Work Your Active Split Flexibility with Front Split Slides
Work Your Active Split Flexibility with Front Split Slides
If you’re looking to train flatter (and stronger!) front splits, working on your active flexibility is a must - particularly working on strengthening your hamstrings and hip flexors while they’re at their end range of motion. These sliding drills below are one of my favorite ways to train active front splits because they strengthen our muscles across a pretty full range of motion, including the end range, helping increase our flexibility over time.
How To: Leg Slide Variations for Front Splits
You’ll want your feet to be able to easily slide on the floor for these exercises - wearing socks often works great, but if you have floor sliders that’s even better!
Hamstring Focus: Half Split Forward Fold Slides
Primary focus: Active Hamstring Flexibility
Start in a kneeling forward fold (aka half split) with your hands on something for support. Kneeling on the floor, extend one leg forwards with the leg straight* and toes pointed. Make sure your hips are “square” (both hip bones pointing forwards). Keeping your back flat, add as much of a forward fold as you need to to feel a gentle hamstring stretch. Place your hands on something sturdy for balance: a chair works great, but if you’re a bit flexier, you can use yoga blocks, or even the floor
* if you get any discomfort in the front knee, or if your knees hyperextend, bend the front knee a bit
Slide forward into your (forward leaning) front split. Maintaining enough of a forward fold to keep feeling a hamstring stretch, slide your front foot forward into your version of your front split (even if your front split is super far from the floor, you can still do this exercise, so don’t worry if your split isn’t very split-y). Our goal is to feel a deeper stretch in the hamstrings in the front leg
Engage your hamstrings as you slide back to start. Now that we’ve got our hamstrings in a lengthened position, we’re going to contract them by pushing the front foot into the floor, pulling the leg and our hips back to the starting position. Push into your hands as much as you need to to make this feel “challenging” but not impossible
Repeat for 5-12 reps
Need to make it easier? Don’t slide out to your deepest end range split, just slide your front foot forward a couple of inches to start. As long as you’re feeling a hamstring stretch in the front leg, and then making those hamstrings contract, you’re doing that sweet sweet active flexibility work!
Want to make it harder? Use your hands less. Try sliding down (with control) without using your hands, then using your hands/arms to help you slide back up. Or super challenge mode would be not using your hands at all
Hip Flexor Focus: Standing Lunge Slides
Primary focus: Active Hip Flexor Flexibility
Start in a standing lunge with your hand on a wall or a chair for balance. From standing, tuck the toes of one foot and slide it back, keeping the heel lifted and leg straight, so you’re in a standing lunge (how deep you sink into the lunge will depend on your flexibility, you should be feeling a deep stretch in the hip flexors (the front of the hip) in the back leg)
Contract your hip flexors by kicking the back foot forwards. Push the toes and the ball of your back foot forwards, sliding the back leg forwards to meet the front leg so you’re standing back in your starting position
Repeat for 5-12 reps
Need to make it easier? Don’t slide the back foot quite as far back, or lean forwards just a tiny bit (but not so much that you lose the feeling of the stretch in the front of that back leg)
Want to make it harder? Work your stabilizers! Take your hands away from the wall so you have to balance sliding back into your lunge, and then sliding back up to standing
Put It All Together!: Front Split Slides
Dual focus: Active Hamstring AND Hip Flexor Flexibility
Start kneeling with one leg extended in front, torso lifted, and hands on something sturdy for support (something tall like a chair works well for this)
Keeping your torso upright, slide out into your split. If you get any discomfort in the front knee, or if your knees hyperextend, bend the front knee a bit
Engaging both legs, slide back to start. Contract the hip flexors in your back leg by kicking your back knee forwards, and contract the hamstrings in your front leg by pushing the front foot into the floor and pulling the front heel back
Repeat for 5-12 reps
Need to make it easier? Don’t slide down as far (stay in a shallower split), or do this between two chairs so you can have one hand on each side to help push you up
Want to make it harder? Just like the last two exercises, you can make this harder by not using your hands: try to slide into your split without your hands on the chair, then use your hands to slide back, OR try the whole move without hands!
