How to Get Your Middle Splits: A Complete Guide

By David Thurin (@movementbydavid)

The middle splits look simple. Legs out to the side, hips to the floor. But if you've ever actually tried it, you know it's more complicated than that - because it's not just about flexible muscles. You also have to work with your own bone structure to find a way to make the position actually work for your body.

Here's the good news: I have genuinely terrible middle split genetics. My hip structure is not built for this. But I can do the middle splits, and so can you. It's a matter of knowing which muscles to stretch, understanding a simple technique that most people skip entirely, and being consistent enough for your body to adapt.

This guide covers everything you need - the muscles involved, the stretches, the technique, exactly how much you need to stretch each week, and the common mistakes that keep people stuck.

The muscles you actually need to train

Most people think middle splits are just an inner thigh stretch. That's only part of it. There are three muscle groups that matter.

Hamstrings. Your hamstrings need to be flexible enough that they're not limiting your hip range when your legs go wide. A quick test: can you put your palms fully flat on the ground in a standing forward fold? If not, hamstring flexibility is something you'll want to work on alongside your splits training.

Adductors (inner thighs). These are the obvious ones. Your adductors run along the inside of your thigh and they're the primary muscles that need to lengthen for the middle splits. Test yourself with a butterfly stretch - can you get your forehead toward your toes?

Glutes and external rotators. This is the muscle group most people forget about entirely, and it's often the one that's actually holding them back. Your glutes and the smaller external rotator muscles underneath them control your ability to rotate your hips outward - and as you'll see in the next section, external rotation is the technique that makes the middle splits possible for most people.

The stretch that tests all three at once is the pancake stretch - sitting with your legs wide and folding your chest toward the floor. When you can touch your chest or stomach to the ground in a pancake, you have the raw flexibility for the middle splits. Everything after that is technique and practice.

Why your hips "jam" before your muscles reach their limit

This is the part that changes everything for most people.

Your femur - the big bone in your upper leg - is shaped a bit like an angled ball on a stick. It fits into your hip socket and moves around inside it. When you try to go into the middle splits by just pushing your legs straight out to the side, the top of your femur smashes into your pelvis. Your leg physically stops before you reach 180 degrees. It has nothing to do with tight muscles. It's bone hitting bone.

This is where genetics come in. Some people have a hip angle that lets them go straight out to the side with no issues. But that's a small percentage of the population. For the rest of us - myself included - there's a simple solution.

External rotation.

Instead of just forcing your legs out to the side and hitting that bony wall, you externally rotate your hips as you go out. Think of it as rotating your thigh outward as your leg moves to the side. This changes the angle of your femur in the socket and gives you access to significantly more range of motion.

This is why the pigeon stretch is so important. It directly stretches your glutes and external rotators - the muscles that control your ability to externally rotate. If those muscles are tight, you can't rotate enough to get past the bony block, no matter how flexible your inner thighs are.

So instead of just stopping where it hurts, you rotate and then go out. That one adjustment is the difference between being stuck at the same depth for months and actually making progress.

A note on straddle vs middle splits

You'll see people use these terms interchangeably, but they're slightly different positions. In a straddle, your feet can be in any position. In a true middle split, your feet are flat on the floor. The only difference between the two is ankle flexibility to put your foot down. For most people who aren't martial artists, just focus on the hip work and don't stress about foot position.

How much do you actually need to stretch?

This is where people either do too little or way too much. The research gives us some useful numbers to work with.

A review of the available literature found that roughly 5 minutes per week per muscle group is the minimum threshold to make flexibility progress. That sounds like almost nothing - and it is. But the key is how you distribute those 5 minutes.

A second study tested different hold durations - 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 60 seconds. The result: 30-second holds outperformed the rest. Longer wasn't better. So what you're aiming for is enough 30-second sets to total at least 5 minutes per muscle group per week.

That works out to 10 sets of 30 seconds per muscle group per week. Spread that across 4-5 days and it's very manageable. Two sets per muscle group per day, done consistently Monday through Friday, and you're already above the minimum effective dose.

The takeaway: you don't need hour-long stretching sessions. You need short, consistent sessions spread across the week. 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a week, is enough to make real progress.

