No Anterior Pelvic Tilt and unable to do Pancake Roll Through (MSs/SE26)

I just finished my first Middle Split follow through session.

I had two problems in doing the follow along lesson

Posterior Pelvic Tilt issue.

I've always known that I couldn't do a full front or middle split because of posterior pelvic tilt. I don't know muscle anatomy very well, so I don't know what muscle it is that is tight that keeps my pelvis tilted backwards.

This pelvic tilt prevents me from properly doing most of the stretches in the straddle position, which is like half of the middle split series. I don't feel like I'm getting the correct stretch for some of them.

You see I get a rounded back when trying to lean forward because of the posterior pelvic tilt. 

It looks like I may have some belly fat but I'm actually skinny. I think everyone gets that much belly when you round your back and all the skin comes together.

Is there maybe something else I should do before or outside of the weekly Middle Split series to fix this?

Or is there a particular stretch in the Middle Split series that will eventually fix this so I just need to do the Middle Split series?

Issue with Pancake Roll Through (MSs/SE26)

I can't split my legs far apart enough for me to lift myself up and roll forward. I need to lower myself by bending one of my knees to roll forward but that defeats the purpose of the stretch.

You see how I'm trying to lift myself up and forward? But my legs are still narrow so I need to lift myself up really high before I can roll forward.

I've seen some people with rings hanging from the ceiling to pull up and forward but I don't have anything like that in the house. Is there a way to do this stretch some other way?

Do them from a chair.

Big Gib your just very tight

Shortened musculature in the legs, around the hips and posterior spinal muscles are all involved.

I would say it's very important to get your sitting posture right, which means you need to sit upon something. Experiment with how many blocks you need until you are able to sit without your lower back rounding.

It's that simple. I would leave the roll through for now, until you can sit on the floor without the need for blocks. It's something to aim for.

The integrated mobility section of Handstand One is where anterior/posterior pelvic control and mobility are specifically addressed.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

It gets better. You just did one session, just keep at it, do it as attentively as possible. That's really the important thing, progress here is measured by months, not weeks.

For the stretches where you have the PPT issue I think you can try elevating the hips as suggested. When doing the seated good morning, try not to look at the floor and do them slowly. For me these are the ones where I'm tightest in terms of maintaining APT.

The roll through you just have to keep practicing. The key is kind of being able to shift your weight forward (like a dive forward ?) so that you don't have to raise yourself as much. When I started mine where just comical but they have steadily improved.

For the roll through, although something to pull from may make it more comfortable, there is nothing wrong with walking up with your hands as necessary. Do watch your knees as you improve though. As Wes said elevate until it's right; when you get these stretches correct they work remarkably quickly.

Hey Big Gib,

I was on exactly the same boat as you are now. Just want to give you a heads up.

In the beginning I needed to sit on 3 stretching blocks to eliminate back rounding. I also did all the specific pancake work sitting on them.

I do MS for about 7 months (I had one 10 weeks break due to groin injury though) and now I don't need any blocks to sit on the floor with straight back after a short warm up and I use only 1 block for specific pancake work. I like to do weighted pancake on the floor after MSS session is done, that helps as well. I

I thought that I will literally never get to the pancake. I was that desperate. Now I see the light at the end. You will as well. Make sure to avoid injuries, because I can only imagine where I would be now if I would have avoided that groin injury. It is not worth to rush

Vytautas Pilkauskas said:

Hey Big Gib,

 

I was on exactly the same boat as you are now. Just want to give you a heads up.

 

In the beginning I needed to sit on 3 stretching blocks to eliminate back rounding. I also did all the specific pancake work sitting on them.

I do MS for about 7 months (I had one 10 weeks break due to groin injury though) and now I don't need any blocks to sit on the floor with straight back after a short warm up and I use only 1 block for specific pancake work. I like to do weighted pancake on the floor after MSS session is done, that helps as well. I

 

I thought that I will literally never get to the pancake. I was that desperate. Now I see the light at the end. You will as well. Make sure to avoid injuries, because I can only imagine where I would be now if I would have avoided that groin injury. It is not worth to rush

Thanks for sharing Vytatutas, it's always nice to hear success stories like that. Can you give us an idea of the weight and reps/time you use for the weighted pankake work?

Thank you

When I do it, I use 11 lbs (5 kg) bar to do a single set of 60 sec weighted floating pancake and 10 seated good mornings.

It is not even necessary to do extra work because MS stretch series alone is doing the job, but a couple additional exercises shouldn't do any harm.

