Newbie Static Hold questions

Hi I've been reading this forum daily for a while now and I've just recently bought the book. I'm in the process of trying to create my workout. However, I'm a little confused about static holds when combined with basic strength workouts.

1) How often can they be practiced per week and should you practice them during rest days?

Because in the dragondoor article it says:

"Static holds can be performed each day for maximum benefit."

2) If this is true, is there a limit to how many types of static holds I can practice per day?

3) Lastly, at the end of each steady state cycle when I've tested my new maximum hold, how would I know when I should try the next more difficult variation? Once again from dragondoor it says:

"Once you can hold a position correctly for the entire 60 seconds in one set, it is time to move on to the next harder exercise and begin the training procedure all over again"

However, in the book it says you can move on after 15 seconds.

Once you hold a certain position for 15-20s, it is time to move on to the next progression so long as you can get into it for 3-5s.

1. Coach Sommer prefers 4days/week. Any more depends on how much volume you are doing per week/day I'd say.

Okay thanks, but I'm still confused whether I'm allowed to practice Tuck planche, L-sit, Front Lever ect.. during every workout 4 times a week, or should it be only one type of stactic hold per day, like L-sit on Monday, Tuck Planche on Tuesday, Front Lever on Thursday and Straddle-L on Friday.

You might find that if you train lever and planche in supersets, you won't have much left for the L-sit. Well, as much as you normally would.

Straddle L can be trained quite a bit unless those muscles are weak or tight.

L-sit is a super basic move. For instance, currently I have one of my weakest boys train L-sits like yesterday in a strength/basic circuit at the beginning of the day. He probably got about 5 attempts in. About an hour later, we'll do our planche/lever stuff. He can only L-sit for maybe 5s and work tuck lever or frogstand.

So it can be done, but I do have to watch volume.

Maybe try some combinations and see if you're working too hard or not. I'm following the four days a week suggested by Coach. Each time, I do tuck PL with the daily Press, BL with the daily Pull, and FL with legs. I get a good workout, and could probably do the L-sit paired with the core work, but I'm being kind of lazy for this cycle, and don't want to overdo it.

As far as static hold lengths, there seems to be some consensus in favor of moving on once you have a max hold of 15-20s, versus the 1 minute Coach suggested in the article that started it all. The discrepancy in the ideal max hold time for moving onto the next hardest level maybe suggests that there's some flexibility in choosing how long to hold. I would definately use Blairbob's suggestions as the minimum requirement for moving on. I thought I also saw a post from someone saying they tried to move to the next progression to early, before they had 60s on the current one, and didn't progress at all until they went back and got the 60s max hold. I thought I also saw a post saying that as the progressions get more difficult, the max hold time can decrease, e.g. 60s for frogstand, 45-60 for tuck, 30-45 for advanced tuck. Maybe something like that.

Thanks for the responses. I think I'm gonna stick to the 15-20 second minimum. Anyways I spent the last few days finding what level I'm in for each workout. So I just finalized my workout for my first cycle, and I just finished day 1 today.

Day 1:

PL Tuck / XR PPP

FL Flat tuck / SLS jumping

BL Flat tuck/ FL tuck Pull ups

MSH / RLL - headstand with ankle weights

Day 2:

PL Tuck / XR Dip

FL Flat tuck/ Leg curls

BL Flat tuck/ Wide grip L

MSH / HLL circular

Day 3:

PL Tuck / HeSPU plus head a little lower

FL Flat tuck / SLS distance

BL Flat tuck/ Chin-ups inverted

MSH / L-sit lift

Day 4:

PL Tuck / Negative Bowers (Can't do Chest roll - HeSPU)

FL Flat tuck / Deck Jumps

BL Flat tuck/ Tops

MSH / HLL - weighted at ankles

I also begin each workout with wrist pushups followed by handstand holds against the wall (currently 3 minutes and 15 seconds)

Also, I plan on focusing on improving flexibility during 2 of my rest days.

These workouts are intense, especially any that involves rings as I have never used them until last week. I'm starting to get blisters though, but I guess that's something I'll have to live and deal with.

About your hands:

Yes, they can get torn up from the rings but your hands will start to callous up eventually and then you should be fine (if you dont swing that much). Contrasting baths work WONDERS! Take 2, 5 gallon buckets and fill one with ice and water and the other with water that is as hot as you can stand. Then simply stick your hands in one, roll your wrists, stretch your fingers etc for about 10-20 seconds and then switch to the other buck and repeat until the buckets are at the same temperature. By then your hands will be nice and wrinkled/soft so you can do callous management afterward.

Good luck and have fun!

Blairbob said:

Once you hold a certain position for 15-20s, it is time to move on to the next progression so long as you can get into it for 3-5s.

Sorry I don't mean to hijack this thread but this has me slightly confused. Let's say I move onto the next exercise and can only hold it for say 4 seconds, does this mean I do 30 sets of 2 seconds to work up to my 60 secs total time or would I be better not dividing my total hold time in half and maybe just doing 15 sets of 4 secs? Just seems a bit extreme doing 30 sets.

Thanks and sorry for the sidetrack!

bingo, I think.

For static training alone, in this instance you would indeed perform 30 sets. This may however be avoided by pairing a static hold with the appropriate FBE.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

How can it be avoided Coach? (Example please)

KM, this is late to the game but I'd take a look at how Coach Sommer has paired some of the statics with the preceding exercises in the GB WODS per the giant sets.

For planche, pairing some sort of pushing would make sense be it pushups, dips, or HSPU.