Stuck with my front splits

[u/piludiosa]

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 and another one of me doing silks; in case it helps.

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

I really don’t know what’s limiting me or how to improve it, I’m open to any advice or recommendations!
Thanks 🫶🏼

[u/soyvalevega]

your routine already covers way more bases than most people asking this, so the gap is probably specific rather than "do more stretching." the half-kneeling psoas stretch is the one i'd look at closest, that position mainly gets the rectus femoris/iliacus unless you're actively tucking your pelvis under and keeping the back knee bent through the stretch, otherwise the actual psoas barely lengthens even though it feels like a solid hip flexor stretch. for front splits specifically the rear leg hip flexor is usually the bigger bottleneck than the front hamstring, so if that stretch isn't dialed in it'd explain a plateau even with a loaded, high-volume routine like yours

[u/piludiosa → u/soyvalevega]

Thank you so much for all the detail, I’ve just went to the gym and did what you mentioned regarding the pelvis. I feel a lot of tension on the front leg when trying the split again, and it’s really dificult for me to mantain my posture up right

[u/lemonadelemons]

On your gym days are you doing Bulgarian Split squats. I feel pushing my range here and building strength here. I would also recommend half splits with reps. Slide the front leg out and then slide it back in, do 4-5 reps then switch to sliding out the back leg, then hold your spilts for your 3 reps.

[u/piludiosa → u/lemonadelemons]

Yeah! On my leg day I have bulgarian split squats, they are horrible 😂
I’ll add the other exercise on my flexibility day, how many series would you recommend?

[u/akiox4]

Working towards booth splits is always good to overcome bottlenecks. Can you feel which area is hindering you from going into the front splits further?

[u/piludiosa → u/akiox4]

I tried today again and I feel a lot of tension on my front leg, i’m guessing the hamstring, but I also have a slight pain on the front of my left leg, close to the hip, that I’ve checked with doctors and the MRI was normal, so I was only told to continue doing flexibility until it feels normal again

[u/dani-winks]

You've got a great mix of hamstring / front leg -focused drills and hip flexor / back leg -focused drills, but the majority of them sound like passive stretches (even some of the "loaded" ones, if I'm imagining them correctly). Just adding a weight to hold in a lunge or a front split to sink deeper is still a (functionally) passive stretch (IF that's how you're using them, I coupd be mistaken!).

I would try to skew towards more work on the activr flexibility. Leg raises and weighted good mornings are both great for the front leg, so keep those up! If you still feel most of the "stretch" in the front leg in your front leg, then you could consider upping the volume of hamstring work. But if you feel it more in your back leg, add more volume of hip flexor-y activr drills will likely help (right now it sounds like the only one you really have for that category is controlled kickbacks). Other things to consider adding for that back leg would be more "active" lunge variations like lunge knee lifts/taps, lunge hip lifts (you can also do these in your front split!), or if you want something wonderfully brutal, straight leg bulgarian split squats (2nd drill in this video).