How do you extend holds?

I notice the AI could extend holds so damn long to the point your health bar is empty. This is especially true in the Street Fighter 2 series (especially SSFT2 and HSF2) where Zangief and Blanka controlled by the AI on hardest can simply grab your character and keep biting nonstop till the health bar literally looks empty on screen and you like have 1 point of health left.

I tried all sort of things from tapping while you caught your enemy to moving the left and right but I never could extend the hold that long.

Is it even possible to do this? If so how?

From the wiki
wiki.shoryuken.com/Super_Street_Fighter_2_Turbo#Escaping_Holds

Basically you mash the stick between opposite corners (e.g. top-left to bottom-right, back and forth, over and over again) while pianoing the buttons.

I’m not sure if it’s technically accurate, but it seems to work much better than I piano the punch buttons over and over again while rapidly moving the stick back and forth. This works for both the person doing the throwing and the person receiving the throw. You’ll either land more hits or shake out of them faster, respectively.

If you mash early enough, you can even bounce out without taking any damage at all, although this is extremely rare.