Pike Flexibility??

[Liosis]

Hey guys,

I have extremely poor pike flexibility and was just wondering what are the best ways of improving it?

Thanks

[Joshua Naterman]

There will be more qualified posters for this than myself, but for me the following approach has worked well, though I have been far too inconsistent about it to accurately measure just HOW good it is.

I start off with a warm up, either some uphill walking or some increasingly fast sprints in long pants. Once I feel that my legs are nice and warm, along with the rest of my body, I do a few sets of dynamic stretches. I swing my leg forward and backward, with the emphasis on kicking upwards as far as I can without tilting my hips on the way forward. I do this with each leg. I do the same thing to the side, and then I go back to the front. After two or three sets, done back to back with no rest, I do a quick standing hamstring stretch, sort of like the first part of a sun salutation, if you are familiar. I touch my palms to the floor. After a few sets of holding that for ten seconds, I sit down and perform the seated pike stretch. I usually get my palm heels on my foot heels. After that I do the "runner's stretch," where I get on one knee, with my knee at the heel of the leading foot. I then straighten both legs while keeping my hands on the floor. I sometimes use a chair in front of me to get a better stretch, then go back to hands on the floor. Being able to support your upper body with the chair helps to focus on releasing the hamstrings and straightening the back. I do this once or twice per leg for 15-30 seconds, and then go back to the seated pike stretch. I usually do this for maybe two weeks and I get to where I am interlocking my fingers with hands on the bottom of my feet, toes pulled all the way back towards my knees. Then I get lazy and stop stretching for a month or two, get stiff, and then get it all back in a week or two. It works very quickly, and then my priorities change

[Nick Van Bockxmeer]

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=388&p=1126&hilit=weighted+pike+stretching#p1126

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=624&p=2121&hilit=weighted+pike+stretching#p2121

try this:

sit with your legs out in front as if you were going to pike. Rather than reaching for your toes, hold your hands behind your head. Keeping your back straight, lower your torso towards the ground. Depending on strength and or flexibility you will find a point where you start to experience discomfort. Keeping the legs firmly pressed into the ground to activate the hamstrings, pull your torso back up with your lower back muscles. Repeat the with your arms held straight over head. For extra fun you can also hold a light weight. This is a basically a weighted pike stretch from a seated position. You can do it in standing too like in Coach's method.

Vo_OOIIJzig

[Bob Sanders]

Other than pike stretches, what else can I do to construct a full constructing routine? A site with info on stretching routines and creating one would be very helpful.

[Blairbob]

http://drillsandskills.com/stretching

http://drillsandskills.com/article/11

http://agt.degreesofclarity.com/stretching/

[Tarun Suri]

Ido posts his thoughts on active flexibility and its programming in a nutshell: http://forum.idoportal.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=115

Also, the final post is someone asking if he understand correctly using using pike as his example. Ido confirms. Worth a read.