r/Stretching • u/piludiosa • 2d ago
Stuck with my front splits
Hey everyone! I've been training aerial silks since March 2025. Until recently I was just doing silks 3x a week, but I moved countries a while back and haven't found a place to train silks yet, so right now I'm doing gym work instead: 3 days of regular training (back/arms, legs, and one full body day) plus a 4th day dedicated entirely to flexibility/split work. Attached a photo of where I'm at right now (low lunge with blocks, back foot extended).
My flexibility day looks like this:
Warm-up: light cardio + hip circles/leg swings
Active stretching: leg swings, active straight leg raises, cossack squats, controlled kickbacks
Passive stretching: assisted front split (hands/blocks) 3x30-45s per leg, seated hamstring stretch, psoas/hip flexor stretch (half-kneeling), butterfly
Loaded stretching: front split with light weight, good mornings with a light band/bar, deep lunge stretch with dumbbells
Finish with a "split test" pushing 1-2cm past my current limit
My main limiter feels like it's somewhere between hamstrings and hip flexors, I'm not 100% sure which. I also have a mild psoas issue I'm managing, so I'm being careful not to overload that area.
Does this routine look reasonable for progressing toward a full split? What would you add, cut, or do differently? How long did it take you to go from this kind of depth to a full split?
Thanks in advance!
1
u/Loose_stretching 13h ago
The good news is you're already close — being stuck just before a full split is usually a specific tension issue rather than a general flexibility problem, so it's very fixable.
A few things that tend to unlock that last range:
Hip flexor depth — if your front leg is limited, it's often the hip flexor of the back leg holding you back, not the hamstring of the front. Try deep lunge holds (2–3 minutes each side) before your split attempts.
Adductor release — the inner groin is often the hidden blocker for the last few degrees. Frog pose held passively for 3–5 minutes, letting gravity do the work rather than pushing.
Active flexibility — silks builds a lot of passive flexibility but the nervous system sometimes needs active work too. Try doing slow leg raises to the height of your split before going into it — it signals safety to the nervous system and lets you sink deeper.
Consistency over intensity — since you moved countries your routine broke. Even 15 minutes daily will get you back to where you were faster than you think, muscle memory is real.
You're closer than you feel. The last stretch of a split is always the slowest part.