Manna/l-seat/straddle-l

[nf46]

Hi, just wondering which of these holds you should spend most time developing or if you would train all 3 at the same time when beginning. I have heard that one should develop l-seat first as it is easiest, but I think that training the other two in parallel could be highly beneficial.

[nf46]

any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

[Neal Winkler]

Sure, why not? I train them with integrated training protocol. Using a different one on each training day paired with the days core movement.

[Blairbob]

What's your goal?

For basic strength- L. However, my L-sit on rings isn't that spectacular.

For HS press, straddle-L. Especially if you have a poor straddle-L.

V-sit/Manna - When you can do both already.

[Nick Van Bockxmeer]

I would recommend L sit first for several reasons. It builds fantastic support, abdominal and hip flexor strength which will help in many other skills and strength work. You should build up to performing the advanced L sit, with the hands in line with the hips and your back and legs straight as a steel bar. Performing the L sit in a manner that compromises this form will make it significantly easier. Performed this way it will build good support strength to prepare you for training the manna. The manna will require much more support strength so probably not a good idea to start training middle split holds without foundation.

The straddle L is much more of hip exercise and won't really challenge the rest of your body in the same way as an L sit. The active straddle flexiblity is important for press HS and many other gymnastics skills.

You could train them all at the same time but I wouldnt recommend more than one per day as it would be too much work for the hip flexors.

[Blairbob]

I was training both V-hold and straddle-L but I may switch to alternating them.

V-hold and Wide Arm HS work before integrated training and straddle-L work generally as assistance work is what I was doing. The thought had occurred that sometimes it just became too much to train both at the same time (why I put straddle-L towards the end). However, sometimes my straddle-L would fail out.

For my young guys, sometimes I split time between L and straddle-L. Some boys have more than adequate L holds so they focus on the straddle-L more and V-hang.

As per Coach S advice, if they don't have a proficient L-sit, planche training doesn't make much sense. I alternate L-sits and frogstand training besides extra planche leans.

To note, tuck planche takes a fair amount of abdominal strength which is probably why they need a strong L-sit to begin with.