Pancake bounce & stretch sessions in general

Day1 of middle stretch. Holy s%#^!! My adductors are smoked, and so are my obliques (weird?). And I didn't even finish it! Couldn't do the last one. I feel if I do the middle stretch exercises separately, like do one today, and another tomorrow, I can probably do most of them with decent form. But doing them altogether in one session is a whole different level. For example, 10r of pancake bounce right after 10r pancake walk is just painful. I can't keep my hands off the floor for support. Coach says in the video that the bounce should start from the hands and not the shoulders. I started to tap real hard on the floor, like in this video. Is this good at all?

My chest went much lower in the pancake walk, which tired me out for the pancake bounce. This brought out another question: since my hips get more and more tired as the session goes, should I strive for the best form I can get from exercise #1 then get very tired later on and maybe not able to finish the session, or do I do somewhat good form early on, but keep some gas in the tank in order to finish the session? I lasted up till the pancake roll through, which I really looked forward to. But my hips just gave up, too painful (not injured pain, but tired pain) to even stay in the split.

Hey Jin,

I suggest reducing your overall intensity. Find a way to tone it down enough so that you can complete the whole series. Stretching is different from strength training; the effort level should be far lower. 

For your pancake:

1. Keep more anterior pelvic tilt, even if that means your chest is higher. For examples, have a look at the technique tip videos in the course library. You want a straight spine here. 

2. Don't allow your knees to roll in. During the bounces, they looked to be rolling slightly inward. 

1 hour ago, Everett Carroll said:

Hey Jin,

I suggest reducing your overall intensity. Find a way to tone it down enough so that you can complete the whole series. Stretching is different from strength training; the effort level should be far lower. 

For your pancake:

1. Keep more anterior pelvic tilt, even if that means your chest is higher. For examples, have a look at the technique tip videos in the course library. You want a straight spine here. 

2. Don't allow your knees to roll in. During the bounces, they looked to be rolling slightly inward. 

Thanks Everett! This makes sense. I'll keep in mind the APT. This is my weak point. I guess I can also reduce the distance between the legs in order to reduce the intensity? With wider legs I feel the tendency to fall forward, which make me round my lower back so that I can control the descent..

Something that helped me early on is make it purely a hip/adductor stretch. Keep a super strict straight spine. Lean forward until your torso starts to fold and stop there. Keep your APT and quads tight, with the feet rolled out. Do all of your pancake variations from there and you'll warm up throughout the sets and go deeper. You'll feel the stretch much much more effectively and you'll maintain steady progress. Alot of people don't focus on those finer points and end up getting a really stiff/sore lower back.

2 hours ago, Jin Liu said:

I guess I can also reduce the distance between the legs in order to reduce the intensity? With wider legs I feel the tendency to fall forward, which make me round my lower back so that I can control the descent..

Exactly. Keep your straddle at about 90-degrees.

Hi Jin, I took breaks between each of those middle stretch 10r sets at the beginning. 30-60 seconds in butterfly or child's pose or even a light twist lying on my back helped a lot in getting through the series. Now I may bring the feet together and shake the legs out if my back is feeling tight or my hammies are aching between sets. It'll get easier (as I'm sure you know from the other programming!)