Trouble with manna and planche static positions

I'm wondering if I'm doing my static positions correctly. Could you guys critique?

In the MSH-bent: I can't push enough so my butt doesn't rest on my hands.

Advanced Frog stand: I think I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know what. Also, my wrists hurt tremendously when I do this variation =/. It also hurts the part of the arm where I rest my knees. Also, I find it really hard to block the elbows! (btw, I can do a 25 second frog stand)

For the manna you should probably wait with that work until you have a solid 30s l-sit and straddle l-sit. For your frog stand turning the hands so your fingers point sideways or backwards will help the wrist pain. For locking your elbows try to squeeze your triceps and see if it helps.

So I shouldn't try the first manna variation until I get a solid 30s l-sit and straddle l-sit? Or I should keep trying this position (MSH bent) until I get those? =S

Thanks a lot for the advice, I'm gonna try it, I'll let you know if it worked =D. Also, are my hips in the Frog Stand too high or it doesn't matter? I just noticed that.

Yeah if you can not do the first MSH variation, wait until you get your straddle-l and l-sit in place and then go back to working on it. I don't think your hips are too high, although I may be wrong about that.

Your knees are too high in the MSH - they should be parallel to the floor. A true MSH (knees bent or straight) should look like a straddle-L with the hands behind you instead of in front of you (this necessitates a bit of leaning backwards, of course). You should also consider pointing your fingers backwards in the Manna progressions.

Right, forgot about the knees being parallel to floor and fingers pointing back, duh! THanks a lot for reminding me that. Ok, so I'm gonna work a lot on my L-sit and Straddle L. I can already do a perfect L-sit (stretched legs and parallel to the floor) on parallel bars but still can't do it on floor My staddle L sucks though. I'm on the extended legs variation but they go way to low :?

Coach and others have said not to work on Manna progressions until you can hold a solid 60 sec. L- Sit and Straddle L-sit on the floor. So instead, spend your time working up to that. If you want to it could also be good to work on reverse push up holds because that is a pre-requisite for manna work. Look up slizzardman's fsp warm up program on youtube for a video of it.

Concerning the advanced frog stand, you should only begin this once you can hold a 60 second perfect frog stand (the bent arm one). At this point youre just spinning your wheels trying to do the adv grog stand because your elbows aren't ready. That's why it hurts where you place your knees on your arms and why you can't lock your elbows out. To target the elbows/bicep tendon more, turn your hands hands backwards so that your fingers point behind you

If you pulled your legs apart more, it'd be easier too, by the way. They're not too far apart in that picture.

biomieg said:

A true MSH (knees bent or straight) should look like a straddle-L with the hands behind you instead of in front of you (this necessitates a bit of leaning backwards, of course).

Incorrect. You should not be leaning back. The goal is to work up to a manna, which has nothing to do with leaning back. At first people are not strong enough to do this without leaning, but eventually you should be pushing your hips out from your hands and eliminating lean. This is why it is so hard to get to a manna, and why a v-sit is not a progression for it.

3runMX

Your MSH is simply an L-sit with your legs apart. You should be pulling your legs as wide as possible. Think about trying to pull your legs into a middle split while you are holding the static. That's why it's called Middle Split Hold :wink:

Does this mean that we have to be really close to a middle split before we can effectively make any progress on the Manna? That may be an insanely huge limiting factor for me.

Erik said:

Does this mean that we have to be really close to a middle split before we can effectively make any progress on the Manna? That may be an insanely huge limiting factor for me.

You can probably get a middle split down much more quickly than you can make progress on the manna though

element3904 said:

Erik said:

Does this mean that we have to be really close to a middle split before we can effectively make any progress on the Manna? That may be an insanely huge limiting factor for me.

You can probably get a middle split down much more quickly than you can make progress on the manna though

Not me. I buggered up my left hip (coincidentally enough trying to get to the middle split) and until recently my straddle could only go to about 30 degrees without me tearing up. Better now, but it's also one of the main reasons I've held off on both manna work and straddle L (or anything with a straddle >.<) for so long.

Dillon Zrike said:

You should be pulling your legs as wide as possible. :wink:

Dillon, is there an exercise to get better at pulling your legs as wide as possible?

I´m practising middle split but is there some other exersice that is usefull?

Thanks

Im not Dillon but you could do some active stretching like sit in a straddle and lift your legs up while keeping them as wide as possible with your hands staying in between on the ground.

cdx, normally bad splits have to do with poor hip flexibility. I suggest looking up exercises that open up your hips.

Erik said:

element3904 said:

Erik said:

Does this mean that we have to be really close to a middle split before we can effectively make any progress on the Manna? That may be an insanely huge limiting factor for me.

You can probably get a middle split down much more quickly than you can make progress on the manna though

Not me. I buggered up my left hip (coincidentally enough trying to get to the middle split) and until recently my straddle could only go to about 30 degrees without me tearing up. Better now, but it's also one of the main reasons I've held off on both manna work and straddle L (or anything with a straddle >.

Don't be too conservative with stretching the split after an injury, it needs to be gently but consistently opened after injury.

Ok Thanks Dillon