If you never danced or did gymnastics it's going to be really hard. Flexibility takes years of hard work, there's nothing quick about it. But reaching for your toes, splits, straddles, leg lifts ( the standing kind), high kicks, butterflies, wall stretches ( to get your straddle straighter) etc, all work to help increase your current flexibility. For the back do backbends, bridges etc.
Look up gabi butler on YouTube! She has a how to become more flexible video which really helps.!(;
Straddles, modified hurdler, lunges, there's a lot of stuff on YouTube you can find to help you! Good luck and have fun :)
It takes persistence and practice to improve flexibility. The only way to get flexible faster is to stretch more often. You need 4 hours recovery between stretching sessions though so not more often than that. Several shorter sessions through the day are more effective than one longer one.
There is actually a limited amount you can do to improve flexibility in your back, it is fairly fixed because of skeletal limits. You can improve flexibility in your hips and shoulders to a far greater extent and that can compensate for less flexibility in your back to an extent so I would suggest you concentrate on those, at least to begin with.
You should start with a warm up that will get your heart rate up and increase blood flow and also limber up the joints and muscles you are going to stretch. This could include jumping jacks, star jumps, straddle jumps, hitch kicks, scissor jumps, straddle jumps, split jumps, high kicks, kicks back, kicks to the side, jumping between alternating left and right lunges, arm circles forwards and backwards, shoulder rolls forwards and backwards and shrugs.
For hips you would really look mainly at splits stretching, including preliminary stretches for splits. (Knee down lunges, knee down calf/ham stretch, swam/pigeon pose for L/R splits, butterfly, japana (sit in straddle and reach forwards with straight back to try to get your chest on the floor) and frog (with knees 90 degrees so your thighs are in a line.) You would probably add to that standing and sitting pike stretches and straddle stretches to either leg. Try to have your torso upright or even lean back a little if you can in swan/pigeon and L/R splits to stretch your hip to the back more. Standing leg lifts would be a good thing to do at the beginning of your hip routine. They need flexibility but don't improve it much. What they improve is strength (so do them first while you are fresh and help tire your muscles out to make the stretches easier.) A lot of things that need flexibility, like jumps and scales, also need strength so you can pull up the weight of your legs.
For shoulders bring your arms across the front of your chest and press it in with your free hand. Put your hand down your back between your shoulder-blades and press down your elbow. Interlace your hands behind you and raise your arms as far as possible, tip forwards from the waist so gravity pulls on your arms and helps the stretch. Grab a skipping rope or broom handle and pass it over your head so your arms circle from in front of your hips back up over your head and down behind you, then back the other way. Maintain your grip as close in as will allow you to complete the movement. You are aiming to be able to do this with your hands a little closer over time. A modified downwards dog where you push your shoulders towards the floor looking at your hands is helpful. You can do a similar thing by placing your palms against a wall and bending forwards at the waist. Bridge is also a stretch that mainly targets shoulders. Doing bridge with your feet raised on something like a sofa or with them pressed against a wall targets the shoulders more effectively than standard bridge.
Make sure all your stretches are gradual and controlled. This is both the safest and most effective way to stretch. There are no shortcuts and getting injured is not only painful but actually makes you less flexible as the muscles grow back thicker to protect themselves. Aim to hold (static) stretches at a point where you feel a strong stretch but not pain until your muscles relax. An exception is for inverted poses (downwards dog, bridge) where head-rush is a factor. If you start to feel lightheaded or dizzy come out of the stretch, don't wait around for your muscles to relax. There are two methods of stretching until the muscles relaxes, passive which involves patience and trying to relax, and PNF in which you inhale, tense against the stretch and hold in order to tire your muscles out faster, then exhale and relax. Either way you can do a few cycles of hold and relax to push a little further but you do get diminishing returns.
http://www.wikihow.com/Become-Flexible
