Can’t Do The Middle Splits? Two Anatomy Tricks To Get You Deeper In Seconds

Flexibility coach Aleks Brzezinska—who first got flexible as an adult herself—explains how:

To the floor

First, understand four factors that affect how easy or hard the middle splits will be:

• Muscles: flexibility partly depends on inherent muscle stretchability, which varies between individuals. Stretching regularly works for everyone, but heavy weightlifting can hinder flexibility progress.
• Ligaments: ligament length and mobility affect joint flexibility. Longer ligaments offer more mobility but less stability, increasing injury risk. Hypermobile people tend to progress faster in flexibility. Ligaments can be stretched over time, though excessive stretching without strengthening can reduce joint stability, so it’s important to do both.
• Hormones: estrogen makes connective tissue more flexible, improving flexibility in women.
• Bone Structure: the biggest limitation in achieving full middle splits can be bone structure, particularly hip socket depth and femur shape. Shallower sockets and longer femur necks generally allow more movement. Children have more cartilage in the hips, which does aid flexibility if trained early, but it’s not too late for the rest of us, either.

Now, the two tips:

1. Arch your back while attempting the split. This can help you slide deeper into the position regardless of your current level.
2. Conversely, round your back and sit your hips backward. This shifts the stretch from the inner thighs to the hamstrings and mimics a wide pancake position, helping those whose hip anatomy prevents full middle splits.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Test For Whether You Will Be Able To Achieve The Splits

Take care!