try to learn the splits but no progress

[XyzMan]

Hello,

I try to lean the splits for six month now. Ok I do the stretching only twice a week.
I just don't make much progress.

I worm up for 10 minutes, than I do my stretching. then I do stretching for 2.5 minuets in each stretching position

How long does it actually take to do the splits?
Is there anything I can do to make it happen faster? also food?

You need to do it everyday not twice a week. There's a reason even young gymnasts and ballet dancers with very supple and flexible bodies go training 5+ sessions a week.

What do you do for warm up? Do I have to do warm up every time or can I do it without warm up sometimes?

As pp you won’t get there doing it twice a week. You need to do it every day. Gymnasts and ballerinas will stretch daily. Multiple times a day. I saw a video on YouTube of a gymnast who stopped stretching for a week and the loss of flexibility in that time was insane.

You have to warm up everytime, if not you risk ripping your hamstring.
It you don't warm up is like stretching a cold piece of rubber it will only go so far then snap, a warm piece of rubber will stretch much further.

As an adult who hasn't been able to do the splits before it is going to take significant time and practice. It isn't a quick process. Why do you want to be able to do the splits? What's the motivation.

As a child into my early 20s I could do the splits (and over splits) easily but only with my right leg forward, despite doing the same stretches on the other side and for the box splits it just never happened.

Warming up for it as an adult is probably different to what I did as a child and teen but lots of running laps, then dynamic stretches, then conditioning exercises. You might be better off finding a gymnastics warm up and stretches video on YouTube and doing that as well as yoga.

What flexibility level are you at currently, sat down with your legs Infront of you can you
touch your toes, with toes pointing up?
Toes stretched and pointing down?
Can you put your head on your knees with your legs together outstretched?
How about your stomach so you are flat?
Can you do it on one leg forward and the other bent behind you? What about the other leg? - Is one easier than the other?
What about with your legs straddled and as far apart as they can go, can you touch your toes? Lay flat across your leg? Stretch forward in the middle and get your stomach on the floor?

You need to be doing about 30mins stretch every day to do the splits. Find lazydancer on YouTube, she has a splits routine you can follow along.

What type of splits? One leg forward, one leg backwards or one leg out to the left, the other out to the right?

Keep in mind that your physical skeletal anatomy may not physically allow you that range of movement, depending on how deep your hip sockets are set.

One leg to the left one to the right.

Just like to impress that's all.

What is your current level of flexibility? I posted yesterday at 11:12 - how many can you do?

Yes, you'll have to stretch every day to be able to do it. Warm up with some light dancing or cardio first.

My daughter and I did this for her 40th and my 60th birthday for a photo.

You did the split?

I can touch my toes with my fingers in a sitting position and stretched legs, but only for seconds. Sitting i can't put my head on my knees with stretched legs, but I can do it in standing position with only slightly bend knees.
I don't have a belly. I am slim.

To learn the split I follow only three exercises in the moment from a guy on YouTube , who claimed to learn it in four weeks. I am not sure if this is really possible?

However, I understand I have to stretch every day for half an hour now. What sort of stretching exercises can I add?

My three exercises:
-I do split one leg left other right,
-One leg up as high as possible and one leg bend --in front other stretched in kneeling position.

My daughter struggled with her splits and used a programme called Front Splits Fast by Lisa Howell of The Ballet Blog, designed for dancers. She soon got them but she was doing the excercises every day.

I dont understand whether you’re trying to do box splits where you have one leg out to each side or front splits where one leg goes to the front and one to the back. If box splits that is far more difficult than front leg splits but in any event you need to do the exercises every day and for longer than 2.5 minutes. You need to do resistance and release exercises which for box splits is much easier if someone helps you

I could lie flat on my legs for ever, put my head right through my legs when sitting and standing. Fold completely and effortlessly, fully flat hands on the floor, no effort. I stretched and stretched, and was almost there...... At the point of which my hamstring twanged, I almost passed out,/vommed, and I was never as flexible again. Just a cautionary tale OP. I was 40 at the time.

It sounds like you need to work on hamstring flexibility to start. I would focus on one leg forward type splits as they are much easier than full box splits get your flexibility up for that and then focus on box splits. I could lay all day with my body flat against my legs outstretched when. Could do the splits so you need to be aiming for that not a couple of seconds of touching your toes

That YouTube may well have been able to d the splits after a few weeks, but he may also have been able to do the splits when younger and muscle memory is a wonderful thing and comes back fairly swiftly.

As a teenager I also snapped my hamstring and was on crutches for 6 weeks and never regained my flexibility in my left leg and I could already do the splits. If you really want to do this know it is not a quick thing, it will take months from your current starting point and that's with very regular stretching. Pp have linked to appropriate YouTubers etc so start there