GB Members' Pancake Progress

21 hours ago, James Hill said:

Alex, can you explain your elephant walks please? google provided some "interesting" links but nothing that made sense in the context...

Thanks.

Basically you stand in a pike position with moderately bent legs and touching the floor with your fingertips.

- First course of action is to glue the stomach to the legs as much as possible. This helps really feel the action of tilting the pelvis.

- Secondly, you start to perform single leg-straightening movements while having the same degree of pelvic tilt. This should isolate the hamstrings of each leg.

The nature of this exercise may seem simple but by touching the floor with your hands, having bent legs and being able to feel the stomach on your legs you are in very safe position perceived by the brain. The safer you feel and the more control of the movements you have will lower alertness level of your body and will help you relax your muscles more, here the hamstrings.

It took me a few training sessions to really experience the pelvic control and isolated leg straightening movements but once that gets to you you will see improvements.

A few pitfalls to avoid: Maintain all joint angles except for the leg that you are training to straighten. Your body will try to bent everywhere it can in order to cheat in the position.

18 hours ago, Alexander Egebak said:

Basically you stand in a pike position with moderately bent legs and touching the floor with your fingertips.

- First course of action is to glue the stomach to the legs as much as possible. This helps really feel the action of tilting the pelvis.

- Secondly, you start to perform single leg-straightening movements while having the same degree of pelvic tilt. This should isolate the hamstrings of each leg.

The nature of this exercise may seem simple but by touching the floor with your hands, having bent legs and being able to feel the stomach on your legs you are in very safe position perceived by the brain. The safer you feel and the more control of the movements you have will lower alertness level of your body and will help you relax your muscles more, here the hamstrings.

It took me a few training sessions to really experience the pelvic control and isolated leg straightening movements but once that gets to you you will see improvements.

A few pitfalls to avoid: Maintain all joint angles except for the leg that you are training to straighten. Your body will try to bent everywhere it can in order to cheat in the position.

Hi Alex.

Tried it and really like it.

I take it were aiming for APT? If APT is difficult to maintain even with moderately bent legs I presume there's no harm in placing the hands on a step or maybe standing in a slight straddle?

18 hours ago, Alexander Egebak said:

Basically you stand in a pike position with moderately bent legs and touching the floor with your fingertips.

- First course of action is to glue the stomach to the legs as much as possible. This helps really feel the action of tilting the pelvis.

- Secondly, you start to perform single leg-straightening movements while having the same degree of pelvic tilt. This should isolate the hamstrings of each leg.

The nature of this exercise may seem simple but by touching the floor with your hands, having bent legs and being able to feel the stomach on your legs you are in very safe position perceived by the brain. The safer you feel and the more control of the movements you have will lower alertness level of your body and will help you relax your muscles more, here the hamstrings.

It took me a few training sessions to really experience the pelvic control and isolated leg straightening movements but once that gets to you you will see improvements.

A few pitfalls to avoid: Maintain all joint angles except for the leg that you are training to straighten. Your body will try to bent everywhere it can in order to cheat in the position.

Hi Alex.

Tried it and really like it.

I take it were aiming for APT? If APT is difficult to maintain even with moderately bent legs I presume there's no harm in placing the hands on a step or maybe standing in a slight straddle?

edit: Re-read and it says fingertips. I was touching palms to the floor.

47 minutes ago, Greg White said:

Hi Alex.

Tried it and really like it.

I take it were aiming for APT? If APT is difficult to maintain even with moderately bent legs I presume there's no harm in placing the hands on a step or maybe standing in a slight straddle?

edit: Re-read and it says fingertips. I was touching palms to the floor.

A yoga step can be used as a progression for the very tight people but the point is using the finger tips as a light support; do not use the hands as weight-bearing because that will take some of the stretch off the hamstrings.

@Mark Schoenhard Nice work! Make sure those knees are all the way locked.

Hello everyone,

This is my current level. Just starting middle stretch serie. Will see how it looks in 6 month of the middle split serie once a week.

Victor

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing the progress that you make.

 New to GST, is it normal to feel sore after stretching? Hammies/groin...?

On 2/12/2020 at 3:55 AM, Casey Allred said:

 New to GST, is it normal to feel sore after stretching? Hammies/groin...?

hey Casey, yes is possible.