How to start training Pancake Flexibility
Are you a gymnastics skill seeker who wants to accomplish a chest-to-floor pancake?
FREE CORE COMPRESSION & FORWARD FOLD FLEXIBILITY PROGRAM
When you sit on the floor to perform your pancake stretches, do you maintain a flat back, or do you round your back?
Do you need to maintain a flat back when training the pancake?
It's a fair assumption. We're often told to "maintain a flat back" in other hip-hinging movements such as deadlifts and good mornings.
"If you round you're back, you'll get injured".
Is that so?
I believe the fitness industry has taken the whole neutral spine idea too far.
Let's face it, real life and sport are not ridged and straight. We don't move through life with a neutral spine.
It's not very "functional" to only train with a neutral spine.
If we're going to be "strong and capable" outside the gym, it makes sense to build strength in non-neutral spine positions.
Although having a flat back in hip-hinging movements is apathetically pleasing, it's not necessary.
Thankfully movements like Jefferson Curls have been making a comeback, and we're starting to see that rounded back movements don't lead to crippling back pain.
In staying that, I'm not suggest you hit the gym and start doing heavy Jefferson curls. As with anything strength-related, it takes time to build strength and progressive overload is required.
But what about flexibility training?
Can rounded back movements increase flexibility?
More to the point, can rounded back movements increase pancake flexibility.
If you sit in a straddle position on the floor can you maintain a flat back as you lean your torso forward to create a 30deg angle between your torso and the floor?
If you can't, then training seated pancake variations isn't going to be very effective.
In the beginning, most gymnastics skill seekers don't have the flexibility to effectively train seated pancake variations.
So what do we do?
I see a lot of people wasting valuable flexibility time training seated pancakes before they are ready.
The limiting factor for 99% of people is pelvis control.
Before I started learning more about gymnastics training, I was unaware of Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT) and Posterior Pelvic Tilt (PPT).
I'd been weights training and working as a personal trainer for years, I understood hip hinging but not pelvic tilt.
Once I understood APT and PPT, I realised how terrible my hip mobility truely was. It also opened my eyes to a whole new level of coaching.
In hip-hinging movements, like the pancake, we need to have a good level of APT - which means we need to have good flexibility in our glutes, hamstrings, and calves. We also need to have strong hip flexors.
These are common weaknesses in most gym goers. Which isn't good news for your chest-to-floor pancake goals.
To increase pancake flexibility, we need to work on APT.
To do this, we must lengthen the posterior chain and strengthen the anterior chain.
Where do we start?
The end goal is to perform a chest-to-floor pancake with a flat back, but that doesn't mean we must maintain a flat back from the start.
When we train with a flat back, the spinal erectors (the muscles on either side of the spine), are contracted to hold the spine in a neutral or slightly extended position.
By relaxing the spinal erectors, we allow them to lengthen, which creates a deeper range of motion in forward flexion.
For example, if you try to touch your toes with a flat back you might struggle. But if you allow the back to round, you'll probably get there.
But does this increase flexibility?
Here's where it gets interesting.
If the goal is to increase pancake flexibility, we can start training it with a rounded back.
You may have heard the saying, "where the eyes look, the body follows".
If we're aiming to teach the body how to forward fold, we can facilitate this by flexing the spine.
We can initiate the pancake by tucking the chin to the chest and taking the cervical spine into flexion.
Next, allow the thoracic spine to flex and then the lumbar spine to follow.
What does this look like? Well its the top half of the Jefferson Curl.
When we reach the end range of cervical and thoracic spinal flexion, we can isolate the anterior pelvic tilt (APT).
This is the full Jefferson curl.
It's best to start with a light weight and slowly increase it over time. The weight will help to move you into a deeper stretch while also building strength in the rounded back position.
Jefferson curls help to facilitate hip flexion over time and develops both the pike and the pancake. They teach us how to relax the spinal erectors so we can start to lengthen the hamstrings and strengthen the hip flexors.
That's why I believe the Jefferson Curl is once of the best exercises for gymnastics skill seekers who are starting their pancake flexibility journey.
If we turn this video sideways, it start to look like a rounded back pancake.
In the beginning, APT can be very limited, but over time we increase the range APT and we start to see progress towards our pancake goals.
Are Jefferson's the only option?
Jefferson are one of the best, but they're not the only exercise that we can use to increase forward fold flexibility.
