Weak at Middle Split - pain at medial condyle

Hi,

I'm pretty solid at the front split sequence and I feel that I readily adapt to it. I love how it opens up with the high rep calf raises.

However, I'm very inflexible at the middle split sequence and don't see any progress (though its only been a few iterations). My diamond frog and my "butterfly" are jokes. I don't bother with the roll-throughs at the end if I even make it that far, and I cut my sets short due to medial (tibial?) condyle pain near where the tendon inserts after many variations of pancakes. I'm not really sure how much pain and discomfort is safe and expected versus risky to hold through.

I'm really good at the 90 second iso-hold facing the wall which feels like the money move in this sequence. It hits my Adductors comfortably - the muscle belly and the end closer to groin, rather than tendons near my knee. The contrast between how good this one feels and the rest of this entire sequence is so strong that it makes me think that this whole sequence needs to be built differently for me. I'd like to work on my iso hold and then slowly add in the rest of this sequence with as much as the medial side of my knee can comfortably tolerate.

My questions are:

What is the acceptable pain level to allow myself to safely experience at the knee?
What's the high calf raise rep equivalent to heat up for the middle split sequence and allow my to jump into the golden iso-hold move?
Tightness in which which area might contribute to what I'm experiencing (good at the iso hold - feel too much stress during pancake) ?
Did anyone else experience something similar and did they eventually adapt to the pancake stress at the medial knee?

Thanks!

 

HI Chris, personally for me aside the last cm of the front split, the middle split takes the most of the time especially because posture muscles used everydays are involved strongly. so you cannot expect to stretch for 1 hour in a week, then use them everydays to stabilize the hips and have substantial progress in 2 sessions. 

The sensation should be in between pain and discomfort.

Beginner like should not use iso-hold for middle split, I suggest them only to those who has already completed legs on F4.

your problem it is probably long adductors passing through the knee, I have some regular boring sensation after strong session.

I used to have a fairly sharp pain in the gracilis tendon on the inside of the right knee. Have always had it, and it would stop me from trying to stretch in the past, especially the pancake. 

It gradually got weaker when doing the middle split series, and was gone after 10-15 sessions. 

I suspect that fascia adhesions where the issue, and that eventually the adhesions broke up. However, this is purely speculation.

i also had thought like you but nearly a year since i started i will not say its a huge progression but the session is getting more comfortable and the big challenge is in those hips (i think like in the 1st podcast with tim its about soft tissue rejuvenation so i suspect when i will get pass one year or so progress will show up) u can check bodyweightdad in instagram and see his progress with the MSS its very motivating to see his progress over 20 weeks 

for the knees i also experience a little in the beginning of the session but it goes off after the warm up

for pancake from my exp the standing pancake and the periformis and shoulder inside the thigh made the pain vanish over sessions