Pancake/Pike struggles: Vastus medialis or Semitendinosus

[Wes Clawson]

Hello! First time posting, so if I've formatted incorrectly or put this in the wrong spot, please let me know!

I've been working pretty heavily on both the pike and the pancake and have some progress in the pike that I'm quite excited about (like being able to consistently forward fold and touch toes while standing). However, I think I'm stuck a bit on certain aspects of the pancake and the seated pike seems to be giving similar trouble.

Essentially - any time I try to fold forward in either position my legs externally rotate, especially at the end of my range. I was messing around today and noticed that I think the my biceps femoris has really loosened up after all the work I've done, but either the vastus medialis or semitendinosus are still extremely stuck.

For example, I'm able to get quite deep (but not so deep as shown) in Ex 87: Partner floor hamstring and lower back from (S&F 1.3), but near my end range my legs turn out. If I think about pulling them back in at that deep position I push my partner away from me. I assume that a solid way to work on this is to do the stretch less deeply while focusing on slight internal rotation, but I wasn't sure if there was a better approach for working out those inner thigh muscles. In the pancake position, even elevated on blocks, it's the inner thigh that gives me the most trouble and eventually any of that strain works its way into my lower back, high buttock area on the right side.

I've tried elephant walk both shoulder width and wide (which are incredible), but I can't find positions where I feel like I'm working that inner thigh.

Anyone worked through something similar?

Best,

Wes

 

 

[Kit_L]

Sorry to take so long to reply to this @Wes Clawson: my boat sank offshore as you may have read, and was a total loss and I was rescued. And now I'm up in Queensland rebuilding the next boat. The short answer to your question: have you tried tying your feet together, to stop them turning out, in that stretch? That way you don't have to use an internal rotation force in the hip joints in order to hold the legs in position. I think that might be worth a try.

On 4/27/2025 at 3:39 AM, Wes Clawson said:

I assume that a solid way to work on this is to do the stretch less deeply while focusing on slight internal rotation, but I wasn't sure if there was a better approach for working out those inner thigh muscles. 

The inner thigh muscles are not really worked in this position. It could be the structure of your hip joints that is causing the external rotation, or something else. Have you tried doing standing side splits, with the feet parallel? The result of that could be an interesting information point too.

On 4/27/2025 at 3:39 AM, Wes Clawson said:

In the pancake position, even elevated on blocks, it's the inner thigh that gives me the most trouble and eventually any of that strain works its way into my lower back, high buttock area on the right side.

This is more likely to be an adhesion between gracilis and the inner hamstring – we have written about this extensively here. If you search on gracilis, you should find many discussions. And there is a YouTube video showing me doing a manual release technique on the inner size of someone who is stuck at a particular angle in the pancake and who then was able to hold herself flat onto the ground immediately after:

Anyhow, sorry to be so slow in getting back to you!