Side splits

About a week or two ago, I started stretching with more purpose, a goal eventually being the full, flat pike, front and side splits, and a closed straddle. After getting quite close to a flat pike (that was a stretch I was doing beforehand), I noticed that my progress had halted almost completely in the side straddle, as well as a huge amount of pain in my hips. It usually doesn't bother me until I try again, and when I sit down I can sometimes pop the joints as one would their knuckles.

A friend described the reason being that "men's hips simply can't bend that way", which I would believe, had I not seen so many men performing splits. Is this something that needed to be done since childhood, or do I still have a hope of achieving my goals?

It surely helps to gain some flexibility before puberty, imo. It seems to more difficult post puberty.

Men's hips are designed differently than women's, but a lot of men can still do the splits.

You may need to change your stretching modality now that you have plateau'd.

Thanks for the advice, though the term "modality" kind of confused me. Do you mean I should work harder to push through it, attempt the split every few days, or something else?

You may have to change your mode of stretching to break through your stall.

Okay, I understand. Is there a thread on the website already dedicated to this, or does the drillsandskills.com have the stretches that I would need?

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

I highly recommend you to get Thomas Kurz' book "Stretching Scientifically"

Some people have hips that cant do splits, a simple test to find out is - if you are able to raise your leg on a horizontal surface 90 degrees to your upright upper body, you should be able to do them.

Maybe your hips position is not correct, you should not have pain. Condition your hips. Do Leg Circles with Ankle weights, Leg Circles with elastic bands, Leg Pulldowns and strengthen your hip adductor muscles.

I started getting pain in my hip (left) about a fortnight/month aster I started getting slack with my side splits (which at the time I could do comfortably). Make sure that when you split you're knee's, feet and hips are all in a straight line horizontaly. It should give you a better stretch, and might just help your hips.I'd also reccomend training active flexibility (which I should have) hand in hand with passive, strengthening your adductors alongside stretching them, and if you hevn't already done so find a decent hip re/prehab exersize.

I cent stress enought how worthwhile a healthy hip is.