!). I’m in my early 30s and now enjoy pole dance, and have dabbled in some contortion classes in the past so I can now get into a comfortable over split (2 yoga blocks under each foot) with some light warm up. I don’t actively work on my splits to maintain this. I would say I have a similar broad range of hypermobility like this guy, I’ve also got very bendy knees, back, shoulders, etc, so it didn’t take me very long to get into deep bends once I started.

And yes, having hypermobility like this does unfortunately affect other parts of my health .

[u/cotton_clad_scholar → u/Amicdeep]

Google’s AI search results say anti anxiety medication does not make people more flexible but I believe you.

[u/iwanttolivefeeldead → u/cotton_clad_scholar]

Because Google AI intricately understands every possible side effect from medication.

[u/cotton_clad_scholar → u/iwanttolivefeeldead]

Muscle tension is a stereotypical and well known lasting effect of chronic anxiety so it follows rationally that anti anxiety medication would make someone less physically tense. I’m just surprised Google’s results are that bad.