WAG At Home Conditioning for Bars

[Deleted member 18037]

OK quick back story. Daughter finishing up L5 in Feb, first L6 meets in March.
She is a low hour gymmie.

I am looking for what conditioning she can do at home to help bars, specifically getting her kip arms a wee bit straighter (she is close but just a tad bent) and gaining strength for the KCHS.

She actually said today I am going to ask Dad to set up the pullup bar again. So she knows she has some work to do to get to L7 and seems actually motivated. Which is cool, because usually she is the I don't need it yet.

So anything she can do safely at home to build strength. I am sure she has some stuff that she knows she should do. But reinforcement or something new won't hurt.

Thanks in advance

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Following this b/c we could use some ideas too! L6 bars is killing dd lol. Her casts are nowhere near HS, and they are only teaching straight casts (not sure why), although I think she would probably do better with straddle casts.

I'm sure the pull up bar will be of some help and of course the normal push ups, sit ups, etc, abs are important for bars too. But I would be interested especially to hear of some conditioning that could help with shaping, tightness, etc on bars as well as strength.

Best of luck to your dd as she competes L6 and starts working towards L7. I'm almost positive we are looking at another year of L6, in fact I would probably push for it even if they did try to move her up especially since her bars are scoring in 7's currently (we are only two meets in so far, but the next couple of months will be jam packed with meets.)

 

[duyetanh]

Obviously, I am no coach. Nor do I know what the hell I am talking about other than what I have been told. And what my dd's coaches told me was this:
you can do so much with a pull up bar to not just strengthen the arms, but the core. Just don't do GYMNASTICS on one, lol!!
The core is so essential in all of this, apparently it all is interrelated and works together; a fact my child reminds me of (ahem) regularly, because I am a different acronym for a cgm-"clueless gym mom."
With that pull up bar you can do sets of leg lifts. You can do them with leg weights or without. They are obviously much harder with the leg weights. I tried them. About broke my gut. Funny how I used to be able to do them with weights. Ah, youth. But I digress...
Yes chin-ups and pull ups help. But even better than the regular ones are the "seated" ones. Meaning the body is in an "L" shape, with the "_" part of the L being the child's bottom, legs, toes (etc). My child says they are a killer. I believe her, because I used to kick butt doing regular pullups, and omg I could barely pull them off. She can only do half of those compared to the regular ones in terms of numbers, but she is working at it. Hard. You can also put leg weights on for regular ones.
Don't forget the timed L holds, straight body holds, and bent knee holds, all with arms holding that chin over the bar....works both the core and the arms.
Ahem....the rice. Grip strength plays a part in all this too. Swear to God it's all connected. Doesn't matter how strong those arms are if the grip and core aren't matched, and vice versa. Did I mention how this sport drives me to chocolate?
And don't forget the therabands. And the obvious pushups, both inward and outward. Oh and there was also this weird 'walky' thing with the hands...but she is asleep...will ask her tomorrow. Oh, and the 10 pound weight that you get at Wallymart that you lift over your head, and then behind your head. You can also do situps with this weight.
It all helps. Scouts honor. Wait. I never was a scout, and flunked out of "Brownies" (junior scouts). Just take my word for it. My girl did all this in the gym, but was also told that any of these could be done at home for extra strengthening if she wanted to do it.
She did. So...she did. And I can honestly say it truly helped her, but I also can honestly say my kid is anal. She wrote out a plan after talking with the coaches and stuck to it pretty religiously. She actually had fun designing a home program, showed it to the coaches, got their approval, and then went for it. The key thing her coaches told her was to do it consistently. Doing it once a week would not make much of a difference. Mine did it 3 times a week, and, being team players, either her dad or myself struggled to do them along with her so she could have a laugh at our expense.
Hope this helped. I am sure others have better info than I do....but this stuff truly helped my kid, so am happy to pass it on...

 

[Deleted member 18037]

The leg lifts she knows. And I am so not doing it with her. I will be doing my free weights

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Do you have an ab wheel? It's awesome for core strength and only costs like 10 euros here. Many gyms use it for bars conditioning.

 

[vans2]

We had a girl (who left our gym) who was struggling with her kip to make lvl 4. The coach said she had weak pectorals so they told her mom to have her do push ups. I assume they followed that advice at home, but I don't know for sure. She did get her kip a few weeks later.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Do you have an ab wheel? It's awesome for core strength and only costs like 10 euros here. Many gyms use it for bars conditioning.

I don't but that I would do with her

 

[duyetanh]

Ab wheels rock!

 

[flipandfly]

Lots of press handstands if she wants a strong straddle up. We work those with floor bars at our gym, although you could always have her do normal presses at home to help the planch and build strength.