Make sure you are warmed up. Without this you could harm yourself. This can be as simple as jogging in place for a minute or two. Also, doing lunges on each leg beforehand will help.
Start by standing with your feet together. Reach down and try to touch your toes. DO NOT bend your knees at all (you may not be able to touch your toes... it’s alright). Rounding your back so that your hands are closer does not help your stretch so try to keep a straight back and bring your stomach closer to your feet.
Sit on the ground with your legs straight out in front of you. Reach over your legs towards your toes. Once again it is important to keep a straight back and get your chest and not your arms closer to your legs.
Repeat the last step, except this time bend one leg behind you in order to stretch the other. Do this with both legs.
Stretch your Sartorius muscle. This is the muscle, in a split, that you feel in your back leg between your leg and body. To do this you have to kneel down, put your hands on the ground, and then straighten out your back leg. You may put your knee on the ground but remember that if you do this then you have to try to bring your crotch closer to the ground. This stretch will need to be held a lot longer than most (1-2 minutes on each side)
All the steps above are necessary for a front split, but to get your straddle (side split), you will need to do the above and more.
Sit in a straddle on the ground and reach out in front of you trying to get your chest and stomach as close as you can to the floor.
While sitting in a straddle, bring one arm over your head and towards your leg keeping your body sideways to your leg. Do this on both sides.
Sit in butterfly position (like Indian style but with your feet together). Press down your knees to the ground with your elbows or your hands. Bring yourself closer to your feet.
Wear loose clothing!
When you are stretching breath in and out deeply. It'll help you get farther into your stretch.
Hold each stretch for at least 30 full seconds. Don't cheat yourself.
Stretch a little bit every day.
Stretch in multiple directions to get more all around flexibility:
-front (body to the leg)
-side (reach arms over your side towards the leg
Flexibility is gained over time; for some it may even take two or three months to fully sit into the splits. Do not push yourself too hard. You will eventually see gradual improvements. If you do push too hard then you could pull a muscle or even you could tear one. If you do unfortuantly tear a muscle don't worry! If it's really painfull then maybe you go to the doctors or hospital but sometimes they go away slowly. Just rest it.
2006-08-22 11:42:38
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answer #1
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answered by larceny'sghost 2
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i used to do gymnastics so the best way is to do the butterfly strech and each day make sure ur knees go down all the way, also try to push urself hard down each time u try to do the split. But too hard of a push or u could seriously hurt urself.
2006-08-22 18:42:57
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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Do the best you can, several times a day. You can't do the splits all the way at first; you have to work up to it. I expect some people can't ever do it, since everybody is built differently.
2006-08-22 18:44:12
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answer #3
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answered by The First Dragon 7
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Well, Here's how i first did my splits..lol It was on accedent but it worked... I slipped on some accorns..It hurt like a mofo..But It worked... It was when I was little!!
2006-08-22 18:44:26
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answer #4
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answered by Has31 2
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strech ery single day untill u can do it if not go 2 gymnastics
2006-08-22 18:44:04
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answer #5
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answered by Gabriela M 1
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you put one leg to one side and the other leg to the opposite side and just slide down til your crotch is touching the ground
2006-08-22 18:40:50
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answer #6
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answered by Bleep Bloop 3
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well im a black man of course so i can break dance i could sine i was 5 i just went down no matter how mutch it hurts i just went down and baby i still can (no **** im 19)
2006-08-22 18:41:51
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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