You will need shoes with good traction in order to walk your legs out across the wall.
Practicing barefoot may help you slide along the floor whereas socks may be too slippery and cause injury.
If you feel you can’t get as far as you like, use a chair in front of you or practice in front of a wall to stabilize your body. Point your toes out and upward towards the sky. You should not let the tops of your feet turn in if you can help it.
Roll your hip downwards to inch further down. This keeps your stomach towards the ground as your legs continue to spread. For a greater stretch, roll your hip backwards to turn out your legs. This is difficult but gives your hips a deeper stretch.
Working on this pose daily can help you get into a full straddle split. Aim to do the straddle stretch for approximately 3 to 5 minutes per day. [8] X Expert Source Tanya BerensonGymnastics Instructor Expert Interview. 22 May 2020.
Increase the intensity of your warm up with jump rope, squats, or box jumps to get your blood flowing in your legs.
Point your elbows to the ceiling and feel your back stretch. It may be difficult at first but with time and practice your flexibility will increase. Don’t force anything if you start to feel pain. Push yourself to feel a stretch but don’t push so far that you feel pain.
Repeat the runners stretch for both legs, repeating 4x per leg.
Make sure to perform the standing side stretch on both sides of your body.
Feel the stretch and don’t go over your capacity. Once you feel a stretch, hold the pose and take 10 - 15 breaths.
If your knees are high off of the ground, add some support under your seat so that your hips lift up off the floor. You want to release the tension on your hip flexors.
Take 10 - 15 breaths as you move further into the pose. Let gravity help you open your hips and legs in this pose so that your body becomes familiar with the movements of straddle splits.
