SL/PE1 Arch Body Hold (ABH)

Important detail :-) Good luck

Does anyone think that having mastery on this PE will lead to improved ring swings?

CodyW said:

Does anyone think that having mastery on this PE will lead to improved ring swings?

Yes. Contribute to, at least.

Christian said:

4 x 60 today!! Then tried a set of ABR, did an easy 24. :-) soon(ish)

the infernal problem of ABR are the 4th and 5th sets.

For now i'm doing the 4x48, for the first 3 sets, no problems, from the 4th cramps. Especially because actually the rest is around 15-20 seconds for the mobility.

Yup, the last sets are the worst. I've moved to ABR now but easing them in by switching away sets of ABH. Last training was ABH x 60, ABR x 40, ABH x 60, ABR x 40, ABH x 60. When they are all 60 i'll switch the ratio and then just switch the last ABH one WO at a time.

I tried week 5 of ABH today and I honestly don't even want to think about week 11.


I can confirm, these were made by the devil.

Cody Ward said:

I can confirm, these were made by the devil.

Straight from the horse's mouth

had another odd but fruitful mobility session today. get this, rolling my Tibialis anterior, Rector Femoris, Vastus lateralis gave me ridiulous relief and ROM today doing arch holds...what im extremely surprised about was how painfully tender my shins were and how that impacted my Arch Hold.

my goodness, why is the body so weird? hip extension improving from working on quads but measurable release from rolling shins? what is going on here? o_O

AIS can be a very good way to learn to be actively aware of your movements and the way that you hold tension in the body, and requires practice to get good at. It gets even better when you teach yourself to be aware of the antagonist as well as the agonist, and then spread that awareness out to the rest of the muscles in the segments above and below the areas you are moving. Very convenient for limbering up.

 

You can still use tools like AIS "incorrectly," in the sense that if I were to use AIS technique for improving hip flexor recruitments in the V-up position, perhaps reclining back and working one leg at a time, but didn't also keep a hollow body all the way up through the chest and neck, I would be teaching myself to arch the upper back as I compress, and that would be bad. 

 

I would be interested in hearing your approach to how you use AIS techniques to improve a few of the iM exercises that you have seen improvements in, probably best to do so in a new thread though.

KeilaniG said:

had another odd but fruitful mobility session today. get this, rolling my Tibialis anterior, Rector Femoris, Vastus lateralis gave me ridiulous relief and ROM today doing arch holds...what im extremely surprised about was how painfully tender my shins were and how that impacted my Arch Hold.

my goodness, why is the body so weird? hip extension improving from working on quads but measurable release from rolling shins? what is going on here? o_O

Hahaha, that's good stuff

 

It's only strange because the concept of fascial chains is not a common component of approaches to flexibility.

 

You're having such a good time with this that I think you'd REALLY have fun if you grabbed a copy of Thomas Myers' book "Anatomy Trains" from Amazon (or wherever you like to buy books). Once you have a road map to the fascial connections between tissues, all of a sudden you get a ton of insight into your own particular issues! Hey hey, a rhyme! Peace out, it's my bed time.

 

Sorry about the bad rhymes lol

Joshua Naterman said:

Hahaha, that's good stuff

It's only strange because the concept of fascial chains is not a common component of approaches to flexibility.

You're having such a good time with this that I think you'd REALLY have fun if you grabbed a copy of Thomas Myers' book "Anatomy Trains" from Amazon (or wherever you like to buy books). Once you have a road map to the fascial connections between tissues, all of a sudden you get a ton of insight into your own particular issues! Hey hey, a rhyme! Peace out, it's my bed time.

Sorry about the bad rhymes lol

you mean more active soft tissue work equivalent to torture facilitates by said material to enduce more pain?

....im game.

(im sorry i had to do it.)

thanks for the book suggestion, i'll give it a looksie right now

Cody Ward said:

Does anyone think that having mastery on this PE will lead to improved ring swings?

It absolutely does. I'm half-way through week 11, and this combined with some explosive hollow-arch work has made my rings swings much smoother and more powerful. 

Joshua Slocum said:

It absolutely does. I'm half-way through week 11, and this combined with some explosive hollow-arch work has made my rings swings much smoother and more powerful.

I think I'm seeing a bit of improvement in PB and SR swings and I'm on week 9 I believe.

I think arch rocks are when the real improvements are going to come.

