MN/PE1 - Tuck Up: Knees together or apart?

Can't tell from the video...do knees have to be together on this? When I do them with knees apart, I can get more ROM because my quads aren't colliding with my winterfat stomach. But just want to make sure that this qualifies, because the exercise definitely feels a little different with knees together than apart.

Thanks.

I would say legs together. It allows you to radiate more tension in my opinion. The athlete demonstrating the move has his legs definately together. Your knees don't necessary touch with legs together.

just keep your legs as parallel as possible and keep it together throughout the movement. 

Legs together.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Jerry Mangona said:

(...) winterfat stomach (...)

LOL!

Let me guess: you live in Alaska, or Siberia, or some other place where winter lasts 12 months...

More like 4 months...but still too long  So, I tried getting knees to chest with knees together. Even from a seated position with gravity helping me, the closest I can get is within 7" from knees to chest. Can you guys actually have you knees touching the chest? If so, then how do I improve ROM on this?

FredInChina said:

LOL!

Let me guess: you live in Alaska, or Siberia, or some other place where winter lasts 12 months...

It doesn't look like the gymnast in the video actually touches his knees to his chest but its pretty close

The Tuck Up (and the Manna proression itself) appears to be the most challenging exercise for me. I have a simple technique question: I'm unable to move upper body and lower body up at exactly the same time. I need to use a staggered Tuck Up (sort of like the young athlete in the video) where the upper body gets a slight head start with the arms moving upward first. Not swinging up, just starting up a fraction of a second early. I'm sure I'm not the only person who gets stuck without this slight momentum. This isn't cheating-right?

The other challege with this movement is holding a tight and balanced (non- wobbly) tuck,while trying to straighten the spine.  It looked so darn simple on video!

There is a timing and balance component to these. The stagger should come smoothly and not feel like two completely separate movements. As you practice the timing will improve as will the balance. Treat your reps like single after single. Practice, be patient and it will improve. Fix one detail at a time, not everything at once.