Flatten Your Pancake
The pancake is one of the most versatile flexibility positions, with countless benefits and carry over to a variety of movement disciplines. Our Pancake online program trains each of the ranges of motion that combine to form this athletic shape – so it can improve your pancake whether you’re just starting out or striving for belly to the ground.
Flatten Your Pancake
The pancake is one of the most versatile flexibility positions, with countless benefits and carry over to a variety of movement disciplines. Our Pancake online program trains each of the ranges of motion that combine to form this athletic shape – so it can improve your pancake whether you’re just starting out or striving for belly to the ground.
The Best Bang for Your Buck Flexibility Shape!
There’s a reason why you see the pancake shape across fitness disciplines like gymnastics, yoga, and handbalancing. So much of the movement vocabulary in the aerial, dance, acrobatic, and martial arts worlds is rooted in the same configuration of the hips, torso and legs of the pancake position that it is difficult to even begin listing the benefits. It also combines elements of both the forward fold and middle split. Because of this, improving your pancake flexibility might very well have the best payoff for those looking to up their athletic performance.
However, we understand that regardless of your athletic background, adults come into flexibility training with a variety of training backgrounds, physical capabilities, and genetic predispositions. So our Pancake program is not some gimmicky one-size-fits-all 30 day routine. It comes with two complete programs consisting of 18 training templates to help you address your unique limitations to achieving a flat pancake. Through a series of benchmarks, we’ll find your particular limiting factors and train the program template designed to break through plateaus and bring your torso closer to the ground.
So whether you’ve never seriously stretched before or you’re a former gymnast looking to relive your flexible youth, Pancake by M3 will meet you where YOU are at and bring you to that effortless, flat pancake.
Don’t take our word for it, here are the results of dedicated pancake and pike training under the Modern Methods of Mobility:
The M3 system is a very professional, structured and method based approach to achieving flexibility. It took me some time, but with the right assessments and understanding my weaknesses, the M3 system had me covered from beginner to now my chest-to-ground pancake. I didn’t need to doubt my training or to look for information elsewhere, all of my road bumps along the way were handled by this very well developed system. Would highly recommend it!
– Erdi @learningtohuman
The M3 system is a very professional, structured and method based approach to achieving flexibility. It took me some time, but with the right assessments and understanding my weaknesses, the M3 system had me covered from beginner to now my chest-to-ground pancake. I didn’t need to doubt my training or to look for information elsewhere, all of my road bumps along the way were handled by this very well developed system. Would highly recommend it!
– Erdi @learningtohuman
But Wait, There’s More!
We’ve Included A Complete Pike Program Too!
The seated pike shares many similarities to the pancake, you sit on the ground with straight legs and hinge forward. The main difference being your legs are next to each other for the pike position. In a sense, the pike is just a legs-together pancake stretch. So developing a deeper pike will have a direct impact on your pancake. As such we’ve also included an entire seated pike program within Pancake for you to train too!
What You Get
Access the Pancake (& Pike) online programs in our Members Area. Unlike other online programs, which often end up being just a few YouTube videos or a DIY Excel Spreadsheet – with M3 you get desktop and mobile optimized online programs with video tutorials, lectures and written reference material. And for ease of access at the gym, you can download interactive PDFs of the training templates which link to the online exercise library videos.
Unlock Athletic Potential with Pancake
How You’ll Get Your Pancake
There are two main pathways to the pancake. One always maintains straight legs, drilling deeper hip hinging until a pancake is achieved. The other allows your legs to bend, maximising the amount of hip flexion at the start, and then works to straighten your legs in that closed hip position over time. This program includes aspects of both methods, versus only training one of those two approaches.
Hinging capacity
Controlling and expanding your ability to hinge at your hips is key to unlocking and leveling up the pancake shape. We approach improving this capacity in a variety of methods including both straight-back and rounded exercises.
Compression Strength
Lengthening the posterior chain is just half of the equation. For a deep pancake, your antagonist muscles need to build strength in their shortened positions, literally pulling you deeper. We do this using gravity assisted, neutral, and resisted exercises to gradate the strength gains of these smaller muscles.
Seated Pike Training
Due to the similarities between these shapes, we’ve included an entire pike flexibility program that operates using the same M3 methods as the pancake programming. Improving your pike has a direct carryover and is sometimes simpler, as adductor flexibility is removed from the equation.
What Makes M3 Different?
The M3 System avoids the dogma of other training methods by taking bigger picture view of flexibility development and reconciling all the conflicting information about correct flexibility training. It focuses on finding what works for the person doing the training versus having a one size fits all approach. We believe strongly that anybody can develop exceptional flexibility with the right combination of correct methods and consistent training.
You can learn more about the philosophy and nuances of the Modern Methods of Mobility here:
FAQ
Yes the Pike program is included within Pancake, and can be trained independently of the Pancake programming. So in a sense you’re getting two programs for the price of one!
That said, we included it because of the training overlap and carry over between these shapes. We have provided instruction on how to train both of these shapes simultaneously in a weekly training routine. So it’s up to you whether you wish to focus solely on the seated pike, pancake, or both at once!
You cannot purchase the Pike program separately, but if you are interested in improving a similar range, you can check out our Forward Fold program instead.
Absolutely! The more advanced blocks of this program help further “flatten” your pancake, deepening your hip flexion and taking you from head touching to chest, and for some even belly to ground.
Not at all! Our Pancake program has no prerequisites. Through our self assessment tools, progressive programming, and component-focused approach to obtaining the pancake, your training routine will be accessible to your current ability level and reliably improve your range of motion.
There are a variety of levels within our programs assigned by the results of the program self assessments. We recommend that you train the level you can perform without pain, which might change depending on the state of your body. While everyone’s physical state is unique, hopefully over time you level-up through our programs and your pain becomes more manageable. If any particular exercise causes pain, you are always welcome to modify the program by training an earlier progression or skipping it entirely.
Yes, we discuss how to include the M3 Programs into your current training routine. We discuss a variety of ways to accommodate busy schedules, avoiding overtraining, and keep you from compromising your other fitness goals to incorporate our programming.
Our programs do make use of light dumbbells, dowels, exercise bands, and other equipment that is generally found in most gyms. Open floorspace, slick floor/sliders, and soft ground/mats are also needed. If you are training at home there are suggested modifications for exercises that use weightlifting equipment.
Nope, these programs are for anyone looking to become more mobile! All exercises in our programs are scalable to individual capabilities.
Let’s Make Some Pancakes 🥞
Unlock your hips’ flexibility and athletic potential with our Pancake + Pike programming.
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