3 Months, major progress on pike

After a series of false starts, I've finally been consistent with my GST for the first time in several years (and the first time since the stretch series came out) so I thought I would post a picture showing the massive gains (for me) that I've seen in pike mobility in a very short time. 

The left picture is November, the right picture was this past Monday. 

As you can see not only have my hamstring and calf muscles loosened significantly, my t-spine is significantly more mobile as well. It's amazing how rapidly some of these gains have been acquired. On the narrow and wide hurdler I've been progressing 1/2" seemingly every week!

Great work! Narrow hurdler is my nemesis. Hate that stretch because I still feel like I'm going to tip over.

1 minute ago, Josh Earl said:

Great work! Narrow hurdler is my nemesis. Hate that stretch because I still feel like I'm going to tip over.

Yeah I have my butt on the floor but still have a block wedged into the side of my glute to keep me from tipping over on narrow hurdler. Haven't quite achieved the balance I need there yet

Nice progress! Are your legs completely straight?

nice work!

Wow great work Jonathan! Thanks for sharing  

Nice work Jonathan. Keep updating us on your progress.

On 1/27/2017 at 2:29 PM, Stephen Majerle said:

Nice progress! Are your legs completely straight?

Thanks everyone. Stephen, after your comment I went back and looked at the pictures. I'm not confident that in the left (before) picture I had them completely straight. The feeling of "pushing through the back of the knee" really clicked with me after the 4th or 5th week, and I think it is what helped really accelerate my progress. 

So to answer your question succinctly - in November, probably not. These days, hell yeah

Congrats Jonathan! Great improvement!

Nicely done Jonathan. Looking forward to your Narrow Hurdler video.

This is an inspiration. Keep up with the great work!

Nice progress!

How often did you do the front split series? Did you do the followalong once a week (just more focused/consistent than before) and nothing else? Or did you start doing something extra to get this result? How long have you worked on this in total?

Thanks!

@Nico De Raedt I was doing it once a week, and this was after about three months of consistent work. 

I worked on the series for two other 1-2 month long periods at various times last year as well. I have a lot of issues with staying disciplined though due to a hectic and unbalanced life (not an excuse, a factual statement). I know I should just be tougher and more disciplined. 

Great work Jonathon, and thank you for sharing! I've struggled to consistently fit in my GST workouts as well and seeing your progress is inspiring. 

Even though I've only done the FS workout a handful of times, I am starting to get a feel for how my muscles and joints should be positioned in the floor stretches. The wall ones are still a struggle to get into position and hold it. At this stage those feel more like a challenging yoga move than a stretch. And today I completed the full calf raise reps! :-)  

Keep up the great work!