MN/PE2

I need some other pairs of eyes here. I've been doing step 1 (3x3) for a while on this, while working diligently on mobility and compression as additional work. This is the latest:

Am I anywhere close to be able to move to step 2 or am I still far away? I see tiny progress every week, but I can't really judge where I am. Also, Jefferson curls ROM is improving nicely, so overall I'm feeling good, I just need some guidance.

Thanks!

Do you have Pro+? They have a good tip on improving hip flexor strength. Another tip which @Zach Armijo gave me was to scale PE1. So, while PE1 is a complete tuck, and then PE2 is a straddle. Start back with, say, PE1.5 where your legs  straddled and bent at 90 degrees, then master that; after that work up to maybe PE1.75 where your legs are bent at 135 degrees and straddled. Then slowly work up to your legs being straight (180 degrees) and also straddled. This would be an unofficial fix, so you could play around with how you break up the progressions or reps x sets, but I found it to be effective for me before I had to take an extensive break from Foundations.

Not bad but slow down to use less momentum. I assume pancakes are part of your mobility training to add to your rom.

Thanks for the answers.

@Daniel Taylor-Shaut if you are referring to GB Pro+ Weekly Tip #4, yes I'm doing that additional work every single day in my warm-up.

@Petri Widsten I do the middle split series once a week but no other additional pancake work.

So what do you guys think is the most productive way to go about this? Consider that I have no rush at all, I just want to continue to progress, even if at minimal speed:

1. Form is not that bad so I move to step 2, add more reps and re-evaluate in a little bit.
2. Regress to PE1.X as suggested by Daniel.
3. Continue what I'm doing (stay at step one and implement the Tip every day in my warm-up), confident that things will improve automatically if my pancake and compression improve.
4. Some other additional work (open to suggestions)

I'm tempted by 2...

Giovanni, your legs are nice and straight with good pointed toes. 

I don't know what tip #4 is as I don't have Pro, but I can see you could benefit from some end-range hip flexor strength. If you're not already doing it, I would add some pike pulses or isometric holds on the side to aid in compression.

52 minutes ago, Eva Pelegrin said:

Giovanni, your legs are nice and straight with good pointed toes. 

I don't know what tip #4 is as I don't have Pro, but I can see you could benefit from some end-range hip flexor strength. If you're not already doing it, I would add some pike pulses or isometric holds on the side to aid in compression.

Answered your own confusion 

my tip might work well, be ause you would be engaging a full range of motion and slowly increasing the ROM (by straightening the legs over time and steps/blocks). That in conjunction with the tip from week 4 seems like it might be the most straight-forward path to beating PE2. Best of luck.

I don't  have Pro either but I think you can just keep doing what you are doing and you'll get there. Adding straddle pulses or adopting some of the other suggestions might speed up your progress as long as they don't leave you too fatigued for your work sets so I would do them after the scheduled work.

16 hours ago, Giovanni Garcea said:

if you are referring to GB Pro+ Weekly Tip #4

Could somebody help me to find this "Weekly Tip"?

Thanks Guys! A lot of food for thoughts, that's what I needed. So the ingredients of the "cocktail" would be regressing the PE2 to PE1.x, doubling down on the active compression drills I'm already doing and maybe add some passive pancake flexibility work in addition to the middle split.

I think fatigue won't be an issue, but my time is constrained. I'm already doing additional mobility work to beat the swivel hips, so I might need to wait until swivel hips are under control before adding more stuff to my warm-up.

I really appreciate all the help in this thread, I hope to make some progress by the end of August.

@Petra DvorakProbably filing a support ticket is the best way.

@Petra @Giovanni - did anyone come across that tip, and/or when and how do these tips arise normally? 

Tks in advance, 

Ken

I just started PE2 as well.  Yours look a lot better than mine... my straddle is not very good.  I've been doing the middle split stretch routine once/week like you as well.  I decided to start on step 4 instead of step 1 though.  That's 24 total reps instead of just 9, that's 2.5x more practice to work on getting more compression and a better straddle, plus an extra set of jefferson curls never hurt no one.  I do like the idea of mixing in some straddle pulses.  I assume that this is what people are talking about when they mention straddle pulses.

Yes, those are the ones. Good for squeezing the last drops of energy out of your hip flexors after your MN PE2 workout.

Yes, I've been doing these and similar drills for a few weeks now, they are very helpful. I'm convincing myself that my passive flexibility (pancake) is so insufficient that I need to address that to really master this element, so I will be adding some pancake stretches to my daily routine in addition to the weekly middle split series. I'll get there when I get there, I really don't care how long it will take me :-)