Shadowing Practice: The Only Middle Split Video You'll Ever Need - Learn English Speaking with Video

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This is the only middle split video that you will ever need to watch.

Bear with me, it sounds complicated at first because not only is there specific muscles that you need to train, but you also need to work with your own bone structure

to find a way to make the middle splits actually work for your body.

Believe it or not, I actually have terrible middle split genetics with my bone structure, but I can make it work, so can you.

So the first and most obvious step, you need some flexible muscles.

The main ones being your hamstrings and of course your adductors

Which most people just call their inner thighs

So here's a quick test Can you put your palms fully flat on the ground?

And next, in a butterfly stretch, can you touch your forehead all the way to your toes?

But the ultimate test, which combines both the hamstrings

and the adductors flexibility into one beautiful stretch The pancake stretch You'll know you've made it

when you can touch your chest

or even your stomach all the way down to the ground

So right there is a very simple list of stretches hamstring stretch butterfly stretch

and pancake stretch and as you can see There are easy variations

Exhale sink deeper and you're going to hold in there are heart variations

And then you're going to reach your elbow all the way down

and this goes for every single exercise easy hard easy hard

but the most important stretch is practicing the middle splits at whatever level you are at right now.

You're never gonna get better at the actual skill unless you practice it, but first you need to know the technique that's gonna get you there.

But before that, a sponsor.

Surprise!

It's me, the sponsor!

But seriously though, I have a full middle split program at the top of the description.

Go ahead and click it, check it out, stay flexy guys.

Back to the video, right?

Come on.

Alright, alright, Alright, back to technique.

This bone right here is called your femur.

It's shaped a little bit like this, and it fits into your hip socket, and it moves around kind of like this.

But when you just try and go to your middle split with no technique, ow, something happens.

The top part of your femur smashes into your pelvis, and as you can see, the leg doesn't go out a full 180 degrees.

It stops before you can get to the middle split position.

Not fun.

So this is where your genetics come in.

Some people have different hip angles, And if you have a higher hip angle, it doesn't really matter if you just go out straight to the side like that.

But that is definitely not me, and I'm assuming it's not you because only a small percentage of the population actually has that.

Seriously, I have bad middle split genetics.

This is about as far as I can go, and my head isn't even in frame.

But luckily, there is a solution, and it's called external rotation.

What the heck is that?

Let's say you have a terrible femoral angle kind of like me

and it looks a little bit like this

So instead of just going out out out to the side what you do is you

Externally rotate as you go to the side and you're able to go 180 degrees to the side so you

Rotate outwards as you move to the leg to the side instead of going out you rotate

and you go out See

but remember the beginning of the video I kept one muscle group secret

and it's the one that usually hinders external rotation Your ability to externally rotate your hips is dictated by your glutes.

Because I know somebody is going to correct me.

Yes, I know it's the external rotators and not the glutes.

And I know they're not the same thing.

But for simplicity's sake, please, we're just going to say glutes.

I'm sorry.

But for real though, most glute stretches also stretch the external rotators.

So that's why.

That's why it's like that.

Back to the video.

So we need to add another stretch to the mix and

that stretch is the pigeon pose

And you bet there's an easy version opposite side glute just like

that and the hard version You're going to lean the chest just pick the variation

that works best for you

So instead of just stopping where it hurts you can externally rotate

which looks like this which gives me Access to more range of motion

And if you're really picky about keeping your feet on the ground

because it's a straddle not a middle split Spot the difference

straddle middle split straddle middle split the only difference between those

two stretches is the ankle Flexibility to put your foot on the ground

which I'll make a video about soon

But for most people who aren't martial artists just focus on the hips

so now that you have the proper technique That's great, but it doesn't automatically mean you're flexible.

You still need to stretch but exactly how much?

There are two papers that I would look at.

There's this one, which looked at all the available literature at the time

and found out that about five minutes a week is the minimum to make flexibility progress.

