5 Simple Split Stretches For Beginners

Do you want to be flexible and agile? Do you desire your muscles to be super-strong and get less tired? Then you should be doing the ‘splits’ workout.

The ‘splits’ is not something that you wake up one fine morning and do. It’s something that requires your committed practice to get your muscles loosened up and flexible.

Want to know more about this super-incredible workout? Then you must give this post a read!

What Is ‘Splits’?

The ‘splits’ is a position that demands a high degree of muscle flexibility and strength. This is the reason that one hears of dancers, gymnasts, cheerleaders, and martial arts practitioners doing the splits, all the time. But don’t fall for the myth that splits is a tough and complicated routine; anyone can perform this!

All you need is a good stretching regime to open out your hips, pelvic and thigh muscles to increase flexibility, and a prime requisite of splits. Stretching is also the only way to prevent muscle soreness and fatigue.

Read on to get help with stretches that can help you achieve the splits (1). These can be used for both front splits and side splits.

Beginner Stretching Exercises For Splits:

1. Frog Pose:

This stretch works by warming up the hips and opening up the inner thighs.

Method:

1. Lie down on your belly and bring the soles of your feet together.
2. Lift your legs up with the soles still together.
3. This is a great stretch for the inner thighs.
4. Lay one foot on the other foot, and lift them again.
5. This is a deeper stretch for the thighs as the weight of your foot will press the other down, deepening the stretch.
6. Switch and stretch.
7. Spend some time doing this exercise and then bring both feet down.
8. You can rest by bringing your head down on your arms and relax. Breathe gently.

Benefits:

This is a simple stretching for splits and can be done even when you are watching TV. Hang on in this pose and feel your inner thigh muscles work.

2. Front Body Stretch:

Method:

1. Bring the soles of your feet together in front of your groin.
2. Interlace your fingers under your feet.
3. Lift your head up. Stay right here for a few seconds.

As you become ready to take this stretch forward, take out your chest and kneel your body forward. However, don’t go too far. This stretch will be felt as a niggle at the outside of the hip, as well as a deep stretch in the thighs. Remember to keep your head up and not down.

Fold your body all the way down and forward with forehead on the ground and elbows on the floor, for the deepest variation of this stretch.

Benefits:

This is a great stretch for your inner thighs which is what we want for doing splits.

3. Side Body Stretch: 

Method:

1. Extend your right leg out to the side, opening it up with toes towards the sky.
2. Take your right hand and hold your left ankle.
3. Using the left hand, reach up and over and stretch.
4. Feel the blood flow into your inner thigh muscles.
5. Grab right toes with your left hand (or try to).
6. While doing this, your gaze should be towards the sky and your chest should be open.
7. Come back to an upright position.
8. Walk your fingers forward fully. Keep your toes pointing upwards while doing this for a full inner thigh stretch. Breathe deep and steady.
9. Repeat with the other leg.

Benefits:

A deep stretch for inner thighs.

4. Stretch For Hips And Undersides Of Legs: 

Method:

1. Extend both the left and right legs out towards the sides.
2. Feel the stretch in the undersides of legs.
3. Reach up and over, as before, with right arm and stretch.
4. Grab the left toes with your right hand for a deeper stretch.
5. Keep your gaze up and chest open.
6. Repeat with the other arm.
7. Come back to an upright position.
8. Walk forward on fingertips.
9. Stop midway and rock back on your extended fingertips.
10. Bend all the way down, with elbows flat on ground for a deep stretch.

Benefits:

This exercise stretches and works on muscles of hips and legs that help in splits.

5. Using A Wall To Press Into Splits:

Method:

1. Sit facing a wall.
2. Open your legs out sideways and place your feet sideways against the wall.
3. Press hips forward. As a beginner, you may want to inch your hips forward to prevent injury.
4. Once there, close your eyes and try to stay there for as long as possible.
5. Your arms should be at the back of your torso, touching the floor and supporting your body.
6. To deepen this stretch, you can bring your chest forward and closer to the wall.
7. Place all your body weight on your backward outstretched arms and rock back gently.

Benefits:

This exercise opens the hips up.

[ Read: Great Stretches For Tight Hip Flexors ]

After doing these simple, beginner- level stretching splits, you should feel pretty stretched out and warmed up. You would want to keep this exercise regime for beginners, going for a couple of days at least, to improve your flexibility by leaps and bounds and by ultimately mastering the splits.

Don’t forget to leave your comments down below about your experience of doing these simple stretching exercises for splits. We love to hear from you!

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Nisha BaghadiaContributor

Nisha is a contributor to StyleCraze and has 3 years of experience in content writing for different genres. She is a makeup aficionado and combines her love for makeup and writing to provide her readers with the latest information in the beauty world.

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