Has anyone mastered MN/PE2 yet?

Hey there, is there anybody from the community without x years in practice of gymnastics or something who can say he mastered this element? To achieve a form like this I think normal people need a couple of years. MN/PE3 for example feels way better and "easier", it just feels natural.

I would really like to see some pictures of people who moved past this excercise cause I really dont know what the accomplishment should be.

I'm one. First time trying gymnastics at 26 with the WODs on this site, martial arts before that.

Sure it might take a little while, but a couple years? Seems kind of ridiculous to me.

depending on where you find yourself now(either working on mn/pe1 or currently beginning mn/pe2) as a warm up do active straddle lifts while sitting down and as a cool down stretch passively.

I'm one. It took some time but not years. Dont give up! Here are 2 threads about it.

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/10281-mnpe2-straddle-up-question/page-2

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/12912-another-mnpe2-straddle-up-thread/

Mats and Jon,

It would be very interesting to see a video of your mastery sets of it. I have a pretty smooth motion of the movement but I'm not getting quite as high as the athlete in the video. Would be nice to see what it looked like when you achieved it. It might be a lot to ask but you can always just say no.

I did mine in person at seminar, I don't have a video and, nothing personal, Im not going to get in the habit of proving myself on the internet when Coach is happy with my performance.

That said, I don't think I was quite as high as the demonstration, but not too far off. There is a certain amount of individual variance as to the compression, so focus on the straight knees, the active lift (thigh cramps) and around a 45 degree straddle. Plenty of details in the thread mats trane referenced above

It can be done.

No problem. You have nothing to prove, that's not what I meant. Was just curious.

Thanks for that Daniel. Nice!

Joakim Anderson said:

No problem. You have nothing to prove, that's not what I meant. Was just curious.

I know you didn't mean anything just the principle

Wait a minute here... the exercise demonstrated by Daniel is different from MN/PE2 in a sense that the legs are not coming back together at the bottom of the movement, nor are they lowered completely.

There is also some serious loss of posterior pelvic tilt & control in two or three of the 15 reps.

The tempo is vastly faster than the course model video.

Are we still within parameters for mastery, or have we drifted past the boundaries?

[edit] Multiple viewings reveal more details: The feet are not pointed, and the legs are not straight.

I believe this is an impressive demonstration of strength and flexibility, but a sub-par set not even close to mastery.

Daniel Burnham said:

It can be done.

Yes but shut up you have a manna.

Bipocni said:

Yes but shut up you have a manna.

That probably is the main reason for us to listen when he speaks! 

I agree with FIC on this. Everything he mentioned is what my eyes see also. But I still have along way too go. I am not even close to the consistency of the video It is a work in progress that's forsure. Thanks for posting the video Daniel.

You are right Fred. This was not a complete mastery. Legs should be straight and toes always pointed in gymnastics. I was more demonstrating te principle. This was actually taken before the release of the foundation series. At that time I didn't realize I needed to go back to straight hollow.

The principle is there. As you can see I have enough compression and it is possible to achieve in less than a few years. I can assure you i can do these much better as I also passed the certification earlier this year.

Thanks for clarifying Daniel

For my part I had never done this exercise before Foundation came out; just lots of those seated straddle raises. I got this one in about four weeks, I think?

I concur with the rest.  It just depends from what baseline of core strength and hollow body position you are starting.  I for one felt this was fairly easy, and easier than PE3.  Was my straddle as wide as the model...no.  Mobility is not by strong suit!  (but that is why i'm working on this stuff!).  The one I'm struggling with is PE6, the negative hanging leg lifts.  If you can do PE1 well, you will be surprised how quickly PE2 will come once you start working on it seriously.  For the record, I've never done organized gymnastics, couldn't do a flip to save my life, my cartwheels are hideous...you get the picture.  But I do have a strong core from other sports and consider myself fairly athletic.  Don't be discouraged.  I've come across some elements that i thought were impossible, but once I did them a few weeks it clicked and they don't seem so tough any more.  

Jon Douglas said:

For my part I had never done this exercise before Foundation came out; just lots of those seated straddle raises. I got this one in about four weeks, I think?

What you are really saying Jon, is that asking Badi to emulate your rate of progress is akin to his wife hanging Brad Pit's picture in the bedroom.................

MT Nordic said:

(...) Was my straddle as wide as the model...no (...)

:question: :question: ............ Isn't copying the model the whole point?

FredInChina said:

What you are really saying Jon, is that asking Badi to emulate your rate of progress is akin to his wife hanging Brad Pit's picture in the bedroom.................

Eh?

What I'm saying is that it took me some four weeks to go from it feeling awkward and sort of flail-y to having it under control and feeling ok with moving on. And this is where I began to learn how spending some time with a new element regardless of whether I could hit mastery on hit was a good thing-- because of that whole 'learning to do it efficiently' thing.

Gotta say I think this one is a swing and a miss by you Fred...

Badi, unfortunately I find myself in your camp on this particular exercise. I've been working hard in the quality of the im, doing extra stretching work, been at this for around 6 months with little improvement on my rom. Incredibly frustrating being so limited by flexibility here. I can nearly touch my palms to the floor in a standing pike stretch, but just totally stagnant in this exercise, repeating micro cycles over and over.

killroy70 said:

(...) I can nearly touch my palms to the floor in a standing pike stretch, but just totally stagnant in this exercise (...)

Keep at it, it will come

I can easily put my palms flat on the floor, and my Jefferson curls bring my wrists below the soles of my feet. (granted, I have long arms, but I also have long legs...)

My pancake stretch has gone from torso slightly inclined to comfortably (most days) resting my elbows and forearms on the floor, and sometimes 40mm lower (off the mat).

However, I am not yet satisfied with my ROM in the movement - my legs are higher than the model in the course, but my back it more rounded - I am starting my 7th cycle of this one.

I'm with Killroy on this one. Although I easily mastered PE1 in three months, I can see myself easily spending more than a year on PE2 (it's been about 5 and a half months already without much progress). I wonder if Jon and Fred's extensive martial arts experience helped them due to the flexibility and compression required for controlled high front kicks (note that I have zero experience in striking arts other than my attempts at emulating guys I would see on TV when I was younger).

martial arts did expose me to many modalities, but that i was promoted to do them in my school was virtually next to non-existant due to lack of teachers educating themselves outside their material.

i can say that rolling and establishing a better body-mind connection will awaken new parts in your body and will instantly come back to life almost. my neck/trapz/back one day just went crazy on me and boom, its like it was the on switch for my trapz, same thing with my lower back when i rolled it. you also have to let the iM run its course and you do your part of doing everything you can( stretching, practicing, rolling)

....... Isn't copying the model the whole point?

Fred wrote the above in reference to my statement that my straddle was not quite as wide as the model's. My feeling is that there are some elements where the straddle position is used as an intermediate step between bent legs and straight legs because it provides easier leverage. It is not in the progression because we need a wide straddle for the Manna. This is akin to the straddle body rocks (FL/PE4) where it is used as a transitional element. It is starkly different than the sPL and SLS progressions where you need that mobility for future progress. So what i was saying is that in this MN progression it's silly to spend months (years?!) on this because you can't quite get your straddle wide enough. I don't believe it will impair your progress later on. That being said, my straddle is much better now because of the sPL mobility work and of course it's important to spend enough time with an element to get the most out of it. But I would still hold that striving for some unknown degree of straddle when it's not even stated what that is (90 degrees? more?) is a waste of time that would stagnate your performance and progress.