hi, i was at a competition recently and i noticed alot of the higher level dancers doing moves involveing splits. Down on the floor, standing with one leg up in the air in the leaders hand, stuff like that. well it will be over a year or 2 before i will be at the level where i can even think of attempting moves like that. but i would like to get started on doing streches to help me get down into a full split. ive read some thing here before resembeling "i need to do a full split in 2 months, help me." i know it takes a long time, thats why im starting early. i dont have a coach right now and probably wont for at least 6 months so i cant ask my coach for any stretches. any stretches for both types of splits would be great. i am pretty flexable other wise, and i can get to about a foot and a half off the grould in the russian split and just a foot off the grould in the other split (dont know the name of it) thanks in advance to anybody that helps.

Hello. It actually may not take that long at all, but of course depends on the person.

Actually stretching in the splits is the best thing to help with the splits. Do it as often as possible, and stretch within the position to constantly improve.

Of course, when you are on the floor, you have gravity and don't need to worry about strength as would would in a standing position.

For this face a bar as used for ballet. Develope and rest your ankle on the bar. Lift your leg and hold the position to strengthen you legs.

Think about this: you need to stretch your hamstrings and your groin muscles so that you can do the splits. The hamstrings are easy (ballet bar). The groin muscles harder to get at, but that's what you're going for when you practice the splits by doing the splits.

Make sure that your muscles are warmed up and already feeling stretchy before you start working on stretching the groin muscles. The best time to stretch to gain flexibility is after a workout, not before as part of the warm-up.

Good luck! It took me about a year to get into a split. I learned them from my Pilates teacher. We did some different stretches, some on the floor and some on the Reformer.

Sometimes for standing splits, i use my partner, or anyone else taller than me. I rest my leg on his (or her) shoulder when they are in a squatting position. Then, I try to remain standing with good posture as the other person slowly stands straight up. It helps that my partner is a good 4+ inches taller than me. You can start at a ballet bar, but soon, you'll need some other help. Another stretch you can do is to sit infront of a wall and edge yourself closer to it. You can work on any of the three splits this way.

there are 3 types of splits? i thought there were only 2. what exactly are they? and thanks for the help.

Well, technically, there are only two, but since you have to work each side individually for the side splits, I consider eacy a split by itself. So, you have the right lead, the left lead, then the middle splits.

Hey,

I'm actually a martial artist by training, dancing i do by myself. I made an article that shows our stretching routine. It has splits stretches as well.
We call them "forward" and "side" splits (self exp.)
The "power stretching" involves at least one helper. The goal is to stretch far beyond pain in order to tear your muscles =]
I know it sounds a bit rough, but that's the way we do it. After 1 year training i can do front, and side split i will do in a month or so.
Another thing, if your training is intense, it will take longer to do splits.
http://www.pawn-o-matic.com/article_stretching.htm

Hope it helps a bit.

while i know its a method, that tearing the muscle just goes agenst everything ive been told about stretching. plus it sounds kinda scarry. thanks any way shizo.

wow thats a terrible idea. stretching to actually lengthen the muscle is awful, you have plenty of length in ur muscle to simply drop into a split, the problem is your nervous system wont let you because it knows you dont have any strenght in that position. i recommend you research "isometric stretching" and read "relax into stretch" by pavel. iso stretching is 257% more effective than regular stretching and ur not tearing anything.

this post may be old and im never gonna come back to this board, but if u want splits go with iso stretching, its safer, builds strenght and is WAY! faster...and u really need to warm up to get to max range, ur muscle instinctively are at that level all the time.