Help with my leg lifts and splits? Please!?

Question

I am in a dance team and we travel all over. I LOVE to dance but i need help being flexible. Please tell me some good stretches and everything else and let me know if u have the same problem and how u can do it now. Please! Best answer will be the best advece that works! Make it good! :)

Answer 1

i have the exact same problem.
At my dance school, in a jazz dance, my teacher wants us to go into splits from kneeling. Which is hard cause I can't do splits. But I asked her how to practise and stretch & actually learn to the splits and she told me
"On bottom of the stairs there are bannisters, and she said if you stand in the hall, hold on to one of the bars on the bannister, if you have them and split yous legs as far as they can go & so their straight, and let go & hold in that posistion. Then move you hand to the next bar down & go down some more, and straightne you legs & then hold it. Do this al the way down & do it every morning and night.
But if you don't have bannisters, then if you have a spacious room and a bed thats not too far from the floor, then hold onto that and try and do the same thing as the bannisters.

Hope that helps!!
Also to stretch before you try this, lie on you side, bend your top leg into you body, then straighten youe leg upwards, grab hold of you foot & try and pull you leg back, as far as it can go.

Also split your legs apart when your sitting down, and strecth you arm over to reach your right foot, then you left foot and then stretch both arms & try on lie on the floor. It'll stretch you legs properly.

Well hope you understood that, & hope it works
xx

Answer 2

Yoga and pilates is a good place to start. Ballet will also help in your leg lifts. You have to stretch consistently everyday if you want to see an improvement. Many dancers stretch at least twice a day to keep their flexibility.
Any stretching exercise for splits will work if done often enough and long enough. Lunging stretches, pike stretches, sitting in your splits, pushing your straddle split into a wall, any of these are fine to start with.
When you go to your dance classes ask your teacher for some more stretches you can do at home.

Answer 3

Yoga. Excercise kicks using ankle weights. Run and then stretch or stretch after you've taken a hot bath. The straddle is probably the best. I'm on a drill team and that has really helped me.