Most people don’t really need a ton of ability to forward bend in their daily life. However, if you want to be able to do fun gymnastics stuff, you need a good deal of compression in this pike shape. This is something I’ve struggled with for many years and the best way I have found to improve is to use bands and weight. I really enjoy this variation. I hope you do too. Wrap a band around a post and walk away and bend forward. Lean away from the post and try to contract your quads and abs and pull your face gently to your shins. Breathe slowly and deeply and stay here for a couple of minutes.
Day 25 of 30. Banded Uttanasana from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.
Here are the rules for the 30-Day Stretch Fucking Harder Challenge. Each day do the deep stretch, post it on Instagram and tag some friends to do it with you. Post your stretch with the tags: #stretchfuckingharder #supplepandas #30daypandachallenge Tag me @coachpanda. Come back here to my website or vimeo channel to see more details on each stretch and modifications and scaling options. Try to stay in each stretch for at least 2 minutes per stretch per side. Remember to breathe slowly and deeply and start gradually and move deeper over time. Back off if it hurts.