Pancake work: chest down?

Hello,

when I do the Seated Good Mornings, Pancake Walk, Pancake Bounce and Pancake Cirle from the "Middle Split Series" is it more important to push the chest down or to focusn the straddle?

For me it is not possible to do a full straddle AND chest down, now.

Regards

BlinkMe

What are you doing instead of straddle when you can get your chest down? If you are just somewhat closing the straddle thats ok at first, it reduces the strength required. However you will want to widen your straddle over time.

What about the APT that Coach refers to when he reviews how we should do the seated good mornings? I can't sit in a straddle and maintain APT, so should I sit on something to elevate me or just keep working it (at my current ROM) and it will get better over time?

Edoardo Cagnola said:

What about the APT that Coach refers to when he reviews how we should do the seated good mornings? I can't sit in a straddle and maintain APT, so should I sit on something to elevate me or just keep working it (at my current ROM) and it will get better over time?

'Sit on as many blocks as necessary to correct the issue'. That is what Coach Sommer told me when I asked the same question.

Chest down is necessary for beginner. BUT there some people with different morphology of sciatic nerve passage who can suffer by nerve impingement when straddling and lowering the chest down. if this is your case try to emulate a strong APT and aim to belly to the ground with chest up. if you can't, use some mats to raise up your butt a bit.

Alessandro, can I ask you for advice? I need to sit on three stretch blocks in order to achieve APT and don't do chest down because I lose APT, I lean down only until the point where I can still maintain the back straight. Like Coach says in the follow along video 'stretch long and down'. As you see, I am a complete beginner in MS training. So should I ignore losing APT and bend down as much as possible to get that belly to the ground?

As i stated , if you are not experiencing pain of strange strength loss on the legs during the following days..you can focus on what Coach suggests. 

Also this is a seated straddle, not a middle split.  If you cannot grab both feet or ankles with your hands, your legs are too wide.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the distinction Coach. Is the same thing true for the Standing pancake stretch, MS/SE2, as well? I notice that in the follow along vid Kira's legs aren't super wide but she is very flexed at her hips while Orench's legs are wider but he doesn't have as much hip flexion. But in the seated pancake stretches Kira's legs look like they are in a full middle split.