ABH form check

 

Ok, so here's my attempt for ABH. I think if this isn't enough I'm going to have to surgically remove a few vertebrae.    I've just finished off 5x18 (deload) with this ROM and am heading into my final (?) cycle. So what's the verdict?

 

A follow up question, does anyone have some good advice on how to clean that planter on the left. It's getting so dirty I'm a little embarrassed to post this picture. 

To nitpick, I'd say that;

1)your arms should be next to your ears,

2) your legs look like they are very slightly bent.

3) Seems to me you need to get your glutes a little more into it to get the legs up the same as your upper body. Not that I'm staring at your glutes or anything, but they seem a little too relaxed. When I ABH I feel it most in my glutes/hamstrings, pretty much nothing in my back itself.

 

That's just my take, playing devil's advocate good effort

Thanks for the advice, nitpicking is very welcome. I'll work on my arms and legs position for the next time.

 

I've been working on squeezing my glutes, I think they're pretty hard... oh boy, this conversation is getting a bit awkward. I also press my feet together to generate more tension which seems to really help to pull them up. It's hard to see with the loose shorts, but my legs are off the ground just about up to my waist. But I do tense my lower back quite a bit as well. Should I perhaps be relaxing my back slightly and focus more on lifting my legs? Comparing my arch to the model in the book, his arch looks like a more constant line from head to toe. Whereas mine perhaps "breaks" a little bit in the lower back and my upper body arches up at a steeper angle?

thecolin said:

Should I perhaps be relaxing my back slightly and focus more on lifting my legs? Comparing my arch to the model in the book, his arch looks like a more constant line from head to toe. Whereas mine perhaps "breaks" a little bit in the lower back and my upper body arches up at a steeper angle?

No problem and you might have a point there. The big cue for me with ABH is to point my toes, then reach as far up and back with my heels as possible, which puts me into a nice arch. I don't really think about my lower back much tbh. You might give that a try and see if it helps.

thecolin said:

ABH.jpg

 

Ok, so here's my attempt for ABH. I think if this isn't enough I'm going to have to surgically remove a few vertebrae.    I've just finished off 5x18 (deload) with this ROM and am heading into my final (?) cycle. So what's the verdict?

 

A follow up question, does anyone have some good advice on how to clean that planter on the left. It's getting so dirty I'm a little embarrassed to post this picture. 

 

 

I think your arch is quite impressive; I dream of the day I can achieve that angle in my back. About the comment Charm made regarding your arms being too far from your ears, I noticed it too, but I don't think you should worry about it if you continue to work on HS/PE1>iM. Charm's a bit of an überman and so he may not realize that most of us cannot get our arms next to our ears even if someone pushes them back. The point of this exercise isn't to master shoulder flexion, but to master back extension. I would therefore suggest you move on despite the less than optimal shoulder flexion (as long as you can hold the position for 5 x 60s). Just keep working HS/PE1>iM to correct your shoulder mobility issues.

 

Keep in mind that though I'm diligent in my training and think about these issues a lot, I'm far from being very accomplished in these things, especially in the ABH where I've regressed to levels that are orders of magnitude easier than SL/PE1. Charm is years ahead of most of us in terms of mobility and bodyweight strength accomplishments though so I just wanted to give you an "everyman" opinion.

 

 

Lol, huge praise there from MR! I wish it were true >.< its like looking at a Facebook page and thinking that life highlights are the norm I have advice for many F elements because my first reaction to a new progression is to assault it head on, and try to reverse engineer it for cues that make it up. Might help a given person, might not.

I appreciate the compliment, will try to live up to it

Charm said:

Lol, huge praise there from MR! I wish it were true >.< its like looking at a Facebook page and thinking that life highlights are the norm I have advice for many F elements because my first reaction to a new progression is to assault it head on, and try to reverse engineer it for cues that make it up. Might help a given person, might not.

I appreciate the compliment, will try to live up to it

My mind works this way too, it's good

Very nice TheColin, great effort.

Yeah, Charm is way beyond the horizon for us mortals...

what would be better? having hands further apart and higher? or shoulder width and lower?

Charm said:

Might help a given person, might not.

 

I found it really helpful. And I really meant it when I said nitpicking is welcome. Not only is it helpful, I take it as a huge compliment that you're picking on details, to me that means that my overall form is good and now I need to focus a bit more on polish. I've been focusing so much on arching higher that I've been kind of forgetting about my arm position, so it's a good criticism. I'll spend the last month  building up to 5x60 while trying to make it a bit more 'pretty'.

 

Thanks to everyone else for the encouragement.

spyro7800 said:

what would be better? having hands further apart and higher? or shoulder width and lower?

 

Shoulder width and higher.

of course but I mean which is better to progress to shoulder width and higher

I would say at that ROM, once you hit 5x60 it's time to move on.

thecolin said:

I found it really helpful. And I really meant it when I said nitpicking is welcome. Not only is it helpful, I take it as a huge compliment that you're picking on details, to me that means that my overall form is good and now I need to focus a bit more on polish. I've been focusing so much on arching higher that I've been kind of forgetting about my arm position, so it's a good criticism. I'll spend the last month  building up to 5x60 while trying to make it a bit more 'pretty'.

 

Thanks to everyone else for the encouragement.

That's exactly how I meant it. I agree with MR's comments on your form, I think you're basically good to move on, but if you were to want to milk a bit more out of the movement (particularly since you're comfortable with it at somewhat higher volume) then those are the only things I'd suggest.

If we're picking on really petty details, it's implicit that you don't have big corrections to make, and are pretty much there

 

Course I'm just me; more qualified people might be able to pick out smaller details too

Charm said:

Course I'm just me; more qualified people might be able to pick out smaller details too

In a month and a bit I'll be going to my first seminar, so we'll see what the big boss has to say. 

thecolin said:

In a month and a bit I'll be going to my first seminar, so we'll see what the big boss has to say. 

Overprepare, then sleep.

/2c

thecolin said:

In a month and a bit I'll be going to my first seminar, so we'll see what the big boss has to say. 

Did you learn anything at the seminar about your shoulder mobility that helped?

IcedDante said:

Did you learn anything at the seminar about your shoulder mobility that helped?

 

We actually didn't spend any time on ABH work at the seminar. I think maybe Coach is so tired of hearing about it on the forum that the last thing he wants to do is spend hours on it at every seminar...    I did take a few seconds to show him my form, he told me that "he's ok with my ROM". Which sounded like he was basically saying, it's ok... for now. And that he wasn't particularly preoccupied with my arm position. So I still want to try and make it more 'pretty', even if the essentials looks good.

 

I honestly think the secret to improving arm positioning in the ABH lies in the H1 mobility, not from just doing ABH forever. So that's my focus for now with my shoulders. I judge mastery of the SL elements by focusing on strengthening and mobilizing my back and improving hip extension. And I focus on H1 mobility for my shoulders. I imagine doing the ABH with arms up by the ears basically requires the same shoulder mobility to do a perfect handstand.

 

edit: A quick after thought. On second thought perhaps the shoulder mobility requirement isn't quite that of a handstand, since in the ABH the ribs arch backwards which helps pull up the shoulders as well. But regardless, I think that H1 is the key.

I'm still on IM PE2... and feel like I will be for a while

IcedDante said:

I'm still on IM PE2... and feel like I will be for a while

opening your chest to achieve deep breath goodness!

IcedDante said:

I'm still on IM PE2... and feel like I will be for a while

So you've achieved mastery on HS/PE1>iM but still can't get your hands close enough to your ears in the ABH?

If so, my whole theory stated above gets thrown out the window...