So all I gotta do is hold a stretch for five minutes a week and then I'm done?

Uh, not quite.

Because in this second paper, they found diminishing returns the longer you held the stretch.

They tested 15 seconds, 30 seconds.. in 60 seconds

and what do you know 30 seconds outperformed all of them

so what that really means is you need to get 30 second sets enough times

that the total volume adds up to five minutes don't worry

you don't have to do math for 30 seconds that's 10 sets every single week

that means that if you hold a 30 second stretch

and then you rest and then you hold

that 30 second stretch again that's one minute toward your five minute total and if you do that monday tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and you rest on Saturdays and Sundays,

that's five minutes a week, and you just have to do that for every single stretch.

Or theoretically, you could do five sets of 30 -second stretches every Monday and Wednesday for every single stretch, but that's a little much for me.

But whatever floats your boat, I've made progress doing both.

So if we were to build a routine out of everything we learned, it would look a little something like this.

Hamstring stretch, 30 seconds.

Butterfly stretch, 30 seconds.

Then your pancake stretch, again 30 seconds pigeon stretch 30 seconds

and then lastly you need to practice your middle split at whatever level you're at now technically

if you did this you would only need to do a four days a week

and it would count as six minutes toward each muscle group

which is more than the five minute requirement what how well there's only three muscle groups you really care about

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and the hamstring stretch stretch is one of them so that's 30 seconds out of the way,

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but it gets interesting when you get to the butterfly stretch because this one stretches your adductors and your glutes.

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So for one stretch, you get 30 seconds of volume in both muscle groups.

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So the pancake stretch does the same thing, but for the hamstrings and adductors, the pigeon gets the glutes and the middle split, well that one does all three.

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Nice.

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So if you repeat that entire session four days a week, that's three, six, nine, 12 sets of 30 seconds every week for every muscle group.

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12 sets of 30 seconds in each muscle group equals six

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minutes every single week for every muscle group needed to get the middle split.

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So all your bases are covered and it's just a matter of time before you get to your middle splits.

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Now, of course, if you would like more variation in your training and different exercises every week, I have a full middle split program that I mentioned earlier.

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It's at the top of the description, I highly recommend checking it out.

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Stay flexy guys.

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162 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Only Middle Split Video You'll Ever Need”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: stretch, split, middle, muscle, glute. This video has 111 sentences and 1386 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:27. The speaker talks fast, about 186 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
glute noun	/ɡluːt/	A gluteal muscle.
hamstring noun	/ˈhæmstɹɪŋ/	One of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
rotate verb	/ˈɹoʊ.teɪt/	To spin, turn, or revolve.
adductor noun	/əˈdʌktəɹ/	A muscle which draws a limb or part of the body toward the middle line of the body, or closes extended parts of the body—opposed to abductor.
pancake noun	/ˈpæn.keɪk/	An thin batter cake similar to a crepe, typically unleavened.
butterfly noun	/ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/	A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
variation noun	/ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/	The act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing.
externally adverb		on the surface or the outside
straddle verb	/ˈstɹædəl/	To sit or stand with a leg on each side of something; to sit astride.
pigeon noun	/ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/	One of several birds of the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes.
genetics noun	/dʒəˈnɛt.ɪks/	The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA.
flexibility noun	/ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/	The quality of being flexible, whether physically or metaphorically.
femur noun	/ˈfiːmə(ɹ)/	A thighbone.
flexy adjective		Implying or indicating an ability, capacity, or tendency to flex; flexible; bendy.
rotator noun		One who or that which rotates.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
add up to verb		To have a particular effect in combination.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
move around verb		To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · is dictated · are covered
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've made · I've made

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thigh /θaɪ/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, rotation /ɹoʊˈteɪʃən/, diminish /dɪˈmɪnɪʃ/, martial /ˈmɑɹʃəl/, smash /smæʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like glute, hamstring, rotate.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The Only Middle Split Video You'll Ever Need - Learn English Speaking with Video

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