Another reason why manna work is an awesome pre-hab exercise

The manna is a great prehab exercise because it works the rear delts, and forces the often tight shoulders into a great range of active flexibility. Rear delts balance out the often imbalanced shoulder girdle. Active flexibility is, by many strength coaches, considered to be a much more important aspect of injury prevention than static flexibility.

Now another reason that I came across, perhaps most already knew this, is the role of the long tricep muscles to posteriorly stabilize the shoulder girdle, specifically in overhead movements (handstand work). Anyone trying manna work should be well aware of the massive cramps that result in the long head of the tricep.

Just another cool reason why manna is an awesome prehab exercise and I am always looking for ways to keep my shoulders injury free. Anyone close to achieving or has achieved the manna?

AlexX said:

The manna is a great prehab exercise because it works the rear delts, and forces the often tight shoulders into a great range of active flexibility. Rear delts balance out the often imbalanced shoulder girdle. Active flexibility is, by many strength coaches, considered to be a much more important aspect of injury prevention than static flexibility.

Now another reason that I came across, perhaps most already knew this, is the role of the long tricep muscles to posteriorly stabilize the shoulder girdle, specifically in overhead movements (handstand work). Anyone trying manna work should be well aware of the massive cramps that result in the long head of the tricep.

Just another cool reason why manna is an awesome prehab exercise and I am always looking for ways to keep my shoulders injury free. Anyone close to achieving or has achieved the manna?

I agree. Anyone who has read The Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training by Steven Low (braindx in this forum) knows that manna work is a very good idea.

Great post!

I keep putting off my manna work.. starting tomorrow (today is a rest day) I'm committing to it.

Yeah I keep putting it off too.. aaaallll the time.

To my own detriment though, I've noticed unevenness on shoulder ROM in my handstands and think that some good manna work can help resolve this problem

Yeah I thought my shoulders were pretty flexible until I started doing manna work

I love doing manna work, but have been a bit hesitant to seriously pursue it because of the recommendation of having a solid 60 sec L-sit and Straddle L first. I'm not quite there yet, so should I worry that my future high manna 8) will suffer if I do some introductory manna work before I reach the recommended L-sit and manna hold times?

Edit - Or was 30 sec the recommended time? :? Either way, I'm not quite there =P

It'll suffer in terms of progress being slower or possible coming to a halt. If you skip the prerequisite holds good chance you'll just stall out which in turn will just force you to go back to the original plan of getting the prerequisite holds. In other words time not well spent.

Two days in a row so far, I'm going to establish this as a permanent part of my training.

My shoulders love me for training manna.

But I can't seem to get the last ~30 degrees for the manna