Pancake
The Pancake is a seated mobility exercise that targets the hamstrings, adductors, and lower back by folding forward with legs straddled wide. It is a fundamental movement for developing advanced hip flexibility and active compression strength.
Since flexibility training requires progressive overload similar to strength work, the AI tracks your hold duration and intensity (RPE) to ensure consistent improvement. By monitoring your recovery data and daily readiness, the app adjusts the volume of your mobility sessions to prevent strain in the lower back and hamstrings. This data-driven approach helps you safely increase your range of motion over time without risking injury from overstretching.
Form Cues
- Sit with legs spread wide in a V-shape.
- Roll your pelvis forward to sit tall on your sit bones.
- Keep quad muscles engaged and toes pointing up.
- Hinge from the hips to lean your chest toward the floor.
- Lengthen your spine continuously as you reach forward.
- Don't allow your lower back to round or collapse.
- Don't let your feet or knees roll inward.
- Don't bend your knees to fake better depth.
- Don't bounce aggressively at the bottom of the stretch.
Common Mistakes
- Rounding the lower back significantly
- Internal rotation of the legs
- Bending knees to relieve tension
- Passive stretching without active engagement
Muscles Worked
This exercise deeply stretches the hamstrings and adductors (inner thighs) while requiring the erector spinae to keep the spine neutral. It also actively engages the hip flexors and core to pull the torso forward into the fold, improving active compression strength.
Primary
Secondary
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