Master the Side Splits: A Progression Toward the Pancake Stretch
The pancake stretch is one of the most recognizable positions in flexibility training, and for good reason. It shows up constantly in the world of contortion and advanced mobility work, and it takes real, sustained effort to earn. If you've ever tried to fold forward with your legs spread wide and felt your lower back round, your hips lock up, or your hamstrings scream in protest, you already know this stretch asks a lot from the body at once.
The pancake targets your inner thighs and adductors, your lower back, and your hamstrings and lower extremities all in one shape. That combination is exactly why it looks intimidating and why it deserves a proper progression rather than a straight jump into the full stretch. Below is a step-by-step breakdown of the drills that build toward it, in the order they're meant to be practiced.
Start by Mapping Your Range
Before loading into any deep stretch, it helps to simply explore your current range of motion. A toe-heel, toe-heel rotation of the feet lets you open your stance gradually while getting a feel for how far apart your legs can comfortably travel. Think of this as reconnaissance — you're mapping the distance your body can handle today, not forcing anything.
Build the Foundation: Horse Stance
The first real drill in this progression is the horse stance, an active flexibility and strength position. Here's how to set it up:
- Keep your chest lifted and open
- Draw your arms back
- Shift your weight into your heels
- Bring your thighs as close to parallel with the floor as you can
This is a genuinely tough position to hold, and it's easy to get it wrong. A common mistake is letting the knees cave inward — please avoid this, as it puts unnecessary stress on the knee joint. Keep your knees tracking outward and your chest proud throughout.
There's also a deeper variation of this stance where more load shifts into the knees, and it comes with more risk. In that version, your knees need to stay straight and your toes should point forward. If you need to rest your hands down at any point, that's fine — but when you want to come out of the position, always step forward first and then slide your legs back together. Skipping that sequence is how injuries happen.
Build Strength With Cossack Squats
The third exercise in the sequence is the Cossack squat, also known as a lateral squat. This movement does double duty: it builds flexibility in the inner thigh while also building strength there. If you think about it from a physiology standpoint, a muscle that feels strong through a given range of motion will move through that range far more comfortably. Cossack squats develop exactly that kind of usable strength in the inner thigh muscles, which pays off directly when you attempt the pancake itself.
Settle Into the Pancake Position
Once you've worked through the horse stance and Cossack squats, it's time to sit into the actual straddle, or pancake, position on the floor. Flexibility varies a lot from person to person here, and that's completely normal — go only as deep as you can currently handle. Even a 45-degree pancake is a perfectly normal starting point; there's no need to compare yourself to someone with years of training behind them.
From this seated straddle, gentle bouncing motions — circling, bouncing side to side — help open the hamstrings and hips through different angles. The goal is to open the stretch from every angle, not just straight ahead.
One mistake shows up often in people whose flexibility is still developing: as they push into the stretch, their lower back rounds. Often they don't even realize it's happening, because they've never been taught what a straight back actually feels like in this position. If your lower back flexibility isn't there yet, it's genuinely hard to keep your spine straight while working the stretch — a partner or support can help here by giving you something to push against from above, which lets you feel what a straight back feels like as you hinge forward.
Learn the Back Position: Seated Good Mornings
To reinforce that straight-back sensation on its own, the seated good morning drill is extremely useful. Sit on a bench, push your knees forward, and stretch your body forward while consciously keeping your back straight rather than rounding it. This drill trains both your lower back and hamstring flexibility together — you're not isolating the lower back alone, you're teaching the whole posterior chain to lengthen while your spine stays neutral. Once you internalize that feeling, it carries directly into your pancake practice.
Strengthen the Outer Hips
The next piece of the puzzle is building strength in the outer adductors and outer thigh muscles. In this drill, you press your feet outward against resistance while trying to lift them, which challenges the muscles at the side of the glutes and the muscles responsible for opening the legs. As you work this, the inner muscles gradually release while the outer muscles get stronger, and over time your legs open further. This might sound like an unusual approach, but give it a few weeks of consistent practice and you should feel a real improvement in your overall flexibility.
The Advanced Drill
After weeks or months of consistent practice, once your pancake has opened up meaningfully, you're ready for a more advanced drill. Here, you work to keep your back straight while stretching through different angles, targeting different fibers of the inner thigh muscles from multiple directions. Think of your muscles like a piece of fabric — the more directions you stretch and work it from, the more it loosens overall. With enough of this multidirectional work, you eventually reach a full, flat position — which is exactly why this deep variation is sometimes nicknamed the "roadkill split."