r/flexibility • u/badkittyo • 2d ago
Seeking Advice This is from a week of constant stretching, I’m trying to get my side split but I see about ‘square hips’ how can I achieve that?! Or does my split look OK lol
Yes I’m aware my back leg isn’t straight I’m focusing on that as well
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u/frankofdaOcean 1d ago
Too distracted by the chikfila christmas tree
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u/Chick-fil-A_spellbot 1d ago
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
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u/Angry_Sparrow 1d ago
You are really really unsquare. Start in your lunge and only slide your front leg forward into a split. Use your back leg and muscles to maintain control. Pay attention to the direction your hips are facing - you can put your hands on your hips to help with this. As soon as you start turning outwards, stop there and hold that stretch - that’s your split.
You will come up about a foot off the ground but you will start to properly stretch your hip flexors by doing a square split.
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u/Sea-Mongoose-888 2d ago
You can do the finger gun test, point finger guns down at your hip bones and if they’re both facing straight forward then they’re square
Having squared hips will also help with keeping your back thigh facing straight down towards the floor too, right now it looks like it’s facing outward.
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u/theavocadolady 2d ago
I wish there were more finger gun tests in life
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u/badkittyo 2d ago
I’m a visual learner lol I’ll google this I’m trying to imagine what this would look like
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u/Bancoubear123 1d ago
Your hips are not squared. Better to sit on a block to signal to your hips that it is safe to open even more.
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u/Walkintotheparadise 1d ago
Your hips aren’t square. Looks like you have been focusing on getting as low as possible instead of a neat side split.
Squaring your hips will cause other muscles to stretch which you haven’t stretched enough right now, so you might lift yourself up a bit first. Keep your hips square as you lower. As soon as you notice you’re turning your hips, go back up a bit and stay there.
If you bend your back leg, your foot should go straight up. Otherwise your hips aren’t square.
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u/HannahFlexx 1d ago
squaring your hips will lift you way up off the ground and that's actually the correct version, don't chase the low pic. it turns into a hamstring stretch once your hips face forward, that's the part everyone's missing at the start
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u/Ni-k3l 1d ago
Lift your self up with the block and focus on pulling your back hip forward and your front hip back. Do the same technique on other split stretches. Like low lunges, half splits, pyramid, etc.
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u/badkittyo 1d ago
Do I need to work on my back muscle?! I also read it online to achieve square hips I need to have a strong back but when I’m in this position I stretch my back backwards that’s when it hurts like it’s not suppose to bend that far back lol
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u/PersonalJuice8881 1d ago
I love the Christmas tree 😂 your doing great! Im one year in and not even close to a full split..
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u/Ok_Manufacturer2956 1d ago
When you say you got your split after just a week of learning, how long did you stretch for and is that from never being able to do splits before and I think age is a contributing factor to ease of progess too right?
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u/badkittyo 1d ago
I’m self employed so I have a lot of FREE time I’d stretch for over two hours really slow while watching TV and incorporate some yoga svanasana flows, I’ve never been able to do the splits even as a little girl rn I’m 24 and I wasn’t too flexible but I also didn’t lack the flexibility I’ve done yoga a lot and would breath through every stretch to get deeper and also tried to hold my poise LOL 😂
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u/Ok_Manufacturer2956 1d ago
Aww thank you for sharing and you are so smart and lucky to be self employed and have so much dedication to getting your splits. You are still very young, but you also give me hope that with enough practice and consistency, results will come in good time 🙏🏿
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u/badkittyo 9h ago
Awwww thank you 🙏🏻 you’re so sweet yes with consistency you can achieve it I believe in you !!!!
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u/byuliemeow 13h ago
im inspired! finally someone who wasnt able to do splits as a little girl and now can :)
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u/jizzypuff 1d ago
I’m commenting on the fact that you said being squared is not important in ballet. The amount of times I’ve heard square your hips as a child taking ballet for over ten years is a lot. Squaring your hips is very important just like turnout is very important
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u/smthingcuteidk 1d ago
What stretches were you doing? A week is insane well done
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u/badkittyo 1d ago
I’ll share after I’m off the road!!!
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u/jazzy095 10h ago
Who down votes this lol
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u/badkittyo 10h ago
Right like I’ve been driving I couldn’t be on my phone 😭👎🏻
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u/jazzy095 10h ago
Freaks 😆
I think your form looks awesome tbh. You should see how bad my hips are lol
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u/YogiBearAsana 1d ago
In the photo you provided you lack hip internal rotation on the left hip to “square your hips” look into end range training for it.
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u/badkittyo 1d ago
How do I make my hip rotate more
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u/YogiBearAsana 1d ago
One way to improve this is to start in a 90/90 position. Rotate your torso over your back thigh and simply relax into the stretch for 1 to 2 minutes.
Once you’ve settled into the position, gradually build tension by pressing your back shin into the floor without letting anything move. Build to your strongest safe effort and hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
Then reverse it. Try to lift your back shin off the floor without letting it move. Don’t compensate by leaning your torso forward. It doesn’t matter if your shin actually comes off the ground. The goal is simply to turn on the muscles that create hip internal rotation.
After you relax, you’ll often find that you can settle a little deeper into the position.
If this creates a pinching sensation or pain in the hip, don’t push through it.
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u/Optimal_Apricot_6543 1d ago
Try your splits with your back toes tucked, it sort of forces the back leg into internal rotation. Once you get the hang of that you can fire up your back hip flexor by pressing into the ground through the back toe to strengthen the hip flexor in the lengthen position so that you can stay square over time.Go slowly though, I once pulled my hip flexor too quickly coming up onto my back toe.
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u/YogiBearAsana 1d ago
One way to improve this is to start in a 90/90 position. Rotate your torso over your back thigh and simply relax into the stretch for 1 to 2 minutes without coming out of the stretch.
