Seeking Flexibility Critique & Advice

I’d like to improve my bridge and pike, eventually moving towards skills like limbers/walkovers. My long term goals are to be able to get into some extreme positions possibly focus my training towards contortion. For now trying to get a solid bridge/pike and working towards both splits is my goal.

lqonUHmVseI

In this video I have a few angles of my back bridge and a standing pike at the end. I didn’t really warmup for the pike so I didn’t push too hard into the stretch. I can get a bit more of a hamstring stretch after warming up properly but it’s close enough to my max range of motion to illustrate my level of flexibility.

Now with my pike, my issue(from what I can tell, and have been told by Mr brady ) is lacking hamstring/calf flexibility. So I bend a lot from the lower back to get deeper.

Lately I’ve been training on a 4 day schedule and for flexibility it goes as follows:

Day 1

Bridge wall walks

Horse stance mobility

pike stretching

Straddle L compression work

Weighted pigeon stretch

Day 2

Bridge wall walks

Horse stance mobility

pike stretching

L-sit compression work

Weighted pike(keeping a flat back focusing on hamstring and calf stretch)

Day 3

Bridge wall walks

Horse stance mobility

pike stretching

Weight horse stance

Jefferson curls

Lying leg lifts

Hip extensions

Day 4

- a mix of whatever I feel like that day. Static stretching, SMR, mobility work, sometimes nothing.

I feel like continuing with my current regimen, adjusting weighted/active work based on what is falling behind and adding in a lot more passive/static work is probably my best bet, possibly working PNF into the mix. If anyone has more focused advice on my form, the structure of what I’m doing, or resources in Northern or Southern California that would be worth looking into that would be greatly appreciated.

Once again thanks for all the information shared on this forum.

No split work at this time? Any in your warmup like knee lunge, half front split or leg swings? How long have you been stretching for? I just restarted today, lol.

Looks pretty doable for the most part.

I know people all over California having coached in both Norcal and Socal. Send me a PM if ya like. I'll be in Ca for a visiting trip this weekend till just after TurkeyTime in Norcal and LA.

It looks like the standing pike has improved, you mange to pull your hips down at the end. Not much new to add otherwise.

Two things come to mind in the bridge. One drive from your elbows more. There is a chain from hand to elbow to the notch between the neck and shoulder. Once this chain is solid (it feels a bit like packing the shoulder), lift your body up off the shoulder.

Second the knees are splaying open, you might be better with your feet a touch wider so you can stay on your feet. There is a similar chain from feet to knee to groin and it needs to stay connected. With that chain in tact you can drive the arch in your chest from the feet and work to open the shoulders.

Blairbob said:

No split work at this time? Any in your warmup like knee lunge, half front split or leg swings? How long have you been stretching for? I just restarted today, lol.

Looks pretty doable for the most part.

I know people all over California having coached in both Norcal and Socal. Send me a PM if ya like. I'll be in Ca for a visiting trip this weekend till just after TurkeyTime in Norcal and LA.

Funny how writing things down works and you can forget things you do every day. I do three sets of leg swings, front, side, back on in between each type of stretching separated above.

Also I read an article a week or two back so funny enough I have just started knee lunges and half splits(that is the stretch with your back leg pressed up against a wall stretching the quad etc.?) but I have just been playing around with it for now. I haven't figured out how much/when it is good to do that. Maybe just at the end of my sessions?

Mr Brady said:

It looks like the standing pike has improved, you mange to pull your hips down at the end. Not much new to add otherwise.

Two things come to mind in the bridge. One drive from your elbows more. There is a chain from hand to elbow to the notch between the neck and shoulder. Once this chain is solid (it feels a bit like packing the shoulder), lift your body up off the shoulder.

Second the knees are splaying open, you might be better with your feet a touch wider so you can stay on your feet. There is a similar chain from feet to knee to groin and it needs to stay connected. With that chain in tact you can drive the arch in your chest from the feet and work to open the shoulders.

I will give both of those things a shot. The advice about the knees I understand but when you say lift your body up off the shoulder I want to make sure I understand that correctly. Once I get that chain solid should it feel like the majority of the weight is being released from the shoulder and spread more across the arch that my body is in (my upper back mostly and lower back to an extent to minimize as much as possible?)

Or should I be pushing my shoulders back over my hands as much as possible.

A half split is simple and at first really shouldn't be done against the wall. You start on your knees and stick one leg out straight so the heel is on the floor and the leg is at about a 30 degree angle, flex the foot and fold over the extended leg. Key points are:

• [*:34e28fiv]bend from the hips
  [*:34e28fiv]straight back as possible
  [*:34e28fiv]keep the foot flexed
  [*:34e28fiv]keep the hips straight.

By that I mean when going into splits, etc. there is a tendency for the hip of the extended leg to rotate out towards the front, you need to remember to pull that hip back so it is in line with the other hip. As you advance in the practice you make this pulling back of the hip fairly active which helps deepen the stretch, which lets you pull the hip back more, which helps you deepen the stretch; it's a very nice virtuous circle once you get there.

The next enhancement to the half split is to do them as you described with the knee down leg against a wall, top of foot elevated against the wall for a quad stretch. The next step is to push out into full split, but one thing at a time obviously.

Blairbob also mentioned the low lunge and I don't think you should miss this important stretch either. Whereas half split is what I would consider a hip "up" stretch, the low lunge is the opposing hip "down" stretch. Ying and yang. When executing a low lunge you want to feel the hips are level but going down. Make sense? Again, focus on keeping those hips in line with each other as the tendency can be for the forward leg hip to rotate forward.

I'm very jealous of your bridge as your shoulders are way more open than mine. But yes, I believe your shoulders should be more over your hands.

The lifting off the shoulders is the least important part, but the idea is to literally pull your chest higher up off the shoulders, the effect is to make more room so you can roll forward through the chest and shoulders. This roll is driven by the legs.

I prefer to call it rolling forward, but many say push.