[Tim Heaton]

I came across this website while I was trying to learn how to train for front levers. It mentions another gymnastic exercise called the planche so I thought I'd give that a go too, boy is it much harder than a front lever (I guess it maybe doesn't use climbing muscles) but looks it would be well impressive.

http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode3&articleid=229

I managed stage 2 for 20 seconds before falling over forwards in a lot of pain. Can you all do better and more importantly from the pictures do you have to be a 13yr old boy to do a proper one?

[MrBlue]

I managed stage 2 for 20 seconds before falling over forwards in a lot of pain. Can you all do better and more importantly from the pictures do you have to be a 13yr old boy to do a proper one?

by the looks of things you have to be an anorexic 13 year old, i know i wasn't that skinny 6 or 7 years ago :roll:

don't they start when they're about 5 or 6? i know i started doing gymnastics at my primary school when i was 7, never kept it up when i got to secondary school tho...started playing rugby instead and trashed all my joints, being scrum half was a bit of a dodgy position to play...

[unclesomebody]

sounds like you're going well Tim.  I tried to do those excersises a while back but you know how these things are... you tend to give up when they are hard!     If you are holding stage 2 (knees tucked inside, arched back) for 20 seconds, then i reckon you are on to a good thing.  Keep it up and you'll be as strong as those 13yr old's soon enough.

[Tim Heaton]

I only manage to block out the pain by concentrating so hard on not falling over forwards and breaking my nose.
 
Those gymnast kids are indeed blooming strong but unfortunately I can't see many occasions in polite society where the phrase:

"I am as strong as a 13 yr old"

would be taken in the way it was intended

[a dense loner]

if they're so big n clever doin front levers like that, why can't they spell mensa properly?

[MrBlue]

i thought i'd try those two exercises out...at the mo i fall over quite spectacularly on the planche, and can hold stage one of the lever for 30 seconds, go me :roll: ...

just wondering whether you experienced a bit of strain on your elbows when doing the front lever exercises, because mine have started to hurt a teeny bit so i've stopped so not to aggravate any injury which might be beginning to occur...

(that made sense, i know it did! )

[Tim Heaton]

Yeah that makes perfect sense to me (I am a mathematician so often have to decifer other scientists' terrible English  :D ).

From what  remember when I started trying to do them my elbows did hurt a little bit along with the backs of my shoulders but that pain soon went away once I got a bit stronger in the position. I would stop doing them as soon as my elbows hurt and build up time quite slowly at the beginning. However there are other people on here who are much better at them than me so may be able to give you better advice.

Having just started trying to do the planche thing, can hold stage 2. That  seems to put a lot of stress on my wrists at the moment but again that is getting better as I practice them more, can't imagine what angle they would have to be at for a full planche though.

These gymnasts do seem to flirt with injury a lot though, apparently when they stretch they have their coaches push them as hard as possible to force the muscle to elongate. Now I don't know about you but if someone did that to me I would definitely rip my muscles as I have to be very careful with stretching. Maybe it's something to do with most of them being kids so their body is much more malleable.

[MrBlue]

yeah, i know when i flirted with gymnastics for a couple of years at primary school i could do some exercises and hold positions that needed mad flexibility...we used to warm up for about half an hour before doing any exercises, which was mad when you think about it...

i know since doing a few of those type of exercises my flexibility has begun to re-appear, but yeah, if i tried to push my joints as far as i did they'd probably break or rip the muscles...

i imagine constant exercising of the muscles and pushing them to the point just below injury would create a great deal of flexibility and strength, but would be highly risky - the slightest injury could have quite a few detrimental effects i imagine...

cheers for the feedback on the exercises, yeah, my wrists felt quite stressed doing the beginning stage of the planche - i'm wondering whether strapping them up would be a good idea; it would take a bit of strain off of them and give them support whilst they got strong enough to deal with the strain.

wish i'd kept up gymnastics now, but they didn't do at it my secondary school, was seen as a bit passe i believe... :roll:

[Tim Heaton]

I used to do modern dance which was a bit like gymnastics and quite a bit of cross country running when younger but gave them up 'cos I thought I was too cool. Look back now and wish I had kept them both up, might be a bit stronger and fitter than in my current state of slovenliness . Have just started trying to get more flexible again and it's such hard work compared to when you were 10.

[dave]

I used to do modern dance

sn**ger sn**ger

[Tim Heaton]

I was considering not mentioning that in fear of exactly the sort of childish response that stopped me doing it  :poke:

I was about 10 and my mum made me go in the summer holidays, apparently I was a very good tree.

[Bubba]

I'm a bit of a modern dance fan - companies like Rambert Dance, The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs, or especially Deborah Colker's company are well worth seeing and you'll be gobsmacked with the power and fitness of the dancers. Some of people in Colker's thang are like gymnasts.  

Still, not the best thing to be doing at school I'll bet - pisstake city.