Maltese leans

[Joshua Slocum]

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? 

[Brian Li]

Well that's proper for a floor maltese, but couldn't you just do it on low rings or paralletes if you want to simulate a rings maltese? That way you can get your hands level with your body.

[Joshua Slocum]

Well that's proper for a floor maltese, but couldn't you just do it on low rings or paralletes if you want to simulate a rings maltese? That way you can get your hands level with your body.

 

That's a good idea.

 

I'm also thinking that I should switch between supporting the shoulders and supporting the feet so that I get used to supporting the weight both ways. Or maybe just more maltese board presses would be good for that. 

[Joshua Naterman]

Brief leans are a good idea.

 

I do this on a daily basis with my PL lean, and as my shoulder gets better I am starting to do the same with reverse plank leans, just like I did a long time ago when I was healthy. This has resulted in a pain-free, steady increase in my planche work performance with all hand positions.

 

The key is to not go overboard.

 

I kind of think that, as tedious as this might be, using a slowly increasing horizontal angle with your maltese leans is the best approach. You'll need adjustable rings, and something to block your feet on so that you can prevent yourself from slipping backwards.

 

Attaching the rings to (or near) the top of the stall bars is probably the best thing to do, so that you can put your heels on the wall. You'll be able to find exactly where you belong, and over time you'll go down a quarter inch at a time.

 

Eventually, you may need to switch to hanging the rings from the high bar, I think, because of the angles involved, but I might be wrong.

 

I believe this approach will work nicely because you'll be developing everything at the same time. The limitation of board presses is that you don't develop any of the lower arm conditioning that you need. They are necessary for good body position, but you also need the full-on hand support. Once you have maltese leans in the flat position on rings, it's just a matter of time before you don't need a toe assist.

 

It's possible that you'll develop most of this on the floor or with the paralletes, and that the transition to rings will be easy, I don't know.

[Brian Li]

What about unsupported maltese leans on rings where you slowly lean forward towards a maltese from support position? It might be a good warm up as well.

[irongymnast]

If you have access to gymnastic springboards, you can put two in parallel and lie down in the middle with your arms fully rested on them. That way you can lower into a maltese position (and do the leans) much easier.

[Mats Trane]

What about unsupported maltese leans on rings where you slowly lean forward towards a maltese from support position? It might be a good warm up as well.

Coach uses these with his advanced athelites

[Mats Trane]

Here is another way to do them. Se picture.

[Joshua Slocum]

I believe this approach will work nicely because you'll be developing everything at the same time. The limitation of board presses is that you don't develop any of the lower arm conditioning that you need. They are necessary for good body position, but you also need the full-on hand support. Once you have maltese leans in the flat position on rings, it's just a matter of time before you don't need a toe assist.

 

I'm already doing a lot of conditioning for the maltese. What I'm looking for is good warm-up exercises that I can use to help pattern proper body positioning: hollowed back, shoulders protracted, hands at approximately hip-level. When I'm warming up for planche work, I'll do a couple sets of 10-20s planche leans: this primes my body to more easily find the correct position when I'm performing real planches.  

 

It's possible that you'll develop most of this on the floor or with the paralletes, and that the transition to rings will be easy, I don't know.

 

I think you're probably right; better to use the rings. Since my gym has a set of low-rings, there's no reason not to use them. I think today I'll try doing some leans with feet on the floor and rings at hip-height to see how they feel. 

 

What about unsupported maltese leans on rings where you slowly lean forward towards a maltese from support position? It might be a good warm up as well.

That sounds like it could be good. I'll give it a try. 

 

Here is another way to do them. Se picture. image.jpg

That looks excellent. I will have to give that a try, too.

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. 

[Aaron Griffin]

I do this on a daily basis with my PL lean, and as my shoulder gets better I am starting to do the same with reverse plank leans, just like I did a long time ago when I was healthy.

Any more detail here? What is a reverse plank lean?

[Keilani Gutierrez]

Any more detail here? What is a reverse plank lean?

it's essentially a reverse plank, but you'll scoot your hands down towards your hips, as if in a planche lean, only with your chest facing upward. 

[Aaron Griffin]

With what hand orientation? That seems rather easy with fingers pointing towards feet.

[Joshua Slocum]

With what hand orientation? That seems rather easy with fingers pointing towards feet.

The way I always do it is with fingers facing backwards, chest/upper back arched, and shoulders retracted. 

[Aaron Griffin]

Yeah, hands forward seemed fairly easy, hands backwards seems like it'd be a crazy wrist stretch.

[Joshua Naterman]

Here is another way to do them. Se picture.image.jpg

This is exactly what I am talking about. As you get lower you may have to raise the height of the attachment point for the straps, or rings, or whatever's being used.

[seiyafan]

how about leaning onto a door frame? probably not enough stress for some of you right?

[Tarun Suri]

I tried leaning into a door frame today. I usually do this to stretch my pecs. The only difference is that today, I tried to protract ... I could not believe the immense pressure on my elbows  Considering how far my capabilities are from something like a maltese, I was extremely humbled today.

[Joshua Slocum]

I found that leaning into straps worked best for me. Maltese leans at close to horizontal, and unsupported leans were too difficult to make a good warmup exercise, but they do make for good conditioning.  

[seiyafan]

You can also try leaning into a door frame with your back facing it, and with arms close to the hips. 

[Brian Li]

Sorry to stray away from the topic a little, but how big is the difference in difficulty between a maltese with the triceps squeezing into the lats and one without? I know the latter is harder than the former. Maybe the former can act as a warm up once you achieved the latter.

[andiswf]

i dont like the maltese held too high...

this worked for me: at 1:36.. just imagine uther way round

http://youtu.be/i71qbS9yh20?t=1m36s

 

finally you have to lock the position.. so thats why some may describe it as lock the position with lats(squeezing shoulder blades together)+trizep...

[Brian Li]

How about not locking the maltese with lats? I see most people do that version which I'm pretty sure is harder than with the locked position.