Wushu Head to Toe

Hello everyone! There's quite an interesting skill that's been very hyped recently, in part due to Emmet Louis' tutorial concerning it, it's the head to toe, a skill from Wushu, here it is: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lymrp2gl8L1r5bmwe.jpg

Aside from ballistic stretching, what methods could be used to achieve it? Thanks!

front split series and middle split series, nothing more. in addition you need to have impressive achilles tendon flexibility and good facilitated proportions, there are people who, despite their flexibility and wonderful range of motion, will never reach the toe.

i consider myself pretty stiff and gained approximately 25-30cm ROM with the ballistic stretching approach in the course of a few weeks. the last time i checked the distance between my forehead and toe was measuring 4 fingers. right now i am only maintaining the ROM by doing it once per week (+ stiff leg deadlifts twice).

people might consider it unsafe but i personally havent seen such quick(!) AND sustainable gains in flexibility (not mobility)  with any other method. yes it hurts, yes it requires consistency, yes it takes time...but it works.

I agree. It didn't bring me all the way yet but it gave my flexibility a huge boost in mere weeks.

DieKatze said:

i consider myself pretty stiff and gained approximately 25-30cm ROM with the ballistic stretching approach in the course of a few weeks. the last time i checked the distance between my forehead and toe was measuring 4 fingers. right now i am only maintaining the ROM by doing it once per week (+ stiff leg deadlifts twice).

 

people might consider it unsafe but i personally havent seen such quick(!) AND sustainable gains in flexibility (not mobility)  with any other method. yes it hurts, yes it requires consistency, yes it takes time...but it works.

Would it be safe for my son? Also, did you use the Emmet louis video for head to toe?

GenericGymnast said:

Would it be safe for my son? Also, did you use the Emmet louis video for head to toe?

I will encourage you to first take your son through the basic of stretching, and also the prerequisites recommended by Emmet, after all of he will conquer H2T in no time.  Before having nice jefferson curl and a nice pike it doesn't have any sense to my to work on advanced stuff.

He already has a nice pike and has been stretching his whole body for a while now.

Here is his pike: http://postimg.org/image/4uvqq2g9h/

He can hold it with no warmup necessary. Is he ready?

His hands can go down deeper he was just pulling himself toward the legs a little (not much).

What about the mobility in F1 ? How's his jefferson ? I can't see the image 404 Not found

I edited the image, here's some different images btw

I will post a form check of MN/im2.

Thanks!

Here is the JC chuchodani (only on F1 forum): https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/22530-jefferson-curl/

Look like a really nice pike, in the other hand remember to compensate that good flexibility with strength. I injured my hamstring in the past because I was flexible but I did zero exercises to strengthen my hamstrings. Now I do a lot of posterior chain strength work.

He says thank you for the compliment. I will be sure to get him to work on the posterior chain by maintaining the FL exercises, is FL PE enough for posterior chain if he also does glute work like glute bridges on the side?

Remember that JC is not just about the ROM but about the load, he needs to build some decent load relative to his BW in order to get the full benefits.

GenericGymnast said:

He says thank you for the compliment. I will be sure to get him to work on the posterior chain by maintaining the FL exercises, is FL PE enough for posterior chain if he also does glute work like glute bridges on the side?

You need to look up at the iM's in the SLS progressions there you have a lot of nice exercises to strengthen the hamstrings.

Thanks for the suggestion on hamstring stretching.