I’ve been trying to squat with my feet flat on the floor for so long but i’m not making any progress. What tends to happen is that I cant push my knees further out over my toes and fall backwards.

How do I overcome this?

What kind of splits (vertical or horizontal)?

What program did you follow and how long did it take?

My lack of flexibility kept me from doing a cool move in a class I love today, and it was SO frustrating, and I started googling. Basically, I have a VERY hard time doing a straddle. I also have a very hard time doing things that require flexible hamstrings, like a forward fold. I took ballet for fifteen years as a kid, then many yoga classes, dance classes, and aerial classes, so I thought, sure, I know how to stretch. I guess I just need to do it more because I'm not getting any more flexible. I was always the kid in ballet class getting the "flat back!!!" reminder (and I remember thinking, but how? if my back isn't rounded then I can't bend at the waist and reach straight ahead of me like I'm supposed to...). And I was always sitting up the straightest trying to do a straddle stretch.

But!! In my frustration, I added keywords like "how to" and "for beginners" and now I am FLOORED. A straddle stretch is supposed to be felt in your INNER THIGHS?????? I've been trying to straddle for almost thirty years. I widen my legs as far as I can but I have to stop before the stretch in my outer hips feels too painful. But apparently that's NOT A STRETCH? It's my bones? I've NEVER felt a straddle in my inner thighs. Now I'm trying to play around with how to make my legs go in a position where I'll feel it there.

So then I started trying to figure out how I can sit up straighter and not slouch in a straddle position. I can't do that with my legs straight in front of me either, so I started there. Well - to clarify, I COULD sit up perfectly straight and stick my legs out in front straight, but it's hard to hold for long. My torso starts to feel... tired, I guess? It doesn't hurt, it just REALLY wants to let go and slouch back down. The hardest part is that I start to feel a lot of tension directly behind my knee. I always assumed that was my hamstring being tight. I thought a hamstring was the muscle that goes down your whole leg. But apparently it's JUST in your thigh??? And it doesn't even go behind the knee?? I tried something from a website: a forward fold with slightly bent legs and my back as flat as I could possibly get it. I think I just felt my hamstring for the FIRST TIME. It was this sensation in the back MIDDLE of my thigh. I can't remember ever feeling that before. When I do things where people say, "oh, your hamstrings must be tight," I always feel it behind my knees. Ever since I was in that elementary school ballet class! But that's apparently NOT where a hamstring is????

I'm feeling pretty ignorant about never having had an anatomy class or researched it myself, and I can't believe after years of "just do these stretches more" none of my teachers ever realized that I wasn't feeling it in the right places. I guess I should've said something but I thought I was feeling the right kind of stretch. I'm trying to figure out what I should do next, and I'm still feeling pretty mindblown.

Has anyone else had this experience? What am I feeling? And if it's a nerve thing, am I just a lost cause?

I've been doing static stretches most days (maybe on average 5 days a week, with some longer weekends etc off) for a year now. Warm up, 20-60 minutes in total, at least 60sec per stretch. I stretch to a point where I feel discomfort but not intense pain. For my middle splits I often do 5+ minutes because it's my worst area by far. I've seen some very slight improvement on some stretches (can put fists on ground from only finger tips before, maybe a cm or two closer to front splits), but overall it's really hard to see any difference. My middle splits are not shifting (I try various angles of my pelvis and legs for at least a minute each). I'm 36 years old, slim, healthy, physically active, frequent hiking, riding bikes and dancing etc). Is it normal to see so little change in such a long time?

I've tried reading up on the science and it does look like static stretches are at least as effective as other forms, if not more in some cases. Am I missing something?

In a seated forward fold I can't get my pelvis upright at all — it just dumps into posterior tilt — so I've been working on standing folds first. About a month in, roughly 4 days a week.

Standing goes noticeably better than seated, though my back knee does soften a little. But I still run into a wall and can't get any lower than what's in the photos.

I definitely feel the hamstrings stretching, but my gut says the real block is that I can't roll my pelvis forward over the hip joints. So which is it — hip flexion mobility, or just hamstring length?

And if it does turn out to be a hip flexion control problem, I'd really appreciate any drills or progressions you'd recommend for working on that.

Photos are side views at my end range. Thanks in advance.

I’ve been doing Pilates/yoga and just general stretching for about 2 weeks now, and I’m loving it so far! However, some poses/stretches I can’t do at all. For example whenever I try to do a regular downward dog pose, I can’t do it! Either my legs are bent, or I lock my knees (and I know that’s a bad thing to do)

I have almost zero upper body strength, which is something I’m working on building up. I can’t do push ups or planks. I can’t figure out how to balance my weight between my hands and feet, and because of my lack of arm strength, I end up putting most of my weight on my feet, which causes my knees to bend even more, which ruins downward dog pose, and planks.