4 Active Flexibility Exercises for Middle Splits
4 Active Flexibility Exercises for Middle Splits
If you’re trying to get your splits, just sitting in a split isn’t going to get you there. You need strengthening exercises to help your muscles get used to working while they’re in a stretched position so that when they repair, they are more susceptible to being lengthened.
These are my 4 favorite active drills for active adductor (inner thigh) flexibility.
1. Lying Adductor Squeezes
I use this as part of my warm up any day I’ll be working on my straddles and middle splits.
Start lying on your back, with knees bent and feet flat on the floor near your butt
Kick one leg up with your foot flexed, sole of your foot reaching toward the ceiling
Slowly, with control, start to let that leg open out to the side, making sure both butt checks are staying on the floor (and your hips aren’t twisting to the side as that leg falls). You can place your hands on your hips as if you’re holding them down if that helps keep them from twisting or moving
Once you’ve reached your leg as far open to the side as you can, squeeze your inner thigh to lift it up back to start
Repeat 8-15 times, then switch legs
Make it easier:
Doing this with a straight leg uses a lot of bodyweight! If that’s a bit too hard, start with your knee bent 90 * instead of totally straight. Then let the outside of your knee drop towards the floor as you open your leg, and squeeze it back in to start.
Make it harder:
Add ankle weights.
2. Middle Split Slides
For this exercise, you’ll need your feet to be able to slide on the floor, so throw on some socks and get ready to get slippy! Socks on hardwood or linoleum typically work great. If you’re practicing on carpet, you can use some sliders, or some thin books or even paper plates under your feet - anything that reduces the friction of your feet on the floor.
Start standing in a high tabletop forward fold with feet under your hips and hands under your shoulders on two tall yoga blocks
Start to slide your feet out to the side, keeping your knees and toes pointing forwards, into a shallow middle split
Press the inside edges of your feet into the floor and squeeze your thighs together to slide your feet together, lifting your hips back to your starting high tabletop / forward fold
Repeat for a total of 8-12 split slides
Make it easier:
If these feel super challenging, you can either try and not slide your legs out as far (the important part is the squeeze-back-to-standing, don’t feel like you have to slide into your deepest middle split before you start squeezing back to start), OR take more weight out of your legs by leaning on a chair instead of placing your hands on yoga blocks.
Make it harder:
Lower your yoga blocks to a lower setting, or place your hands flat on the floor.
3. Half Frogger Slides
This is another slide-y exercise, so put on your socks (or get whatever you need for your feet to slide on the floor).
Start kneeling on your left knee, right leg sticking straight out to the side with the knee and toes pointing forwards
Lean forwards and plant your hands on the floor
Start to slide your right foot out to the side, keeping your right knee and toes pointing forwards, ending in a shallow half middle split (your left leg will be in “frogger” position, your right leg in a traditional middle split)
Press the inside edge of your right foot into the floor and squeeze your thighs together to slide your foot in and lift your hips back to starting position
Repeat for a total of 8-12 split slides, then switch sides
Make it easier:
Just like with the full middle split slides, you can not sink down quite so far, or lean on a chair to take some weight out of your legs.
Make it harder:
Lift your torso higher by walking your hands on top of yoga blocks. The higher you lift your torso, the more weight gets pushed into your legs. If you are feeling super strong, you can lift your torso all the way upright and not use your hands for support at all.
4. Contract-Relax Half Frogger
Contract-relax stretching (sometimes also called “PNF” stretching, although that name isn’t 100% accurate) is a great way to strengthen virtually any muscle you’re trying to stretch. For inner thigh flexibility, I like doing this in a half-frogger to allow you to focus on one leg at a time, but it’s not quire as intense as a full middle split.
Start in a comfortable half frogger stretch (one knee bent in your frogger stretch, the other leg kicked out to the side with your knee and toes pointing forwards). You don’t want to start as low as you can possibly go, choose a starting point where you’re just starting to feel a stretch on your inner thighs. Our goal for this particular contract-relax variation is to strengthen our mid-range (not end range) flexibility
Relax in your “comfortable” stretch for 20 seconds
Then start to squeeze your middle-split-ing leg (the one reached out to the side) towards the floor. You can think about pressing the inside edge of that foot into the ground. Don’t move your hips, just feel that squeeze/contraction in your inner thighs. Hold that squeeze for 10 seconds
Relax for a second or two, then slide your middle-split-ing leg out another inch. Hold here for 20 seconds
Squeeze your inner thighs again by pressing your middle-split-ing foot into the floor again for 10 seconds
Relax 1-2 seconds, slide a little deeper, hold your passive stretch 20 seconds, and do one more round of contracting for 10 seconds
After 3 rounds of contract-then-relax, end with a 20-60 second half middle split hold, where you slide into your deepest half frogger / half middle split (and it’s totally OK if you don’t slide out far!)
Make it easier:
Don’t slide your working leg out quite so far, or do your contract-relax in a full frogger (both knees bent)
Make it harder:
Do your contract-relax rounds in a full middle split
Want to learn more exercises like these?
Join me on Saturday, April 10th at 12pm ET (5pm GMT) for a 60-min Middle Splits (Box Splits) Online Workshop. All registrants will also get a copy of the workshop recording so you can keep practicing everything we learned together! Click here to learn more.
