Straddle Pancake Questions

The main thing limiting my straddle pancake is a really tight butt muscle. I warm up and do piriformis stretches prior to the straddle pancake with no pain. However, when I reach forward in the straddle I get pain messages from my ass muscle. How to fix this?

Massage/stretch glutes.

Strengthening the glutes at the end-rom may help. Inflexibility can be a CNS response, since the brain percieves the muscle as too weak to be utilized in the range of motion you are attempting. Strengthening the muscle 'convinces' the brain that it is safe to go further into the ROM.

A good way to get the hip region loose is to use Joe Defranco's Agile eight warmup

Especially the lacrosse ball glute/piriformis release is painfull but great!

 

Perhaps this can help.

 

http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html

(the last ask Joe post at the bottom)

 

He has a new one btw. The Limber 11.

Has a couple of tweaks.

 

Yeah I've been doing these stretches: link

 

They're still tight after doing them. The muscle is hard to massage because it's kind of deep in there. I don't have a lacrosse ball unfortunately. Is there an exercise I can do warm it up specifically? I've been doing cossack and skater squats. Maybe I'm doing the skater squats wrong?

I found a stretch to get rid of the pain:

Stand in a straddle rotate one foot so that it is perpendicular to your other foot. Then, keeping the back and legs straight, reach for the foot that was just rotated. Do on both sides.

Field Hockey, tennis or golf ball will work as well.

If you use it regularly you will notice a lot of difference.