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One thing I have found when doing planche training is that performing planks and planche leans during my warmup immediately improves my planche strength. My guess would be that this is because it allows me to reinforce proper body position, so when I enter a real planche, my body has already been primed to enter the proper support position. I am wondering if there might be a similar benefit to be had from doing planche leans with my hands out to the sides, i.e. maltese leans. I tried a few of these on Friday, and they were much harder than planche leans, but it does feel like it is patterning a good body position. Trying some assisted maltese holds afterwards, I felt that I was able to enter a cleaner support position with less effort. I'm a bit concerned, however, because in order to do a 'maltese lean', my hands have to be below my hips, which is improper form for a maltese. I'm pretty sure that doing this exercise will help my maltese strength in the long run. But am I also likely to develop a habit of holding my hips above my hands?