The stretches that matter

Here are the five stretches that cover all three muscle groups. For each one, hold for 30 seconds per set. There are easy and hard variations of every stretch - pick whichever version lets you feel a solid stretch without pain.

1. Hamstring stretch

Stand with feet together, fold forward, and reach for the floor. Easy version: slight bend in the knees, hands reaching toward your shins. Hard version: legs straight, palms flat on the ground. Exhale as you sink deeper into the stretch.

Targets: Hamstrings.

2. Butterfly stretch

Sit on the floor, soles of your feet together, knees dropped out to the sides. Easy version: sit upright and gently press your knees toward the floor. Hard version: fold forward and bring your forehead toward your toes.

Targets: Adductors and glutes. This one is efficient because it hits two of the three muscle groups in a single stretch.

3. Pancake stretch

Sit with your legs spread wide in a straddle position. Hinge forward from the hips and walk your hands out in front of you. Easy version: hands on the floor in front of you, slight forward lean. Hard version: elbows reaching toward the floor, chest working toward the ground.

Targets: Hamstrings and adductors. Another two-for-one stretch.

4. Pigeon stretch

From a kneeling position, bring one leg forward with the knee bent and the shin across your body. Extend the other leg straight behind you. Easy version: sit upright with hands on the floor for support. Hard version: fold your chest forward over your front shin.

Targets: Glutes and external rotators. This is the stretch that unlocks external rotation - arguably the most important piece of the whole puzzle.

5. Middle splits practice

Get into your middle splits at whatever level you're at right now. Hands on the floor for support, legs as wide as you can go with control. Remember to use the external rotation technique - rotate your thighs outward as your legs go wider.

Targets: Hamstrings, adductors, and glutes. You're never going to improve at the actual skill unless you practice the actual skill.

Putting it into a routine

If you do all five stretches in a single session, here's what one session looks like:

Hamstring stretch, 30 seconds. Butterfly stretch, 30 seconds. Pancake stretch, 30 seconds. Pigeon stretch, 30 seconds each side. Middle splits practice, 30 seconds.

That's about 3 minutes of actual stretching per session. Do this 4 days per week and every muscle group gets roughly 6 minutes of total weekly volume - above the 5-minute minimum needed for flexibility gains.

You can do this as a standalone routine, tack it onto the end of a gym session, or even break it up throughout the day. The format doesn't matter as much as the consistency.

Common mistakes that stall your progress

Forcing the stretch too deep. When you push into pain, your nervous system activates the stretch reflex - which actually tightens the muscle to protect it. You end up fighting your own body. Aim for a strong but tolerable stretch, not a painful one.

Only doing passive stretching. Passive stretching (just holding a position) builds flexibility, but you also need strength at your end range. Active stretches - where you're using your own muscles to move into and hold a position - build the control that makes your flexibility actually usable. This is why movements like the half-frog slides and active pancake work are so valuable.

Being inconsistent. One intense stretching session per week does less than four short sessions. The research is clear: frequency and total weekly volume matter more than how hard you go in any single session. If you can only commit to 15 minutes three times a week, that's more than enough to see results.

Ignoring external rotation. If your hips feel like they're "jamming" or you hit a wall that doesn't feel muscular, it's almost certainly a rotation issue. Add pigeon stretches to your routine and practice externally rotating as you go into your splits. This alone unsticks a lot of people.

Can adults actually get the middle splits?

Yes. I built my flexibility as an adult, not as a child gymnast. And while there are real anatomical differences between people (hip socket depth, femoral angle), the vast majority of adults can make dramatic improvements. You might not get pancake-flat on the floor - some people's bone structure genuinely doesn't allow for a full 180 degrees - but you can get substantially closer than where you are now.

The people who don't make progress are almost always the ones who aren't consistent, or the ones who skip external rotation work. It's rarely a genetics problem.

Want a structured plan?

This guide gives you the foundations - the stretches, the science, the technique. If you want the full system with week-by-week progressions, video coaching for every exercise, and a built-in tracker to see your progress, that's exactly what I built the Flexy Middle Splits program for. It's a 12-week plan designed to take you from wherever you are now to your best middle splits position.

If you're earlier in your flexibility journey and want to build a base across your whole body first, Full Body Flexy is the better starting point.

Both programs are available on the Ganbaru Method app with video tutorials, exercise swaps, and coaching support.

Stay flexy.