What Stretches Help Encourage To Do The Splits! by Niamh Denise What Stretches Help Encourage To Do The Splits! You have to know which muscles you need to stretch. The most important muscles to stretch are the hamstrings and the dorsal hip muscles. Do a hamstring stretch against the wall. This makes the most painful part of the split just a little easier. Do a lunge stretch. When doing this, make sure that your knee is at a 90 degree angle to your foot. If needed slide your bottom leg further away so your hips move closer to the floor. This is helping to stretch the dorsal hip muscle. Do a seated V stretch. This helps stretching for the box splits. First try to put your elbows in the floor, then your nose. Then try and get your whole belly on the floor with a flat back. This is the quadriceps stretch. When you've mastered getting your foot to your bum and pushing your hips forward and getting your foot to your bum again. After many days of practicing, not forcing yourself too much, you'll get a perfect split like so. Try raising one leg on to a platform to get an over split. Or try doing a box split stood up. This is called a tilt. Hope this helped 😊