Lower Body pre-req's

Coach Sommer and fellow seminar attendees,

After having implemented it for a couple of months now and seeing some results thought I would post about my idea for some sort of lower body pre-req's I have been incorporating into my routine.

I've really come to appreciate the pre-req's but felt there was a severe lack of anything similar or comparable for the lower-body in the GB program. This is taking into account the knee and ankle prehab series, which while good (and even with leg strength days in the WOD's) leave a gap in lower body development. So, therefore I've been including a set of 3 Pistols, per leg, each day into my warm up.They are performed as an iso-dynamic exercise with 3 isometric efforts of 5 seconds each included on the descent along with the intention of keeping the non-working leg parallel to the floor the entire time.

This has been to not only add some sort of lower body strength work on a daily basis but to act as pre-req in a few different ways. Of course with a greater exposure to it it will improve SLS performance but it also improves from the point of strengthening the weak/sticking points. The slower descent (and specific isometric holds) give a greater control in the exercise and also better positioning, particularly rock-bottom and knee-tracking. Finally by, at least attempting to, keep the non-working leg horizontal (and of course the torso as upright as possible) it seems to increase the work of the glutes significantly.

Just by doing this I've seen a great increase in SLS performance, I'm now able to do them for higher res when called for in the WOD's for example (i.e dynamic leg days with 12 SLS in there) where in the past I had trouble with them (more due to positioning and control than to pure strength). I reckon this has some decent benefits from a pre-hab and injury-proofing perspective. So please try it out and let me know what you think.

Ed

I guess if you want to label lower body pre requisities, you can label off:

Asian/3rd world squat.

Butterfly stretch. Knees roughly 30 degrees from the angle on the floor.

Deep Lunge. Basically from a lunge where the back knee is on the floor, your hips should nearly be 180 degrees. There is a version of this on KStar's mobilityWOD where he calls it the couch stretch and you anchor the tibia vertically along the wall. Heckuva quad stretch.

1/2 front split where the front leg is straight in a front split while the back knee is on the floor with the hip directly above the knee. Not really very difficult but some inflexible gymnasts may not be able to straighten out their front leg. Angle is roughly 45 degrees above horizontal from the heel to hip.

Bottom of SLS. I came up with this one a long time ago starting beginners off with holding a beam or ring to assist them to stay in the bottom. Elevate the heel if ankle flexibility is poor. I shoot for 30s/60s and once they can do them, they can work negatives. Good for ankle/knee/hip flexibility.

Decent seated straddle-L. 120-150 degrees. Ideally most people should be able to do 90 but 120. 150 may be tough but should still be doable over prolonged training. If they can get to 180 they will probably be able to do it in pancake fashion with their belly button, chest and chin on the floor.

Blairbob,

You are missing my point in suggesting SLS as a Lower-Body pre-req. I'm not talking about stretching or flexibility, I am trying to suggest some sort of systemisation for a base level of leg strength before working more advanced/demanding/dynamic exercises. I guess it's not too accurate to call what I'm trying to describe a pre-requisite so much as it is a lower body equivalent of performing FSP's and reaching certain proficiencies in them before moving onto harder variations or harder exercises (i.e L-sit before PL)

Another exercise that could be added is Half GHR's (that is, only pivoting from the hips) and perhaps single leg calf raises.

Ehh, whatever.

For our younger gymnasts, super basic stuff is the ability to do lunge walks (not even with the rear knee touching the floor) and a deck squat (generally rock back to candlestick, deck squat to stand) and hold releve on the balls of their foot. If you can't do any of this, I just don't seem them going very far in gymnastics or bodyweight strength.

I am trying to suggest some sort of systemisation for a base level of leg strength before working more advanced/demanding/dynamic exercises.

Ed, this is a very good point.

My personal preference is to have the lower level athletes focus on mastering SLS, coupled with easy straight leg plyo work, prior to moving on to intensive leg strength work.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer