major factor for V-sit development

[Alessandro Mainente]

i've just finished to read the book of the Coach, wonderful tool i think, i have to admitt that i did some step of progression without read the book, but some intermediate step were unthinkable, expecially for exemple the progression of core (i was doing inly weighed hollowbody rocks and V-ups as last step) and of 360 pulls for the front lever part and also i'm happy to see that after hollowback press on rings i can move on 2 more steps for the multiplane pushing!

my question regards the v-sit, i noticed that the for the core progression the students of the Coach have a V-sit with hips pushed forward and the legs are onrthogonal to the floor (and the body is not so close tp the knee). So the question for me is obvious. What is the major factor of the V-sit development? the active compression and pike flexibility OR the active strength of the shoulders that is necessary to push foward the hips?

thanks for the clarification

Alex

[Brian Li]

The arms (posterior delts + triceps) and abdominal strength is what pushes the hips forward. Active compression is what makes it easier to push the hips forward, but it is not the ab motion that pushes the hips even though it also takes ab strength to compress.

I would say you can focus on either pushing back with your arms or push with the abs to get the hips forward, but know that both need to be working together to actually push the hips. It is like focusing on pulling down with your arms in front lever or focus on lifting your body with the abs in front lever, but both actually work together to keep the body up. I personally focus on pushing back with my arms more than with the abs for the V-sit and my active compression is pretty bad due to tight hamstrings, but I can still do a 90-70 degree V-sit like the gymnasts in the BTGB book.

So in short if you want the best V-sits and multiple forms of V-sits or eventually the manna than it is best to maximize your active compression, arm strength, and overall ab strength.

One more thing, really good active compression can allow you to do a 90 degree V-sit with hardly any backwards lean and hip protrusion which would require less arm strength and probably less overall ab strength as well.