Teaching a Pike Hold

[lilgymmom]

Just wondering how I can teach my daughter (she is a 6 yr old, level 3) to do a pike hold. I think it will help her with many of her skills because she could use some help in the strength area. Not sure where to start.

 

[BlairBob]

Pike hold as in sitting on the ground and reaching for their toes or doing it from a hang or from a support?

From a low bar she can hang and focus on holding her knees as high as possible in a tuck. Eventually work the tuck into a pike eventually.

On a set of low parallettes ( pushup bars but even books can work ) get into the L-sit with tuck legs. Tell her to push her head as high as possible so she has a long neck.

Doing laying leg lifts will help this as well.

 

[lilgymmom]

Pike hold as in sitting on the ground and reaching for their toes or doing it from a hang or from a support?

From a low bar she can hang and focus on holding her knees as high as possible in a tuck. Eventually work the tuck into a pike eventually.

On a set of low parallettes ( pushup bars but even books can work ) get into the L-sit with tuck legs. Tell her to push her head as high as possible so she has a long neck.

Doing laying leg lifts will help this as well.

pike hold as in sitting in a pike position on floor and lifting her entire body weight up with her arms, which are on each side of her bum (keeping the pike position the entire time!)

 

[BlairBob]

Parallette Training - Volume 1

the first half of the article goes through proper progressions of an L-sit. the ability to do this on floor also requires flexibility in the pike position and strength in the hip flexors and quads and hamstrings. if the hip flexors are weak/untrained, it doesn't happen. if the hamstrings are tight, you can't lift the legs at a 90 degree angle. if your abs are weak, you can't hold your legs at a 90 degree angle.

Parallette Training - Volume 2 - The Press to Handstand

towards the end of the article, it goes over "assistance exercises". these can be used to develop the active flexibility to hold the L-sit (pike) or straddle-L (straddle-sit/straddle lever)

A simple program is test her ability and what progression she can hold. If she can hold a tucked L-sit for 10s, she should try repetitions of 5s ( non-failure ).

For total volume, you could use something that Coach Sommer does being 60s of total volume. So if her max is 10s, she would try 12x@5s a piece.

There are also other programs that involve splitting up the static hold work with working the movement through a RangeOfMotion ( dynamic/isokinetic ).