Splits are a highly recognizable and fundamental element in many physical disciplines, including gymnastics, cheerleading, yoga, various dance styles, martial arts, and others.
The hard truth is, there are no shortcuts to learning how to do the middle splits. The journey to achieving your first split requires time and effort but ultimately rewards you with an impressive and useful skill that remains with you for life.
This article will set you on the right path to achieving your first middle split, with information sourced from the pros, including the best exercises and stretches for middle splits. But before we dive into details, here’s a quick answer.
How To Do The Middle Splits? Here’s how to do the middle splits: slowly slide your legs apart as far as comfortable, keeping your knees and toes pointing forward. For optimal practice, incorporate various lower-body stretches for middle splits and other exercises for your core and hips.

Why Are Middle Splits Important In Gymnastics: Physical and Mental Benefits
Learning how to get middle splits comes with its set of perks. Not only are you rewarded with a useful and impressive physical skill, but you also gain benefits that can improve your life along the way. Here are a few key points on what that looks like:
1. Improved Flexibility
When you practice middle splits, you stretch the muscles surrounding your hip, groin, and thigh areas. Over time, this should result in greater flexibility in those areas, which should translate to other gymnastic skills as well as real-life movements like walking and running.
2. Increased Mobility
Practicing middle splits open up your range of motion (ROM) in the hip area. This improved ROM is essential for executing movements that require leg extensions, body rotations, standing in different positions, and more, which will raise your gymnastics level as well as improve your daily life.
3. Injury Prevention
Working on your flexibility and improving your range of motion through training middle splits will result in fewer injuries, particularly in the hips and legs. This applies to both physical training and everyday life. Practicing activities such as cheerleading, dance, or sports that involve changing directions benefits from increased hip mobility, which can help prevent common injuries like muscle strains and sprains. Similarly, in real-life situations such as falls, slips, or uneven steps, having a greater degree of hip flexibility can be the differentiating factor between a minor inconvenience and a potential injury.

4. Postural Alignment
Many of us are stuck sitting down for large parts of our days either for work or entertainment. As a result, our hips, lower back, glutes, and core are constantly under pressure, which over time results in worse posture. Meanwhile, practicing middle splits engages your core and stretches the same muscle groups that suffer as a result of prolonged sitting, leading to improved alignment between your pelvis and spine and improving your posture.
5. Motivation And Determination
As briefly touched upon, middle splits and similar skills are not something you pick up overnight. That said, if you dedicate yourself to learning them, you will be subjected to various neurochemical processes associated with learning and mastering a new ability.
For example, making progress and noticing improvement in your middle split will release "happiness" chemicals in your brain, such as Dopamine and Serotonin. The former is tied to immediate feelings of motivation, satisfaction, and pleasure, while the latter improves our overall mood and sense of self-satisfaction.
Moreover, reaching a long-lasting goal comes with a high sense of accomplishment and enthusiasm for learning. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as goal attainment satisfaction or achievement satisfaction. Research on the subject suggests that people who experience achievement satisfaction have higher overall life satisfaction as well.
6. It’s A Cool Skill To Have
At the end of the day, learning how to do middle splits can be fun and exciting and results in an impressive and useful skill to have. Being able to effortlessly do a middle split can be a cool party trick, but more importantly, it may be the difference maker in your next gymnastics, cheerleading, or dance audition. It can be helpful in regular sports as well, being able to more effortlessly extend your legs is useful for tackling in soccer, returning in tennis, kicking in martial arts, etc.

How To Do The Middle Splits Step-By-Step?
1. Start With A Proper Warmup
2. Mind Your Posture
3. Control The Descent
4. Mind Your Breathing
5. Now Do The Split

How To Learn The Middle Splits Fast And Safe?
1. Stick To A Program
2. Take Sufficient Rest Time
3. Look For Guidance

Middle Splits Progression: How To Improve Your Middle Splits?
1. Always Keep Stretching
2. Train Your Core
3. Use Props To Assist You

Muscles worked while middle splits
1. Hip Adductors

2. Hamstrings

3. Gluteal Muscles

4. Hip Flexors

5. Quadriceps

6. Core Muscles

Risks Of Making Middle Splits
1. Strains And Sprains
2. Knee Injuries (Ligament Tears)
3. Overtraining