I tought that these were hard, then I realized I had my legs apart the whole time Now they're harder

Right this means war!
I'd been progressing nicely through these and didn't think it would be too long before I was on PE2, however everything else is now on the PE2 and the ims are now targeting different parts of my weak shoulder and causing my neck to be incredibly sore and weak and causing me to fall back to week 5 again! I'm going to include the ABH for low times <30 sec for a set or two focusing on maximum contraction as part of my warmup as well as a stretch my quads. I will include ABHR after my main workout I find they provide a good stretch to the abs and they work the back in differently. 
If I don't do this now I can see everything else speeding along to PE4 or 5 in the next few months whilst this will continue to languish. 

 

spinelli said:

(...)

If I don't do this now I can see everything else speeding along to PE4 or 5 in the next few months whilst this will continue to languish.

 

 

Don't worry about that .

I think maybe what has happened is the exercise is getting to me mentally... I really am finding it hard to face the prospect of doing 5x36 hold and am defeating myself before I even attempt it. :/ Either way I need to change something (be that my outlook or what I'm actually doing) so that I actually do keep training this element and not just et disheartened by it. Maybe I'll feel better once I get some sleep

spinelli said:

I think maybe what has happened is the exercise is getting to me mentally... I really am finding it hard to face the prospect of doing 5x36 hold and am defeating myself before I even attempt it. :/ Either way I need to change something (be that my outlook or what I'm actually doing) so that I actually do keep training this element and not just et disheartened by it. Maybe I'll feel better once I get some sleep

What you need to do is TEST THROUGH IT THIS WEEK REGARDLESS OF CRAMP.

Because, let's face it, you've probably got a couple more seconds in you before you are forced to come down

 

FAITH IN YOUR HARD WORK UP TILL NOW.

spinelli said:

I think maybe what has happened is the exercise is getting to me mentally...

 

I think it's easy to lose perspective on this forum. While this may be an easy exercise for highly trained gymnasts, try asking ten or even twenty random people on the street to do a ABH for the times that you're doing and they won't be able to. You're not weak, you're just not superhuman yet.

 

Having some fun with 1.5 litre water bottles. Doing about 5x20 seconds with them.

 

 

Current ROM at about 5x30 seconds, probably more but I'm enjoying this PE now that I'm playing around with weights and really getting comfortable. ABH can be fun if you try.

Joakim, excellent excellent ROM my friend, plus really inspiring!

 

Congratulations! I've to work even harder at this!!!!!!

This exercise will be the death of me.

Jamez said:

This exercise will be the death of me.

what are you talking about? your Straddle L on the rings looks sweet, this should be a piece of cake for you

Reposting these just to ensure everyone who needs them sees them...

 

kit laughlin said:

The KEY cue in the arch is to press the legs away from the body. If you self cue "lift the legs" AND your hip flexors are tight, then you will lift the leg using erector spinae, for sure (it is the pattern in your body, brought about by the tight HF). That is how the girl is doing it, too.

 

And, worse, tight HF mean that in the very ROM you want to use the glutes in, in this exercise (extension) they will be being switched off by the reciprocal inhibition reflex.

 

So: press the legs away from you (in the plane of the floor), then squeeze the glutes, and only then try to pull the legs a tiny amount away from the floor. You may need to just practise the first two cues for a while before trying any lifting at all.

 

 

kit laughlin said:

I was a bit pressed for time this morning, so was brief. The self-cue of pressing the legs away from the body (in the plane of the floor) does activate the glutes. You can enhance the effects if you hollow first (as odd as that sounds); hollow so you are resting on the front of the shoulders and the front of the legs. Then press the legs away, and then squeeze the glutes harder—then you are set. With this activation and alignment, when you do try to lift the legs a little from the floor, there will be no adverse/excessive activation of the lower back (erector spinae). 

 

What most people do not realise is that when challenged with a new movement requirement, your body will always fall back on its established patterns, regardless of what you might want! This fact is a good reason to do all new movements with a relatively low intensity, if you can, and feel/check/make sure that you are using the muscles that should be used.

 

This is also the reason behind the OP's lower back pain. The lower back is engaging trying to help you—but it cramps/spasms instead, because it is doing work in the contracted range of its range of movement, Recall the last time you did a max. foot point: the arch or the calf muscle cramped. No big deal—all muscles will do this, if asked to contract in the contracted end range of movement. In the foot, no problem, but if in the lower back, you will regard it as a problem (and it will leave a lingering pain, too).

 

 

My personal experience is, same as the hollow, get as LONG as possible. Like pushing hips forward in a middle split hold-- there is a point when pushing an (attached) limb has the effect of lifting. I didn't know the anatomy behind it; luckily for us we have true experts to help us through.

KeilaniG said:

what are you talking about? your Straddle L on the rings looks sweet, this should be a piece of cake for you

Arch body hold>Straddle L. That is all.