Bent Hollow Body Hold And Compression

I noticed that when doing the bHBH, if at the top I would push myself forward, I would feel a compression as is felt when doing the L-sit. Would this be considered part of doing the bHBH with correct form and muscle activation or not? Also, even if it is not necessary for doing the bHBH, could it still be desirable as a means of strengthening compression?

Chaim I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Chaim said:

... if at the top I would push myself forward...

Cole Dano said:

Chaim I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Cole,

Yeah, I can see that I wasn't at all clear. Perhaps I can go at it like this:

When you do an l-sit, you tilt your pelvis forward to help elevate yourself and your legs from the floor. This brings about a compression in the area of  your lower stomach. While in an l-sit I find I have a number of other things to concentrate on doing, and so it can't very easily just concentrate on working on my compression.

However, when doing the bent hollow body hold, I found that it is easy for me to concentrate on doing this same "compression" movement. True, the compression in an l-sit comes mainly as a result lifting your pelvis and legs, and with the bent hollow body hold it is caused more by exaggerating (more in intensity, rather than in height) the lift you do with your shoulders.

Thus by ".. if at the top I would push myself forward..." I was trying in short to allude to the interest effect that with the " ...feet and shoulders off the ground during the set", and keeping "...the lower back pressed firmly into the ground" I found I could cause "compression" by exaggerating the shoulder lift by pressing my shoulders and head slightly forward.

Looking over what I wrote, I'm not sure if I made it clearer, or just more obscure.   

In any case I appreciate your trying to help me out here! 

Thanks for clarifying. Yes you have the right idea. in a hollow you can think of this compression as being two sided.

You will tilt the pelvis backwards (posteriorly) (the movement you described) and also curl your chest so all thats left on the floor is your lower back. And the lower back is fully pressed into the floor, no gaps between your body and the floor.

Since my good friend Nicholas called me out on this - anatomy terms can be confusing when talking about direction of movement. In the case of the hips tilting in a tuck hollow body hold for example, you could say that you move the pubic bone forward, which is more what you feel like you are doing; or you could say you move the top of the hips backwards.

How do you know which it is? Think of the pelvis like a glass of water if you were to anteriorly tilt  the pelvis, rotating the top forward, then the water would spill out the front. Posteriorly tilting the pelvis and water spills out behind.

Great! I appreciate the help!

Cole Dano said:

Thanks for clarifying. Yes you have the right idea. in a hollow you can think of this compression as being two sided.

 

You will anteriorly tilt the pelvis (the movement you described) and also curl your chest so all thats left on the floor is you lower back. And the lower back is fully pressed into the floor, no gaps between your body and the floor.

Hi Cole,

Would you mind elaborating on how much of the spine is allowed to be on the floor? Is it literally just ensuring the pelvis and scapulae are lifted from the floor, or a smaller contact area, say only lumbar vertebrae allowed, etc?

May be splitting hairs, but there is a big difference for me between the two. Also, this might affect ability to rock in the next PE?

Many thanks,

George.

Lumbar spine, you don't really have to think of it that way though. Just curl your chest until the entire scap is off the floor, kidney back pressing the floor. Pull your pubic bone toward your belly button to posteriorly tilt the pelvis.

If you can't do it in FL/PE1 you have no hope in the following variations, so yes it's important. 

Thanks Cole,

I have been making it hard on myself by trying to curl up too much. By the third set I'm pretty much as you've described.

That's a relief, as (like you said) it's only FL/PE1 and was getting worried getting through 5x60s ...let alone the harder variations.

Cheers,

George.

Cole, I'm pretty sure you meant to say "posteriorly tilt the pelvis" in both posts, yes?

Yes, my next essay will be on living with dyslexia. Thankfully I'm pretty sure the meaning got across.

Correct terms have been edited in.