Failed on this today, I realised that I've been cheating a little and hadn't been extending my shoulders up to my ears which make it nearly impossible for me. I was doing 4x36 but I failed on the second and couldn't face going on.I'm going to have to go back a mini cycle I think.
I'm now finding that the weak side of my neck is very fatigued and uncomfortable, feels like it needs to click but it wont. Hopefully it'll stop becoming so fatigued after a few more weeks
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SL/PE1 Arch Body Hold (ABH)
Started by Bobby Bogdanovski, March 5, 2013 · 467 Replies · 32,074 Views
Shallow abdominal breathing Samui, using your diaphragm.
Legs straight, knees together, feet together and pointed, I did 4x60s yesterday; the last 12s of the last set were a bit shaky, and I think I lack a bit of ROM (not arched enough), but I feel that I am getting there. 
Next week is deload (I am repeating week 10 this week; I was under the weather last week and could not complete all the sessions), so I think I'll have no problem to graduate to mastery of this element (and others too) by the end of the next microcycle.
Next are arch rocks (and PPP)! 
Anyone do these on a carpeted floor? Makes it hard to tell if I'm properly lifting my chest on the floor due to the indendation.
I'm still working on the static holds, but I've played with the arch rocks a tiny bit and I found I have a somewhat, shall we say uniquely male problem. 
I'll keep this euphemistic, but a certain body part tends to fall forward and get squished on the roll backwards. Does anyone else have this problem? Do I need to just by some extremely tight underpants?
thecolin said:I'm still working on the static holds, but I've played with the arch rocks a tiny bit and I found I have a somewhat, shall we say uniquely male problem.
Or you could make a 'mangina'
I think if you cannot see that your chest is elevated cirenehoc, it likely is a safe bet that you are not arched enough. Not to worry, the rocks will very quickly confirm if your arch is correct or not! 
One sparrow doesn't make spring... after 4x60 Tuesday, I thought that maybe my ROM was not arched enough, so I tried to increase it today... that made 4x60 a hell of a lot harder (failed last two sets at 40s, had to push hands on floor for a second!)
Have you tried electrical tape to secure "things" out of the way thecolin?
thecolin said:I'm still working on the static holds, but I've played with the arch rocks a tiny bit and I found I have a somewhat, shall we say uniquely male problem.
Could always wear a groin protector, not sure if it'll help at all.
FredInChina said:I think if you cannot see that your chest is elevated cirenehoc, it likely is a safe bet that you are not arched enough. Not to worry, the rocks will very quickly confirm if your arch is correct or not!
One sparrow doesn't make spring... after 4x60 Tuesday, I thought that maybe my ROM was not arched enough, so I tried to increase it today... that made 4x60 a hell of a lot harder (failed last two sets at 40s, had to push hands on floor for a second!)
I'll see if I can make a video to see if my form is decent at all.
This is a difficult hold, especially as I'm very inflexible. The best I can get form-wise is the middle picture at the top of the page detailing ABH. Will this improve over time? Is there something else I should be doing to help improve? Am I limited genetically or by advanced age? I see myself being stuck here for a LONG time.
cheeto-man said:This is a difficult hold, especially as I'm very inflexible. The best I can get form-wise is the middle picture at the top of the page detailing ABH. Will this improve over time? Is there something else I should be doing to help improve? Am I limited genetically or by advanced age? I see myself being stuck here for a LONG time.
Do your best! Just push your hardest for the whole time. If you find yourself losing the arch, try harder. If you push yourself the whole time during the rep and at the last 10 seconds you're barely off the ground, who cares... you did your best. By the end of the 12 weeks, you'll be there. Don't worry. Do your best.
I'm only on the 4th week. Took a step back - figured it would make PE2 easier. Going okay. Though I would like to have more arch.
thecolin said:I'm still working on the static holds, but I've played with the arch rocks a tiny bit and I found I have a somewhat, shall we say uniquely male problem.
I have the same problem
This is why I want not to spend more than 4 weeks on it.
I'm only at 3x24s and it's already a challenge. TBH, I just can't imagine doing 5 sets of a full 60 seconds is ever going to be possible. Who here has completed mastery of this movement? Did you have to repeat any weeks along the way?
