The front fold of the wide feet, commonly known as pancake stretches, is a basic pose that shows serious flexibility when fully expressed. It is also known as the Sanskrit name Upavishta Konasana,This posture provides deep stretching in the waist, gro diameter, hamstrings and waist.
Here are some tips on how to do it with the right form and how to make it easier or more difficult:
Sitting wide front fold (pancake stretch): Step-by-step instructions
- Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out, and open as much as you can without straining. Your knees and toes should point directly to the ceiling and you need to bend your feet.
- It brings your consciousness to your pelvis and notices the tendency to tilt backwards. If so, try to shift your weight forward towards your pubic bone.
- Without rounding your spine, start walking your hands forward along the floor between your legs, hiking your hips rather than your hips.
- Walk forward as much as possible, hold your breath and grab the smooth cycle 5-10 times, and inhale the large muscles.
- Slowly return to your upright position and use your hands under the back of your knees to hold your feet together.
How to make pancake stretching easier
Sitting on the floor with straight feet is extremely difficult for many people. This is mainly due to tension in the hamstrings and lower back. Fortunately, pancake stretches have changes and variations to make them accessible to beginners with limited flexibility.
- Sit on a yoga block or folded blanket. This helps to tilt the pelvis forward.
- Sit your feet further away. This change often creates a degree of freedom that extends forward.
- Loop the belt around each foot to give yourself something to hold. Now, focus on tilting forward and lifting your chest towards the ceiling.
How to stretch pancakes more strongly
If this pose is “too easy”, it could be an extraordinary amount of mobility or very bent. Make sure you are sitting directly on the sitting bone and keep your pelvis in a neutral position rather than an forward tilt. As a general rule, the Bendibody often needs to address stability rather than mobility with this sitting forward bend.
- Add a lateral stretch. Without losing the root action on one leg, we work on folding it over the other leg and lifting and stretching the torso. This adds stretch to the other side of the waist by introducing a twisted element.
Benefits of pancake stretching
- Stretch the hamstrings, adductor muscles and lower back.
- Activates core muscle tissue.
- Strengthen spinal erection.