Coach Sommer said:

The integrated mobility section of Handstand One is where anterior/posterior pelvic control and mobility are specifically addressed.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I have had issues with extremely tight/overactive hamstrings due to an anterior pelvic tilt.  (I must admit I have neglected my flexibility for the last four years and I'm really noticing the ill affects now.)  I'm just beginning the stretch series after purchasing it last week.  Are there any specific tips or recommendations outside of the stretch series that can help with the issue of overly tight hamstrings?  (Or is following several weeks of the GST program F1, H1, H2 and stretch enough to resolve it over time.) Would you recommend more frequent practice of certain mobility movements found in H1 to address overly tight hamstrings?  Is there any place for foam rolling in GST or is it completely unnecessary?  

Thank you in advance.  I absolutely love the web site - I just wish I had learned about GST much sooner!

gettingstarted said:

I have had issues with extremely tight/overactive hamstrings due to an anterior pelvic tilt.  (I must admit I have neglected my flexibility for the last four years and I'm really noticing the ill affects now.)  I'm just beginning the stretch series after purchasing it last week.  Are there any specific tips or recommendations outside of the stretch series that can help with the issue of overly tight hamstrings?  (Or is following several weeks of the GST program F1, H1, H2 and stretch enough to resolve it over time.) Would you recommend more frequent practice of certain mobility movements found in H1 to address overly tight hamstrings?  Is there any place for foam rolling in GST or is it completely unnecessary?  

 

Thank you in advance.  I absolutely love the web site - I just wish I had learned about GST much sooner!

In addition to the Stretch courses, the hamstring integrated mobility work in the Foundation/Manna progressions is excellent.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

p.s.  Thanks for the kind words and glad you are enjoying GB!

Not to mention the mobility work in H2 on top of all that. It sounds like you've got all the courses you need. Next and most important ingredient is time. And patience. Those two are the salt and pepper of training. And not just in terms of "several weeks" but several months, and then several years. In three weeks you'll have only practiced each stretch course three times. That's nothing. Imagine what happens after 52 sessions.

To echo others' statements, sit yourself up higher. I find that doing the Pancake work: bounces, sweeps, good mornings, butterflies, and walks (in no particular order) are much better activated when I'm on a yoga block. It's taken me all of 8-9 months to figure the effectiveness of this out. Given that I thought I had it for a while (overstating my studliness) and then trying various other things in the meanwhile, I've found the most progress from regressing. The movement and stretch series greatly benefit from dialing it back and taking it easy. The notion that it should be mildly uncomfortable but not agonizing is quite distinct and takes a while to really figure out when you're training solo. Keep at it, at the very least you figured all this out in the first workout. 

Just finished my first MS series and came straight to the forum for help on this. Great thread with great advice! Off to try it with a block right now. Thank you OP for asking the question and thank you all for the great replies.  I wish I'd found GB earlier too. :-) 

I would add that the manna mobility is a must for MS success.

Also I noticed that people with no hips rotation seems to be very tight in the upper hamstring (where it is inserted on the hip bone), a good approach to stimulate this bodypart is doing the manna IM with bent knee and straight back especially the dynamic part and in future the static. simply bend you knees a bit then  move deeper on the stretch while only a strong APT.

Hi everyone, I wanted to thank everyone for some great advices.

I've been doing the middle split and front split series for a month now.

During the front split series today, I started to feel the part joining my legs and hips could be tensed, making my hips rotate forward .

I didn't expect such change in so little time... Now I love stretching

Good stuff. It gets better, keep at it.

Fab. Makes me excited to see my gains through the coming year.

But, is it literally just the stretch vid once per week or lighter stretching throughout?

Dale said:

Fab. Makes me excited to see my gains through the coming year.

But, is it literally just the stretch vid once per week or lighter stretching throughout?

Literally just the stretch vid once per week .

I do Front split on Saturdays and Middle split on Sundays. No lighter stretches throughout the week.

I could only just reach the toe with the tip of my finger before starting in November.

Only been a month and already making immense progress.

That's so good. Was going to start January but think will start tonight after work instead

Third time through the MS series and I finally found a pancake roll through that works for me without any weird twisting or potentially injuring asymmetry.

This time I sat on a bolster and used a block in front of me to push my hands into and get the required lift. Thrilled to have made it though 10 reps where I actually felt like I was working and making progress.

Now I can gradually reduce the height of my seat and block as I get more mobile. Thanks to this thread!

Happy New Year!

Just finished my first Ms session and had the same issue. I will use all the tips!

Just came back to update progress.

Haven't missed a single session since starting this post on November 9th.

3 months and here is me during the Floating Pancake element today

Well done. Your got such an improvement. Just goes to show when you think you have no hope just gotta stick at things and they will come. Fab

Very good Young. You are going to have to change the title of this post soon with that kinda progress