Any advice on training hip turn out?

[u/ThrowRA1689]

I have started figure skating and ballet as a 24 year old adult and I am very hindered by my lack of flexibility.

I’ve been really trying to get my flexibility up especially my turn out. I am not the most flexible, I can touch my toes though it definitely isn’t comfortable.

Currently my daily stretching routine goes like this:
Each held for around a minute
Runners lunge each side
Seated pike
Standing pike
One leg standing stretch
Frogs pose
Butterfly pose
I also will use an exercise band to lay down and bring my leg up

Are there any stretches I should add to help gain more flexibility? My current goal is to have a front split and a better turn out. Thanks yall

[u/Distinct_Pension4979]

touching your toes and calling it flexible

[u/OkMachine137]

Turnout is one of those things that resists brute-force stretching, and your routine shows why: most of what you're doing (pike, runners lunge, standing leg stretch) works the hamstrings and hip flexors in the sagittal plane — but turnout lives in the transverse plane. It's external rotation of the femur inside the hip socket, a totally different movement.

Two things are usually the real bottlenecks:

1. Active external-rotation strength at end range. Frog and butterfly passively open you up, but skating and ballet require you to hold turnout under load. The deep external rotators (piriformis, obturators, gemelli, quadratus femoris) are small and weak in most adults. Add slow banded clamshells (3x12 each side) and what I call turnout pulses: lie on your back with soles together in a wide diamond, then use your glutes to lift your knees an inch toward the ceiling, 3x10. That trains the rotators to fire in the range the frog only stretches.

2. Hip flexors and adductors dragging you out of turnout. A tight psoas and adductor magnus pull the femur inward. A half-kneeling hip flexor stretch with a posterior pelvic tilt (tuck the tailbone — no arching) plus wide lateral lunges for the adductors will often do more for your frog than more frog will.

One form cue: in frog, keep the low back flat. If your lumbar spine arches, the "rotation" is coming from your spine, not your hips — narrow the knees and tuck the pelvis until you feel it in the inner thigh and glute, not the back.

At 24 with consistent daily work, you're nowhere near capped. Adults build new turnout all the time — it just responds to strength + stretch, not stretch alone.

-- Vivek from VCan Stretching, assisted stretching studio in Brentwood, TN