How to do a Pancake Gymnastics Stretch

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mandy Butler on behalf of Expert Village. I'm going to take you through a gymnastics class stretch and warm-up. Now we're going to do a pancake stretch. Your legs are still going to be in that same straddle position. It's called a pancake because the idea is to make yourself flat like a pancake. It's very important that you keep your back nice and straight in this stretch. If you hunch your body forward you're not getting the stretch you're trying for, you're just going through the motions. It's not going to get you ready for aerobic activity. So, put your arms up nice and tall and lower your chest down to the mat in a pancake position. Now, again, you want to hold this for 20 seconds. You can come up, you can put your arms to the side to give yourself an even bigger, deeper stretch when you do a pancake like this. And that's a pancake stretch."