Got my first ever FULL Iron Cross in 10 months!! (AMA)

[sister_diane]

@summer63 Awesome!

 

[summer63]

@sister_diane thank you!

 

[angel9523]

@summer63 That's sick!! Nice to see a Singaporean doing ring training haha. I thought we are a pretty rare bunch

 

[summer63]

@angel9523 Yeah bro, someone's gotta take on those mad super skilled people from Russia or China hahaha

Feel free to reach out to me on ig! Happy to train tgt- was completely lost when I first started lelll

 

[revmarkhunter]

@summer63 SHEEEEESH SINGAPORE PRIDE

 

[summer63]

@revmarkhunter sg bolehhh

 

[smallmb]

@summer63 Insane dude, congratulations!

 

[summer63]

@smallmb thank you! i think i follow you on ig as well- your training's pretty sick (rock climbing's p cool too)

 

[smallmb]

@summer63 Ah didn’t notice! Followed you back, keen to see what’s next for you!

 

[summer63]

@smallmb and likewise, i'm excited to see how far you can go!

 

[traceyharding]

@summer63 Are you able to do planche on the floor or p bars?

 

[summer63]

@traceyharding Not at all! I'm training advanced tucked and straddle planche on my parallettes (but exclusively supinated-grip) right now haha- only properly started programming planche work a month ago!

I don't train planche on floor or pronated grip on pbars- I see my calisthenics friends doing these always rubbing their wrists/wearing bandages, being out of action. I'm going straight for slanted supinated grip on pbars- with the intention to bring my planche over to rings as soon as possible.

Longetivity is the goal! That being said, I do condition my wrists as well! Tendon strengthening is always useful.

 

[traceyharding]

@summer63 I asked this because i can hold a planche for 3/4 seconds on floor or paralettes and a straddle planche on rings, but im not even close to the cross

 

[summer63]

@traceyharding And likewise, I can hold a 1 second cross, but can't do a floor full / rings straddle planche!

Below is something I shared in another post (the person was claiming that you NEED to be able to do a straddle/full planche or even a back lever before training IC, and I disagreed).

Hope this helps! ↓↓↓

"While strong joints / elbows are a requirement, I wouldn't say that someone who can do good back / front levers (even a straddle planche) can definitely do an iron cross though. I'd say that the specific strength required to do a strict cross is unique to the cross- seeing as the chest and lats as well as serratus, biceps, other ancillary muscles, are put at high stress simultaneously.

While the elbow conditioning and perhaps some strength from the planche is transferable, in my experience- they are similar but are still different in some ways. The planche trains mainly the front delts, triceps, biceps (maybe chest), protraction (traps, rhombus, back), posterior pelvic tilt (lower back, glutes) whereas the iron cross trains the chest / lats / serratus / biceps / etc. with the arms flared out to the sides (rather than in front of you as would be the case for a planche).

I currently train the iron cross on different days from my planche / lever work. Nevertheless, the planche and iron cross can be worked concurrently- so it wouldn't really make sense to say- "only do cross once you have planche" (esp. as planche may be harder than IC to some ppl)."

 

[traceyharding]

@summer63 Maybe the reason for this is the difference between our physiques. Im 5 foot 8 but only 56 kg, so maybe this makes planche easier for me. Thanks for the help otherwise!

 

[summer63]

@traceyharding That definitely seems to play a key role! I've found three people in my country who are exceedingly strong- one of them can even do a 26 second supinated full planche! (They're also around 50-55kg I believe & their body-types seem to be that of ectos.)

But wow, they are like gods in the cali world and their strength / skill are remarkable and something to work towards achieving.

1. Ong Yu Jun
2. Brendan Goh
3. Brian Koh

 

[traceyharding]

@summer63 Does arm length impact how you learn iron cross? Ive heard your wingspread is the same length of your height, so maybe being taller would make it more difficult?

 

[summer63]

@traceyharding In my opinion, I think it does. A person with wider arms is bound to need to take a longer time (I'm not sure exactly how much more- but it seems that from my searches on social media- they generally take half a year to 1.5 years longer). The principle of leverage is an unkind god to those with longer limbs. (For instance, see Dominik Sky and Vitaly Feschuk). In contrast, compare them with Andrea Larosa and Carlo Figus (and any rings specialist gymnast tbh).

Along the same thread, someone who has an ectomorph body will definitely have an easier time achieving the cross (I have a mesomorph-type body, so q similar but will still take slightly more time that an ectomorph-type athlete).

P.S. To provide some perspective, I think the wingspan of my arms is roughly about the same as my height- (in my case: 1.65m wingspan vs 1.67m height).

 

[traceyharding]

@summer63 As the width of my arms is 1,73 , just a few cm wider than you, i hope i can learn the cross in less than a year. I can do a 1 sec hold with my arms bent on a 30 degree angle, but im really looking forward to improve this

 

[summer63]

@traceyharding I'd say- don't worry too much about what limits you and look at what you can do. Someone who's tall who focuses for 2 years may achieve it quicker than someone more genetically-favoured who trains for 1 year, loses focus or isn't motivated and dedicated to attain the goal!

People tell me all the time- you can't attain an iron cross because you haven't got a straddle planche/back lever yet- but I believed in myself- made sure my program was good, trained hard, listened to my body and rest heavily if needed, and be consistent with my own hard work!