Pancake Stretch Progression for Handstand Press

FritsMB said:

 

DieKatze

 

Here is another suggestion. Read up on Contract and Relax method for stretching. You will find that it has been found to work better if you stretch into the position shown on your snapshot, holding the position for (say) 30 seconds, without changing your position statically contracting the muscles that you are stretching for a count of (say) five, and then stretching the target muscles further by relaxing and holding the further stretch for another (say) 30 seconds. I have never seen a pancake stretch done with 60 kg and personally would never do that realizing that stretching ligaments initially can make them weaker. Experiment a bit to find out whether you really need so much weight to increase the ROM of your hamstrings and adductors by relaxing into the stretch. Your muscles may be strong but your tendons may not match up to that strength when they are stretched further.

 

thanks a lot for your advice. i do have difficulties imagining how to contract adductors and hamstrings in that special position though to be honest.

my initial thinking was starting with enough weight to get a good stretch and while my mobility increases actually reducing(!) the weight since with a better mobility there will be a much worse (or better if you will) lever. i already feel a huge, huge difference between high-bar and low-bar positioning i that variation.

Jurre said:

Awesome, got it!

Should you not try to achieve PNF with that stretch because 60kg is that much weight. Or is it not a smart thing to do it with weight either way.

I won't get 60 kg, but perhaps 5-15 kg. That sounds to me pretty good for PNF.

In order to do an effective PNF stretch you need to be able to do an isometric contraction (meaning a contraction where you push against an imoveable object and thus the length of your muscles do not change; iso=same, metric=length). The only way you could achieve that with that stretch would be to use a weight that you were incapable of lifting back up to the starting point or by having someone stand behind you and hold the bar in place while you tried to push back against it. You would also have to use a weight which you could not push up while at earlier, stronger parts of the ROM meaning you may not even be able to stop it at later weaker parts.

Hopefully you can see how ridiculously dangerous and foolish this would be.

The option where you had someone hold the weight could potentially work, but in that case you really don't need much weight on the bar, but would need to have someone who really understood what you were trying to do and had experience with partner stretching. IMO there would still be better/safer options than doing so though.

Good idea for a loaded stretch though, just don't go nuts with adding weight and give your body time to adjust and gain ROM at it's own pace like Coach already said.

Again, got it!

Thanks.

What would a good PNF stretch be for the pancake in that case? Something with bands or whatever? I'm not very creative in stretching yet..

I like either:

1. Sit down in a pancake/straddle lean forward and grab the ankles, feet or wrap straps (anything from towels to belts to actual Yoga straps will do) around the feet and use whatever you are gripping to pull yourself into a pancake till you reach the point where you feel a stretch.

Or

2. Stand in a straddle and bend forward from the hips to grab your ankles, or a sturdy object (like a stall bar or a heavy weighted barbell that is too heavy to lift) and pull yourself into a standing pancake stretch.

Once you reach the point where you feel a stretch, hold yourself in place while you attempt to press the floor down with your heels (you obviously cannot move the floor so this allows for a good isometric contraction) or pull up against the object like you are going to do a straddled Romanian Deadlift (make sure that you use your hips/hamstrings to pull though and not your lower back) for anywhere between 3-10 seconds (I usually use 5 or 6 second contractions personally but you can experiment to find what works best for you).

Upon releasing the contraction (but not moving), you should be able to pull yourself a little further into the stretch. Then continue to repeat this process until you do not gain any more ROM after your contraction. At this point you have a couple options:

1. Just hang out there until the muscles relax

2. Do one more long isometric contraction trying to build strength in this new ROM (anywhere from 30 seconds up to 2 minutes could be used, but as with anything strength training related you want to start with lesser volume and intensity and build to greater volume and intensity, so your contractions could be less than 39 seconds when just starting out if need be).

If you want maximal ROM results then you can also repeat the stretch 1-2 more times until you don't gain any more total ROM (meaning that the second time you do the stretch you will probably get to a deeper "end ROM@ than you did the first time, but may or may not on the third repetition of the stretch).

Personally I have never really gotten very good results with passive flexibility routines and don't really want to or have the time to spend 10 minutes sitting in a single stretch to allow my muscles to fully relax so I prefer the isometric contraction route, but I do know others who passive stretching has worked well for, so again you can experiment to find what works best for you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Keegan.

Great stuff, will give these a go!

Yeah! What's up with that? I'm seriously struggling with range of motion in MN PE2.

I'm going to try the weighted elevated pancake stretch...

Rob Rowland said:

It seems like it comes too late in the overall progression, especially considering MN PE2...