I have never gotten my center splits

I've been dancing since I was 4 years old. I am now 23.

I was dancing and stretching on and off again since I was 17, but have been more or less training and stretching for an entire year this year - and I still am not even close. I feel like I haven't actually seen any improvement at all. Maybe an inch, but nothing to celebrate.

Its not like I've reached a limit either. My legs cant go very far apart at all. Its kind of embarrassing. I reach my threshold very easily.

I take stretch and flexibility classes 3 times a week, and I stretch at home every other night. Pretty much all home stretching I do is for center splits.

I have my side splits, on both sides (more comfortable on the left side). I've had them since I was a kid with no struggles.

Is anyone else like this? I feel like I've been working on my middle splits for the better part of 10 years now and that my body just will never get there.

Same here. My second is BARELY better than 90 degrees. Que pena. If it hasn't happened yet, it ain't gonna happen. Learn to fake it.

I got my centre splits down really far, only a few inches off the ground, when I was at college - but unless I'm stretching specifically for them every day, they shoot back up to only 90 degrees again. I just stretch them as far as they go and then, like panic says, fake the rest in leaps etc.

A bigger issue for me is left splits. Even flat with the right leg and almost flat in the centre, the problem I had with my left hip once seems to mean I'll never get flat on the left.

If I'm stretching regularly, I can definitely see improvement in mine, but I've never gotten them all the way. I just don't think I'm built that way. I've gone to beginner pilates and yoga classes where people who don't do any type of regular stretching will just sit down and get their legs 120 degrees apart right off the bat, and that's about the best I can do after months of stretching!

I have a similar issue with right splits...never been able to get them down no matter how much I stretch.

Centre splits were always my best, then left leg. Now I can still get left down to the floor without any warm up. Centre Is a few inches off unless I stretch for a few minutes, then its pretty much down.

Right on the other hand is a good few inches off the floor no matter what I do, I have been dancing since the age of 6 (27 now) and they just got to a point and stopped.

The even weirder thing is that I kick better on my right leg rather then my left. Go figure

MOOM

I think some people just don't have the physical structure that allows certain positions- such as center splits. For me, I have hyper-mobile joints, so I've always had my center splits, with hardly any work. But some girls in my class just were never able to get them, no matter how long and hard they stretched. I think some people's hips are just able to do them, and other people's hips cannot. Sorta like curling your tongue, either your body can or can't.

^ Yep - to a certain extent, it has to do with hip structure.

Quoth Wikipedia, which is quoting a reliable source:

The extent to which an individual can rotate their legs is largely predetermined. The degree of turnout attainable is determined by the shape of the femoral neck and the angle at which the femoral head is inserted into the hip socket, the orientation of the hip socket, the elasticity of the iliofemoral ligament, and the flexibility of the hip and thigh muscles.

I'm like leap2live, I'm double-jointed and have always had natural 180* turnout in my hips. I don't have my center splits at the moment, but it would only take me a week or so to get them back. My body naturally bends in strange ways. I haven't had my side splits for years, but that's just laziness on my part. On a good day I nearly have my right, left is more tight.

That said, there's still a LOT you can do to improve flexibility - an inch is still nothing to sneeze at, really.

Were I you, I'd talk to your teacher after class and ask if she has any recommendations. If it's just the placement of your hips, she can probably see it. My Pilates instructor picked out every anatomical anomaly in my body after one class, it was damned impressive. So if you just want to settle the issue, I'd ask your teacher her opinion.

I've never been able to get mine either!

I got really close about 5 years ago, after lots of practise but never quite got there
I've just accepted that I am one of those people who can't do it.

Lauren

Never been able to get them either! I just accepted that my body obviously can't do it, I stretch to try and improve, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.

I cannot get my center split either. I have a great left split and an o.k right split.
My problem is when i get into my center spilt my right leg turns in.
Most of the time when a person is close to getting a split they turn their hip and/or knee out. This can be fixed but its very difficult.
With leaps, jumps, and floor work I just fake it.

I was in the same boat, til I started getting regular massage on my glutes and adductors. Now I'm only an inch or so from the ground! I was seriously at 90 degrees before.

My daughter has been dancing for 6 years and can't do them either, hours of stretching still not there yet! Thanks for some good advice. I'm sure she will get there in the end.

I never got them-I got close at one point but then I got a hip injury. (Landing on knee, screwed my hip).

I had oversplits in both left and right splits, but could never get flat in middle.

leap2live wrote:

I think some people just don't have the physical structure that allows certain positions- such as center splits. For me, I have hyper-mobile joints, so I've always had my center splits, with hardly any work. But some girls in my class just were never able to get them, no matter how long and hard they stretched. I think some people's hips are just able to do them, and other people's hips cannot. Sorta like curling your tongue, either your body can or can't.

Exactly what I was thinking...Ive been dancing since I was 4,trained in a pre professional school but center splits? no way jose! For me it actually doesnt even hurt, its like the bones are just stuck.
I can stretch all i want but i wont get any closer to getting them, Offcourse since it doesnt seem to hurt me, you can always force it violently or something but Im not really waiting on broken hipbones either.

So im blaming it on physical structure. Now the other splits (dont know the english word) I got those down since i was 12 and im 24 now so those dont seem to be a problem.
But i know how frustrating it feels when u want it so badly and you know that your body just simple isnt capable of doing it.

I have no turnout so even in my prime in my early 20s, I was nowhere near getting centre splits, even though I could get both right and left ones.

Helen

I've been trying to stretch my center splits for five minutes each day. Each day, I get them so that they are almost touching the floor. When I go to do them again the next day, they are back where they were originally! What the heck?!?

i still cant get mine!! i stretch almost everyday for a half hour/hour and dance 3 times a week and i still cant! im so far off its so frustrating!