Can You Make Middle Splits If You Are New To Gymnastics?
Can Children Do Middle Splits?
How to Learn Split in 21 Days?
The "Split Challenge" program is designed to help you achieve a full split regardless of your current level. The course consists of 21 daily training sessions, allowing you to see results in just THREE WEEKS. Each session can be completed in 15 minutes, although we highly recommend dedicating 40 minutes each day for optimal training. If circumstances prevent you from training daily, you can always take a break and resume later.
The program is beginner-friendly, no specialized equipment needed. All you need is a yoga mat (or a thick towel as an alternative) and a resistance band.
- Virtual coaching to guide your results
- Fitness evaluation throughout the program
- 21 training sessions supported by over 100 exercise videos
- Weekly checklist to track progress
- Winner's Certificate upon completion
- Community for inspiration and support
- Single payment, lifetime access
- 30 day guarantee
FAQ
Can Everyone Do Middle Splits?
With proper training and enough dedication, eventually, everyone can achieve a middle split. This is, of course, assuming no outstanding physical challenges are preventing you from doing it.
How Long Does It Take To Do Middle Splits?
How long to do middle splits depends on factors including current fitness level, previous training experience, as well as practice frequency, among other things. Those with prior experience in related activities like gymnastics or dance may have better baseline knowledge and physical readiness to learn them, seeing great results within a few weeks. For others, it may take up to a few months, but it’s important to keep training as long as you see progress.
Are Middle Splits or Side Splits Easier?
In general, middle splits tend to be easier compared to side splits. This is mainly due to the fact that middle splits utilize the same movement for both legs, while side splits require the legs to move in opposite directions, necessitating a significant level of hip flexibility.
Conclusion
You’ve reached the end of our article on how to do the middle splits. We hope you found it entertaining and informative.
Middle splits are a fun and rewarding gymnastics skill to learn that also come with benefits that will help you in physical activities, sports, and real life. Practicing your middle split stretches your lower body, leading to greater mobility, flexibility, posture, and more. Furthermore, it’s an excellent way to work out and tone major muscle groups, leading to a stronger and better-looking physique.
We’d love to hear from you as well. Have you practiced middle splits before or are you a first-time learner? Also, are there any physical activities or hobbies, such as gymnastics or dancing, you hope to incorporate them into?
Leave a comment letting us know and remember to follow our social media pages where we post lots of valuable fitness and wellness content.
Also read:
References:
- Range of Motion // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Range_of_Motion
- Flexibility and stretching: preventing sports injuries // SportsPerfomance: https://www.sportsperformancebulletin.com/training/strength-conditioning--flexibility/flexibility-and-stretching-preventing-sports-injuries
- Ergonomics for Prolonged Sitting // UCLA Health: https://www.uclahealth.org/medical-services/spine/patient-resources/ergonomics-prolonged-sitting
- Dopamine // ClevelandClinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine
- Serotonin // ClevelandClinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22572-serotonin
- Achievement goals and life satisfaction // NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6974350/
- The effectiveness of neuromuscular warm-up strategies, that require no additional equipment, for preventing lower limb injuries during sports participation // BMC: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-10-75
- Effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation // NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8272667/
- Hip Adductors // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hip_Adductors
- Hamstrings // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hamstrings
- Gluteal Muscles // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Gluteal_Muscles
- Hip Flexors // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hip_Flexors
- Anatomy, Abdomen and Pelvis, Rectus Femoris Muscle // NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539897/
- Quadriceps Muscle // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Quadriceps_Muscle
- Rectus Femoris // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Rectus_Femoris
- Core Muscles // Physiopedia: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Core_Muscles
- 7 Benefits of Soaking in a Hot Tub // HealthLine: https://www.healthline.com/health/hot-tub-benefits#health-benefits
- Why are toddlers so flexible? // BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/amazing-toddlers-bendy-tots/znvvy9q
- The effect of educational gymnastics on postural control of young children // Frontiersin: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.936680/full
More than 25 years ago Oleksiy started his sports career. He major in gymnastics which is
definitely not an easy sport to go in for!
To become an athletic champion (in Ukraine, for instance, we mean here the title of
"Master of Sports") in gymnastics, one needs to spend at least 10 years and start
training no later than being six years old. As for Oleksiy, he has fulfilled all the criteria.
During this period of time, definitely not short, he managed to become:
● Master of Sports, Champion of the State and International Tournaments;
● Member of the national team of Ukraine, having a perfect opportunity to train the best team ever!
● Part of Cirque Du Soleil team (as an artist)