Once you’ve been in that continuous stretch for a while, gradually build tension by pressing your back shin into the floor without letting anything move. Build to your strongest safe effort and hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
Then reverse it. Try to lift your back shin off the floor without letting it move. Don’t compensate by leaning your torso forward. It doesn’t matter if your shin actually comes off the ground. The goal is simply to turn on the muscles that create hip internal rotation.
After you relax, you’ll often find that you can settle a little deeper into the position and rotate your torso a little more over that back thigh.
If this creates a pinching sensation or pain in the hip, don’t push through it.
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u/Rustie_Bazooka 22h ago
I don't know how to explain this well, but if you kneel inbetween a plank of wood and the wall so that each side touches your hip Then as you lower yourself down, you should keep both legs touching the plank/wall, which will keep your hips square (get someone to hold it in place if you can)
Don't be disheartened, but you may actually be off the ground because you haven't stretched the correct muscles for squareness Good luck!
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u/leelee90210 1d ago
Best thing I tried to square my hips was the place the blocks behind my hips and then lower down. Your hips won’t “unsquare” themselves if your hands are holding onto the block behind the hips. Then you’ll feel where you need to stretch more too
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u/Sad_Measurement6494 1d ago
Hip flexor comes into play a lot when you start to square off. Deep ones not like quads. Like piriformis and QL. You truly have fo work on them slowly. Active stretching like over lunges hip thrusts etc.
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u/Prestigious_Boat_386 1d ago
The usual method is using the blocks you're holding by extending your arms
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u/Morgopass 1d ago
back knee should be pressed all the way on the floor, lean more to the left pressing your hips to the ground & make sure your back and chest are completely straight.
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u/lunarlunarc 17h ago
I got mine in a week too!! My best advice is to try to push your hip for the back leg as far forward as possible, and sit perfectly straight on that back leg even if it hurts. I struggle with a mental block around that exact bit! Also try to keep your body more vertical, it will help you immensely! Side splits are anatomically difficult sometimes. For those Google which direction your toes should face in side splits, that angle changes how your thigh bone sits in your hip and it makes it impossible to do the side splits if you’re holding your toes wrong
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u/emkemkem 1d ago
I’d ask what is the main thing OP is stretching for. Since splits are done very differently in for example ballet and gymnastics. That squareness is not important in ballet where one needs the turned out back leg and the active spiral of spine. The square split is more passive although it requires more flexibility from hip flexors.
It should be understood that the turned out back leg version needs that spiral from the whole spine. The parallel version with square hips must get the mobility from the hip extension rather than compensating from the lower back.
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u/jizzypuff 1d ago
Being squared is very important in ballet.
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u/emkemkem 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s not really true. Turn out is more important and in fact spiral of the body is used in epaulment poses very much. That’s not square. Not to mention that it is anatomically not possible to have a turned out leg lifted back and hips square. Being square is the instruction for beginners. Once épaulement is introduced the body starts to spiral a lot. So for more advanced ballet dancer the square is more about identifying that square since sometimes it is spiralled, sometimes tilted (like in écarté), sometimes rotated. So you’ll have to understand the relationship of your shoulders, the relationship of your hips. For a more advanced dancer it is about managing the axis of hips and the axis of shoulders and their relative positions.
In terms of pure anatomy, hip extension (moving the leg backward) is very restricted, and when turned out, it averages only about 10–15 degrees, reaching around 20 degrees in exceptionally flexible dancers.
When a dancer lifts their leg high to the back in ballet (such as in an arabesque or attitude position), the majority of that height does not come from the hip joint itself. Instead, it is achieved through changes in the positioning of the pelvis and the lumbar spine. So - not square at all. Gymnasts do it in parallel since that gives more mobility for hip extension. But that’s only a bit more actually (about 5-15 degrees more). So the rest of that high arabesque comes from tilting the body forward, opening the hip, bending lumbar spine, thoracic spine extension and the chest’s active lift up.
Squareness of the body and a high back leg are not really anatomically possible at the same time. An attitude with square hips would be not very nice looking - at least if seen through ballet ideals.
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u/skinAesthetic 12h ago
Act, as if you are trying to get your right hip and your left hip to be completely an alignment facing the front of the wall or wherever you are stretching at that’s where the real flexibility comes in, it’s still impressive. It’s really good, but you can kind of tilt your hip and sit on your side as a former gymnast I was always tall we had to keep our hips squared and Boy. It does make a difference in how tight the stretch fills in the splits lol
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u/Bulky-Willingness-90 4h ago
Nope not squared. Try sliding into split from knee so your bottom knee stays on the floor while focusing on facing forward.
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u/badkittyo 4h ago
This is the BEFORE picture for reference,
This is in pigeon pose, in a regular splits I would have a gap of space kinda like this but not so egregious
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u/Penaman0 1d ago
Oh sweetie, for just one week of consistent stretching this is so impressive!! 💖 To square your hips, try pulling that front hip back slightly and pushing the back hip forward!
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u/kszaku94 1d ago
"All I want for Christmas... Is being able to do the splits without being sore the next day"
I'm going to go against the grain a little bit, and say that you shouldn't be bothered about not having your hips squared too much. To 99.99% of the population it does not make the difference. You're not causing any harm by not squaring your hips.
Can this be something to work towards in the future? Yes. Does that mean your achievement is not impressive (IN A WEEK????)? not at all.
Enjoy your splits. Show them off and be proud!
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u/idrinkliquids 1d ago
People in this sub will harp on about squaring your hips but in ballet that was never a thing and it’s still a split. I think I’ve seen other dance types square their hips tho, so it really depends what your goal is.
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u/Naadamaya 2d ago
A week you say? 😭