Help wanted - remedial pancake

[Graham Smith]

Apologies if there is already an answer here, I have searched to no avail. Having injured my shoulder, I am focusing on lower body flexibility, and I need some help with the pancake stretch. Most advice I have seen suggests to sit with the legs apart and then lean forward with a straight back until you're flat on the floor. Nice, but about as useful as saying that to do an iron cross simply lower yourself down from a ring support with straight arms, technically correct, but not very helpful to the beginner.

My goal is to achieve a pancake, in order eventually to be able to press to handstand. My approach and current ability is as follows:

From a seated position, I move my legs apart as far as possible. On a good day, this forms an angle of approximately 90 degrees between my legs, at which point I tend to cramp on the outside of the hip rather than reaching the stretch limit of my adductors (although these require work too.) In this position, I am lucky if I can even sit up vertically, let alone lean forward at all. I don't seem to be making much progress from here, and suspect that I need a more remedial position. In terms of hamstring flexibility, I can in a standing pike almost but not quite get my palms flat on the floor.

Could someone please advise me of how I may train in order to be able to lean my body forward even an inch so that I might be able to progress in this stretch?

Regards.

[Sam Rea]

Nice, but about as useful as saying that to do an iron cross simply lower yourself down from a ring support with straight arms, technically correct, but not very helpful to the beginner.

I laughed when I read this. It's the same sense of despair I feel when I read bridge progressions (first, push into a bridge...)

I can't claim any expertise here, but I do have some first hand experience - my current flexibility is similar to yours, but was even worse and continues to improve. One stretch that helped me in particular was this: Lie on the floor with your back completely flat. Position yourself so that your legs are against a wall, pointing towards the ceiling. You might find that in order to keep your hips flat on the floor you need to move your butt a few inches away from the wall to begin with. This is fine, but aim to get as close as possible. Now spread your legs into a straddle, ignoring the bemused looks of anyone who walks past. You should feel a good stretch, particularly in the groin. The position is fairly comfortable, so you could lie there for a couple of minutes or more to allow your muscles to relax and thus stretch further. In this way I have managed to increase my straddle pike flexibility from 'awful' to 'poor'.

In addition, this can be worked as an active stretch. Strive to pull your legs as far apart as possible. At the same time, work on pulling your legs off the wall and holding for a few seconds. In this way you are building strength in the stretched position without tiring yourself out prematurely, and, by keeping your back flat, the floor prevents you from cheating. You could see this as a scaled down version of Hip Extensions.

When you get to the point where you can hold your feet several inches from the wall (I'm not quite there yet ) you can try a seated straddle pike. Reduce the difficulty by sitting on the edge of a bed, chair etc with your feet on the floor.

Hope this helps!

[Graham Smith]

Thanks. I have seen this advice before, and tried lying in the straddle for up to 20 minutes at a time each night reading, but did not notice much improvement. I was however lying on a bed instead of the floor. This may have been a problem as my hips may have been sinking into the mattress, whereas the floor would force them to maintain position. Perhaps I will try this stretch again on the floor.

[Aaron Griffin]

I like to keep my straddle a bit narrower than my max when doing this, so I can grab my toes and pull my chest forward (not "down" towards the ground, but forward towards your feet). Do this first, then widen your legs a little and grab the heels, etc. If you can't reach your feet, use straps/belts or something

[newguy5000]

I have a similar issue with worse flexibility in the pike. I don't know if this is something other people do or not but i tied a rope around the base of my lounge. I sit on the ground in a straddle (as far apart as i can comfortably which is not really very far at all). Then i grab the length of rope and use it for support to leverage my hips into position. Then i just relax and slowly work into it with that assistance trying to really work my hips. I have been doing this for a week and have found it helpful for me.

[Karl Kallio]

Try these tricks to see if they help - and remember that flexibility comes slowly. You have to invest time before the results will come.

1) One leg at a time, tuck one leg in, and do the same pancake stretch. Keep an eye on working towards equality between your good leg / bad leg

2) Do the pancake stretch but standing up

3) Do the frog - it's like box splits but kneeling

4) Yoga Strap -loop a belt around your heels and pull. I say belt but it can be anything. Remember to keep it an active stretch by using your own muscles to work posture and knee extension while you do it.

5)Raise your feet in the pancake. It doesn't have to be much, a thick running shoe under each heel works. This helps with knee extension.

6) Lie on your back and open and close your legs (sticking straight up). You can start in the butterfly position then when you feel warm straighten the knees. The first few weeks don't do it hard.

7) Move your feet, when you alternate between flexed and pointed positions it can change the stretch

8) don't forget to stretch the other areas in your legs.

Experiment around, and your flexibility evolves different stretchs will be the "right one". When you find a good set of stretches do them for a few weeks then start experimenting again.