Best practice for flexibility development

Disclaimer: I have read and listened to alot of BBM’s content on mobility work and its relevance to training. I am more than happy with ROM in all my lifts. This has nothing to do with training movements or perceived pain due to mobility issues.

I do not ask this question in the context of barbell training or any cardio/resistance training of any kind. I have a goal independent from training, which is to do a full split. I was able to do one as a young lad in martial arts training and would like to do so again(im not even close). I am wondering what the evidence says(if anything) about the best way to go about developing flexibility. I have heard in a few BBM podcasts/vlogs that static stretching is useless and read those papers which you cited. Those papers advocated for dynamic stretching but did not really discuss objectively what it means to implement an effective dynamic stretching regiment. My old martial arts teacher advocated for just sitting in the position for as long as possible as often as possible(which is what I did but being 10 years old was probably more relevant than effectiveness of his static stretching routine). There is even a yoga practice called yin where you just sit in a pose for extended periods of time(5 minutes or more). Seems to be totally contradicted by the research papers I read.

In your discussions about mobility you discuss cultivating it through specificity to a movement and repeated use and strength development in said movement. Does the same apply to something like a split? Should I just move in and out of that pose with some kind of set and rep scheme? Would that mean fully resetting the pose or just enough to get out of the area of peak tension?

Sorry if this has been asked before, I tried to search the forum but didn’t find anything. I also tried to find relevant research but also came up short.

I imagine other members who do yoga, martial arts, etc may find some utility in this as well.

I have heard in a few BBM podcasts/vlogs that static stretching is useless and read those papers which you cited.

This is not an accurate representation of our position. When we discuss stretching, it is typically in the context of warming up for training/physical activity such as lifting or running, or claims about injury risk; in these contexts, we have little evidence for benefit from static stretching, and some evidence of negative effects on performance from prolonged static holds.

In your discussions about mobility you discuss cultivating it through specificity to a movement and repeated use and strength development in said movement. Does the same apply to something like a split? Should I just move in and out of that pose with some kind of set and rep scheme? Would that mean fully resetting the pose or just enough to get out of the area of peak tension?

We wouldn’t claim expertise in training people towards this sort of a goal, but yes, that would be our approach to this goal. Training with specificity towards the goal task, which means you’ll have to do some stretching since the splits can be considered a “stretch”.