butterfly and frog

Hello,

I dont have a picture yet, so cannot say definitively. But it feels like in the frog position I get deeper and it also feels better than in the butterfly. The butterfly is really hard, my knees dont get down also I am still ca 3cm away from my groin with my feet. Any tips on how to improve it? Just keep on going? I wonder why the frog feels better, to me it seems like they should stretch similar areas?

Speaking of frog: During Diamond frog should the whole foot be on the ground? I mean not leading with toes or heels but bringing them down at the same height?

Hi Michael,

You will find as you go through your training that you will have more natural ability on some elements than you have on others. On the elements that still need some time to improve, be patient. As you are patient and consistent in your stretching, and in your training in general, you will see yourself improve. Keep doing the Middle Split course each week and you will be able to get your knees to the ground and your feet to your groin.

On Diamond frog, work on touching both your heels and your toes simultaneously.

Keep working hard!

Thanks Jeffrey!

the most common advice is to do the exercise that seems to be  the tightest one every day for me its the frog 

my experience with the butterfly is that it will loosen over time its better to get the help of a partner first then with the help of your elbows or weight plates and then using the abductors strength  to pull down 

Coach is mentioning in the vid that one shouldnt use the elbows, so I dont do that. Is he referring to advanced people only here? I thought its a general advice.

So?

I don't use my elbows, I figure it won't hurt to pull them down, might be slower progress, in the long run it will pay off I think, it is all about patience though.

On 3/9/2017 at 8:45 AM, Michael Vetter said:

Coach is mentioning in the vid that one shouldnt use the elbows, so I dont do that. Is he referring to advanced people only here? I thought its a general advice.

 

You want to actively pull your knees down towards the floor. Don't push them but instead use your outer hip muscles to pull them down. 

Okay, thanks.

On 3/9/2017 at 4:45 PM, Michael Vetter said:

Coach is mentioning in the vid that one shouldnt use the elbows, so I dont do that. Is he referring to advanced people only here? I thought its a general advice.

it depends on the level you're at right now i stated the scaling you can use in ur journey, coach in the video pushes the athlete so his goal is to reach the sky  that's my understanding 

my coach told me years ago to use my elbows to pull down and that was just like when i started MSS and started using the abductors muscle it seemed impossible first and now i achieved it .

Still on this one. This time I definitely will need to post a picture.

A shame that I didnt do it before so I could compare now...

Anyways it still feels tight, and also I feel a lot of tightness in my lower back.

Are there any specific things one can do for that lower back area?

One thing I learned from my past experience, if you warm up your lower body really well, like you are sweating a lot after a cardio that works the legs a lot (but not to exhaustion), your hip stretch improves by a ton!

I used to do some martial arts for cardio (not serious martial arts for fighting), and it involves a lot of kicks. A lot of those kicks require a fast twist in the waist to create momentum. So imagine doing hundreds of those kicks, and you get soaked in sweat after a while. Then you cool down by doing hip stretches, I've noticed wonders.. I really miss that feeling.

Here it is:

As you can see I can almost not lean forward.

On 12/13/2017 at 9:18 AM, Michael Vetter said:

Are there any specific things one can do for that lower back area?

Sit on a stretch block for now and focus on achieving an anterior pelvic tilt during this hold.

12 hours ago, Michael Vetter said:

Here it is:

 

As you can see I can almost not lean forward.

michael try to move your feets closed to the goin and elevate your hips just a little with a thin matt and see if it helps 

did you try a partner pushing your back ?

My suggestion it is focusing hard on this variation once you can reach the floor with the knees without excessive warm up and with your back straight.

5 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

My suggestion it is focusing hard on this variation once you can reach the floor with the knees without excessive warm up and with your back straight.

Alessandro, are you saying not to lean forward until the knees are able to reach the floor while sitting perfectly straight with ATP?  (I am about at Michael's level right now, but it took me a year to get to this point  :-) ). I am focusing on leaning forward all the time, maybe I am wrong? 

Hi @Suzanna McGee,

It means that you should focus on not rounding the back. Keep the back straight and just bend until your current range of motion. No need to go all the way down if you compromise your form.

There is a big probability (if you lean forward too early) that you round your back. this is due to the fact that with knees of the floor it is much easier to assume the APT and roll the hips a bit out.

OK, thank you, that makes sense. I will make a video to see how straight or not I am. I have not actually filmed a Butterfly yet. It's going to be interesting for me to see as well. 

I do butterflies in front of stall bars so that I can pull with my arms as I lean forward and keep the back straight in atp