Standing forward fold variations are great for everyone, not just beginner. When performing a standing forward fold gravity kindly assists us.
This is an important point to consider, standing pancakes are assisted by gravity.
It's a lot harder to accomplish the same range of motion in the seated pancake compared to the standing pancake because gravity doesn't offer the same level of assistance.
Emmet Louis talks about the three vectors of gravity in pancake training in Episode #10 of The Bendability Podcast.
Once you've got your spine moving, I'd suggest using gravity-assisted pancake variations such as Pulse to Target, Bent-Knee, Block Crush, and Straddle Jefferson Curls.
Standing pancake stretches are often far more effective for beginners than seated pancake stretches.
Are elevated seated pancake stretches effective?
That's a very good questions.
Although sitting on a elevated surface will allow you to increase your forward fold, it's still not going to be as effective as the standing variations. The vectors of gravity aren't going to be in your favour.
Bang for you buck, I'd always priorities standing forward folds over seated forward folds.
However, I am a BIG fan of seated good mornings as they are one of the best exercises for hip mobility and strength.
You could say that a seated good morning is an elevated pancake. I agree. But the height of the elevation is significant and it allows most people to lean their torso forward and create a 30deg angle (or less) between their torso and the elevated surface.
Once the toro angle passed 30deg the vectors of gravity start to assist us.
A good milestone to work toward on your journey towards a chest-to-floor pancake is a chest-to-bench seated good morning.
When, and how to progress to the seated pancake variations.
I wish it were as simple as saying, "if you can touch your toes, you're ready to do seated pancakes".
Or, once you've got a chest-to-bench seated good morning you're ready to move to the floor.
If only it were that easy!
In the TSTM pancake assessment, there are severn key exercises we use to assess both strength and flexibility.
Here are two of them:
Does the client understand how to activate their hip flexors and pull the pelvis into APT?
The standing pancake forward fold to target is a good test for this.
Start by moving into a passive hang and then contract the hips flexors to pull yourself into a deeper range of motion. In the passive range, you should not be able to touch the target.
When you contract the hips flexors, we want to see that you can move into a deeper range of forward flexion. This shows me that you understand how to use the anterior chain to anteriorly tilt the pelvis.
The second assessment we like to use is the Core Compression, Standing Hip Flexion, Single Leg Straddle, Lift Offs.
The standing leg must be straight and the lifted leg must be parallel to the floor or higher. We hold the lifted leg above parallel for 30seconds.
This demonstrate hip flexors strength endurance. We assess this because we want to know that the client is going to have the strength endurance to start training seated pancakes variations that require 30+seconds of active contraction.
Super flexible people can often perform seated pancake without having the core compression strength to achieve this goal. But, if they increase core compression strength, they'll see improvements in their pancake.
They will also experience less hip and back pain that often plagues those who are flexible but not strong.
These are just two of the pancake assessments we like to use with our online clients before designing their programs.
The only seated pancake exception
So now we have Jefferson Curls, Standing Forward Folds, Seated Good Mornings, and Core Compression exercises suitable for gymnastics skill seekers who are starting their pancake flexibility journey.
There is one seated pancake variation that I like to use with beginners.
Drum roll....
It's the rounded-back seated pancake.
While working toward the above standards, we can train the rounded-back seated pancake.
As I explain in this video, we can use the weight to assist the elbows to floor goal. Once we can touch the floor, the goal is then to decrease the weight until we can touch the elbows to the floor without any weight assistance.
Why do we allow this exception?
If we're aiming to teach the body how to forward fold, we can facilitate this by flexing the spine.
This statement holds true for both standing and seated forward folds.
We want to start teaching the body how to APT in a seated position. The seated good morning is a good flat back option here. But we can also deliberately rounding the spine to help isolate the APT. Just like we did in the wall assisted Jefferson curl, but now in seated position.
Once we understand APT we can start working towards a flat back chest-to-floor gymnastics pancake by correctly tilting from the pelvis.
There is a certain level of flexibility required before we add this exercise to the program.
I hope you found this blog helpful and that you're going to experiment with all of these exercises. I'd like to know how you go, so feel free to send me a DM or tag me in your training videos.
For those who don't have social media, feel free to leave comments and questions on the YouTube videos.
If you need help with your pancake flexibility and you’d like to work with an online coach, I’m here to help.
Getting started is easy, in only take 2minutes to complete the online coaching enquiry form.
Happy pancake training.
