Stretching is a very painful thing, but you have to work on it (doing your stretching exercises) constantly. I was “stretched” at classes ever since I was a child. Mum used to tell me how she would sit there during my classes and hear my crying and comfort herself by saying “Yes, it’s painful now, but it will be fine afterwards”. I remember how I was always worried about those stretching sessions.

But if you set yourself a goal – to learn the splits – and train hard, you can achieve it at any age. The capabilities of the human body have not been fully researched yet, so it’s hard to set any boundaries. If you have a goal and the will to achieve it, you’ll definitely get there.