How to Stretch for the Splits

[Lamis: After first training by my own set of exercises feel annoying pain everywhere and very modest result – 29 cm in the transverse splits. I decided to turn to more experienced trainers and publish their method. This is first part taken from "Spine is flexible – body is young" by U.A.Peganov and L.A.Berezina, USSR sport, 1991]

Exercises in pairs

Flexibility can be reached faster if you do exercises with a partner. He could better enlarge amplitude of your movements (helping pull the body to legs or reverse) instead of doing it only on your own. There is one more advantage of training in pairs– it is possible to regulate a force in process of doing exercise, at the every single attempt.
However, doing the exercises in pairs, remember, you can’t let any painful sensations, when you try to reach sizeable increasing of movement’s amplitude. It is very important to warm up actively the muscles before the main training.
The exercises in pairs you can do statically and dynamically. If you repeat it some particular quantity with gradually increasing amplitude, then it is dynamical performance. If you delay movement in last point of tension for 10-30 sec, then it is static performance.

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1. Standing face to face, the straight hands are on your partner’s shoulders, fingers are twisted on his nape (his fingers are on your nape). Getting over partner’s resistance, bend down and up by turns your head.
2. Stand face to face, hands are bended in elbows on the chest level, a palm is on a partner’s palm, fingers are twisted. Straighten a hand, trying take aside as far as possible partner’s hand. Simultaneously bending another hand, take it away under partner’s pressure as far as possible to the back. Try not to turn the corpus.
3. Stand back to each other, the straight hands are aside, fingers are twisted with the partner’s fingers. Slowly put hands up and down.
4. Stand face to face, straight hands on partner’s shoulders and back. Do paddy slopes of corpus forward under partner’s hands pressure.
5. It is the same. Team slopes to the right and left.
6. Stand back to back, straight hands up. Take the arms of each other. Making slowly lunge of one leg, bend the waist and making paddy movements take away shoulders from each other as far as possible.
7. Stand face to face. Take the hands together, straighten hands and bend back in the waist to the more possible distance.
8. Stand face to face. One person bends forward, taking hands back as far as possible. Partner takes a wrist and with slowly paddy movements pull them towards himself.
9. Stand back to a partner, hands are taken back. Partner takes hands and slowly paddy moves them back and up.
10. Lay on the belly, hands are up. Partner comes from back, takes the wrists and slowly draws hands back, slightly lifting a body.
11. Stand on the knees, take the hands back and bend in waist. Partner by fluent paddy movements of both hands presses a chest.
12. Stand back and keeping some basement, lift the leg forward. Partner grabbing cocked leg by shank with paddy movements, lifts it up.
13. It is the same exercise, but standing sideways to basement, leg is taken aside.
14. It is the same exercise, but standing face to basement, leg is taken back.
15. Sit on the floor, legs are together. Slope corpus paddy forward with partner’s help.
16. The same exercise but legs apart. Slope to the left and right leg.

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17. The same exercise but slopes are forward.
18. Sit on the floor, right leg is bended in a knee, left leg is straight. Slope corpus to the left leg with partner’s help. Change the legs position.
19. Partners lay on the back in opposite sides. Lift the legs up and put together with back surface of the hips. In turns pull the legs to body under partner’s legs pressure.
20. Sit back to each other. Put hands together in its elbow joints. Slopes forward and straighten corpus with partner on the back.
21. Lay on the back, hands are along the body, left (right) leg is lifted. Partner by one hand keeping left (right) leg, by another hand with paddy movements take lifted leg up.
22. The same exercise, but legs are apart.
23. Sit legs apart, face to face. With partners help slope the corpus forward.
24. Sit on the floor, legs are bended in knees and put apart, feet touch each other. Partner pressing on the knees paddy, takes them apart.
25. Stand back to back, hands are crossed. Set again backs; make a curtsy without heels lifting from the floor.