V-Sit help

Hello guys this is my first message to this forum, and I hope I have chosen the right subforum. I´ve been reading the messageboard for a while and have enjoyed the various topics. Now, I have a topic on which I am hoping you guys could help me out on. Namely, the V-sit. I think I have plateaud somewhat at a certain point in my training. I saw a video on youtube, and I´d say this fellow is basically at the very same point as I am:

Compare it to this kid from the gymnastic bodies L-sit lifts video:

And you have what I am aiming at. I´ve basically been doing a bunchload of L-sits for time (with weight sometimes) and a bunch of different ab exercises to get to where I´m at now. Any suggestions on how one gets to that point? I don´t really ever "feel" the exercise in my triceps or abdominals, and usually just feel it in the legs (hip flexors), so I´m guessing this may be the area that I need to work on...

Thanks for the help

So, you are working on getting your hips forward and up?

Work on high tuck sits.

Work on your flexibility in your pike. Pike stretches, sit in a pike, put your hands by your knees and practice holding up your heels as high as possible for 10-20-30s or doing lifts from ground to as high as you can hold them.

Your hip flexors and quads will have to be trained to not cramp. Basically keep on working on them.

For v-sit and manna, flexibility is the harder thing to work on than strength. Once you have the flexibility, the strength is easy to train. You can have all the strength in your abs and triceps, lats, and shoulders and get nowhere past L sit if your pike stretch is dismal.

Thanks for the quick replies. I should´ve mentioned about the flexibility part in the original message. I can do the pike stretch quite well, and put my head to my shins with the legs straight out, but I do keep working on it and other types of flexibility as well.

I´ll try the exercise you talk about, Bob, and to be sure, this is done on the ground and I´m not lifting myself up to an L-sit or V-sit, right? Also, can you please elaborate on what a high tuck sit is? I tried to google it and checked youtube, but didn´t find a description.

Regarding what Matthew said, when I look at myself in the mirror and the guy´s video I posted and compare them to this:

I see that he does exactly as Matthew says and is able to thrust his hips forward and up much better than me. I´ve tried to actively thrust my hips forward when I´m doing the V-sit , but I can´t them forward and up enough like he does. How does one work on getting a better "hip thrust" in the move?

Thanks again for the help guys!

it's all a matter of active flexibility in the hip flexors and quads and loose enough hamstrings. if your pike stretch is good, you need to develop your active pike stretched used in the hip flexor lifts. like i should.

the hip flexor lifts focus on lifting the heels off the ground while still sitting on your butt. you do not press off the ground into an L or V sit. you can if you want.

a tuck position is a bent leg pike. basically the knees are bent with the heels as close to your butt as possible but your hip angle is 90 degrees or less. A high tuck would have your knees as close to your chest as possible.

if you do not know the basic positions of gymnastics, they are in sommer's book or on drillsandskills.

This would be the tuck sit. Focus on getting those hips up and out.

If I'm not mistaken this is the drill Blairbob was talking about.

I'm wondering if the middle split horizontal hold used in training the manna might also be effective in building the strength to push the hips out?

there was some thread where it was stated a v-sit could be attained while training for the manna

by Coach Sommer on Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:27 pm

When trained as a skill in isolation rather than as part of a progressive sequence, it is possible to develop a V-sit and yet to have developed it in such a way that it is in no way helpful for the future development of a manna. By following the manna progressions based on the MSH variations, the V-sit will naturally be developed along the way toward attaining the manna.

Yours in Fitness,

there it is