IcedDante you'll get there, i went for 5x60s mastery this week and i kind of did it but it was ugly, on the last two sets my body shook like i was going through some extreme turbulence So it wasn't mastery, and after deload i'm going back to week 9 at 4x48s for another mini cycle. Even then i still might not do it, but it's cool with me and i'm in no hurry.
I've found that this is one of those exercises that gets easier the more you do it. For me, it seems the discomfort comes more from a lack of mobility than from the strength needed to maintain the position. As a general rule that's what I find unpleasant about an exercise if I do.
Hercules said:I have the same problem
This is why I want not to spend more than 4 weeks on it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one, I was starting to feel weird!
Since no answer is forthcoming, I guess I'll try have to go buy a pack of tightey whiteys and try them on a softer surface. 
Way to make this exercise more fun
Do it in a group. Place a big piece of paper on floor, use a cheese grater to grate a bit of brightly coloured children's chalk on the paper. Do the set with face/arms over the paper. At the end of the set look around the group and see who didn't cheat even little. All cheaters should have brightly coloured noses/arms etc. If you wish to be a masochist put a mat under the paper, the thicker the better (worse).
I would do the rocks on a softer surface for sure. I'm not too genetically gifted so a yoga may is usually enough for me. Some folks may need different alternatives. I'm assuming one gets used to it though.
Steve Sisk said:I've found that this is one of those exercises that gets easier the more you do it. (...)
Genius! B)
IcedDante said:I'm only at 3x24s and it's already a challenge. TBH, I just can't imagine doing 5 sets of a full 60 seconds is ever going to be possible. Who here has completed mastery of this movement? Did you have to repeat any weeks along the way?
I've been stuck trying to move from 24s to 36s for a couple of months, and have kept repeating it for some time. The first failure, I went all the way back to the start. The second time, I chose to just repeat week 5 (while still taking a deload when appropriate), and now I've started working on holding 30s holds, which surprisingly I can manage now. So, it's taking time, but what seemed impossible at first seems to be getting slowly closer.
thecolin said:I'm still working on the static holds, but I've played with the arch rocks a tiny bit and I found I have a somewhat, shall we say uniquely male problem.
It is advisable to wear tight underwear to keep your genitals from being squished. I don't really know of a better way to do it.
Hari_Seldon said:It is advisable to wear tight underwear to keep your genitals from being squished. I don't really know of a better way to do it.
I discovered when I was doing Hapkido that tight underpants were absolutely necessary, I guess the same is true of gymnastics. Thanks for the feedback.
You could always tuck it behind your legs if you prefer to wear looser underwear. Can get a bit cramped with those righty whiteys.
FredInChina said:Genius! B)
I mean that, in my experience at least, some movements (especially ones that are fairly novel and that require strength AND flexibility that one may not often train) are particularly grueling at first. The body just isn't used to them. As the body adapts to making the new effort, the initial unpleasantness is mitigated, even if the exercise is still "hard".
Yes Steve, I understand... I just thought it was hilarious that you precisely described the reason why we do exercise...
Well done! :cool:
So I "completed" 5x60s ABH this past week and (for the first time) decided to film myself to see if I thought I qualified for mastery. I did not think I would seeing as I'm typically fighting to keep my hands and feet off of the ground by the last set but figured it couldn't hurt.
Here is my first set:
and my last set:
So obviously this isn't an element I've mastered yet, but what I was surprised by when I looked up the video in F1 to compare my form (at least on the first set) to was how much higher the correct form demands the legs to be. Even in my first set when I thought was pretty good I look nothing like what I should.
For comparison:
I think I might be going wayyyyy back to week 1 on this one and working on getting my legs much higher. My shoulders are just very inflexible and I don't know really how important it is that I get them quite as open here, but I'll try my damndest.
Update: I just tried this on the floor to see what kind of height I could get out of my legs. I can do better than I thought but it looks like yes I'll definitely need to step back to week 1 with this new ROM. Super hard! My glutes and legs cramp up!
Cannister said:Update: I just tried this on the floor to see what kind of height I could get out of my legs. I can do better than I thought but it looks like yes I'll definitely need to step back to week 1 with this new ROM. Super hard! My glutes and legs cramp up!
Is that the officially accepted approach when working towards mastery? My thinking was more that if I'm relatively close to mastery on an exercise I'll just redo the last 4 weeks of the cycle. Restarting right from the beginning seems somewhat excessive to me, though perhaps I'm wrong.