Beginning F1 - Suggestions and more

Thanks a lot coach for having had the time to look at it. I should definitely focus on how to increase the mobility of my lower back. The point is that my stretching is really improving overall, but I am not sure whether I will be able to reach mastery form by just doing cat cow for the next 4 weeks.

You have almost no spine movement, like me right now from all this studying. That's pretty rough. It may take you a while, but daily practice is the best thing for something like this.

You want your belly button AND your lower chest to be moving as close to the floor as possible when arching, and as far away from the floor as possible when hollowing. The belly button cue should help you to press your entire back, including the lower back, towards the ceiling as you hollow. 

You also want your hips on top of your knees, and your shoulders on top of your hands. Finally, you also want straight elbows.

If you look at the athlete in the demonstration video, you can see all of that in motion. If you look at your video, you will see a little head movement, bent elbows, and a ton of head and neck movement. It also looks like your hands are in front of your shoulders and may be a little bit too wide.Do a reverse curl motion, so that the back of your hand is in front of your shoulders. Center your hands on your shoulders. That's about how wide they should be. Bringing the hands in will help you keep the arms straight, and that will make it easier to move your spine the way we want to see it move.

I think you just need to spend some time working on that. You may be very surprised what happens over the next week just from paying attention to these points.

I would start with the reverse curl so that you know how wide your hands need to be. Next I would get into position, making sure not to go too wide. At that point following the chest and belly button/lower back cues should be much easier.

Go check out kitlaughlin.com and maybe get his book: Stretching and flexibility to complement the Foundation work. It's what alot of us use. My copy arrived the other day.

federicoC said:

Thanks a lot coach for having had the time to look at it. I should definitely focus on how to increase the mobility of my lower back. The point is that my stretching is really improving overall, but I am not sure whether I will be able to reach mastery form by just doing cat cow for the next 4 weeks.

IME it's crucial to really tuck the tailbone/Posterior Pelvic Tilt hard during the "Cat" portion of the Cat/Cow.

This is also why I suggested trying some BHBR reps; if you are only hollowing your upper back (which you appear to be from watching your cat/cows), your rocks will not be smooth as your lower back will not be round like it should be.

Thanks! More video will come so that we can have a look at it and other elements.

I didn't get the last part. In the HBP/PE1 it says that your lower back should be pressing against the floor, not rounded.

Thank you!

federicoC said:

Thanks! More video will come so that we can have a look at it and other elements.

I didn't get the last part. In the HBP/PE1 it says that your lower back should be pressing against the floor, not rounded.

 

Thank you!

I think you mean FL/PE1? The main thing is to take out all the arch of the lower back, to posteriorly rotating your pelvis by contracting your glutes and abs and to hold that position with your abdominal muscles. As your shoulders and feet are raised of the floor, your lower back will naturally round in that position. Now when your abdominal muscles are weak and unable to maintain PPT, your pelvis will rotate anteriorly and your spine follows > arching of your lower back.

You could also place a towel under your lower back and really press against it, when you lose contact to the towel thats the point where your lower back is starting to arch and your form fails.

Yes, my fault, I meant FL/PE1, sure. I do not arch the lower back at all when I do it, I feel it on my abs, I contract glutes and generally try to be as tight as possible. I will make a video next time. My concern was on how much to raise my upperbody. I did a set last time (for fun) where I was trying to go way higher than a hollow by keeping all my focus on abs. Basically, this much:

is this of any use?

Try to keep your lower back on the floor, rather than raising up onto your glutes.  Also, focus a bit more on compression ie drawing your knees up to your chest as far as possible.

federicoC said:

 

A general comment. I had a look at the entire SLS progression. Why is that the main focus is on quad dominant exercises with very often movements in which knees move even in front of feet (and/or, feet are lifted up?).

The single leg squat uses a lot of the upper hamstrings, gluteus maximums and medius. Also, there is some really good iM that involve bridging with sliding the feet in land out and natural hamstring curls. Once you do those you will know the hamstrings are being worked.

I think we need to move away from the reductionist bodybuilding approach of isolating muscles and focus on body movements. Train the body in all movements and the muscles generally work how they are meant to.

Bipocni said:

Try to keep your lower back on the floor, rather than raising up onto your glutes.  Also, focus a bit more on compression ie drawing your knees up to your chest as far as possible.

I think he looks pretty much like the athlete in the demo, no? With the knees not close to the chest that is.

Yeah, you don't want to pull the knees tight into the chest on FL PE1, unlike in MN PE1. You do want to stay on your lower back though. If you do the movement correctly I don't really think coming way up on your butt should be an issue.

Thanks guys for all your valuable input. Let me clarify that the set from which the snapshot comes from is a set of 48s where I explicitly wanted to raise my upperbody further to feel the difference. Otherwise, I go with the form shown in the movie.

This is just to be precise, that's why I asked about it in details.

Later I will post an update, with some videos and questions.

Thanks once more, particularly to Joshua, I will use all your tips to improve the cat cow and you will see me progressing in that.

OK, some feedback from today's WO.

SL/PE1: Arch body hold, 4x24s. Decided to start from week5 to built it up properly. I could use a much higher ROM than in the video I showed you previously. Could you please let me know if you think the initial position is better now? To me it looks way closer to the sample video than before. Actually, I might be strange, but by keeping my feet together, strongly pressed against each other and by generating lots of tension in my lower back I felt it better than last time. In the video, set 1 and 3.

SL/PE1>Im, I made a video. I think this is the only way to go for me. Training completely alone works only if you can share your WO with a vibrant community like the one I found here 

MN/PE1: tuck-up week9. I did the 4x12. I tried to focus more on the abs. Not all the reps were good in my opinion, but I am getting the concept

MN/PE1>Im: windmill. I think this is a nice and challenging one. It's in the video as well. Sorry for having only couple of reps. Found my ROM is higher on the right side. Increased DB weight to 8-10kg and found it more stable.

SLS/PE1: deck squat. I started from week9 (4x12) after having read a lot about it. Indeed, I found that my failure in the previous WO was due to the fact that I was not patient enough to let my shoulder overtaking my hips before starting pushing. In addition, I put my feet on the ground and not on the very thin mat I use for the rest of the body (the same you can see in the video, I really think it has no thickness once your body is pressing on it). Got 4x12 good reps, I discarded 2/3 reps per set when I was not perfect.

SLS/PE1>Im: skiers. Thanks for the tip on maintaining the chest up. Indeed, I feel it more like this. 

Completed the WO with additional sets of windmills, a 3x3 of full ROM, 5" isokinetic chin ups, OHS with bar only (great OL movement to give me some room to work on my back mobility actively) and my static stretching routine (btw it includes stretching for psoas, piriformis, hamstrings, adductors, hips, lower back, pectorals, triceps and shoulders, in this order). I want to add exercises to this one as I see I am improving.

For the next week, I'd like to do the entire week at week 9 for this session, then I will have an additional week to work on mobility. For the other session instead, I need to introduce two new elements, let's see.

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhHBPLydHIM&feature=youtu.be

Thanks a lot once again!

Federico

Today I introduced some new element. Here is a short summary. Should you have the time to look at the video (link at the bottom) I'd be happy if you can answer my questions.

FL/PE1: bent hollow body hold, week 9, 4x48. I can say very good. To me it looks like I got the mastery form. Recorded one set, please let me know what you think.

FL/PE1>Im: cat cow, 5r. Started from a reverse curl. Felt better but somehow knees and hips are not aligned yet. A video next time will tell.

Only thing I can say is for scapula shrugs you need to keep a hollow body, with neither sagging nor arching.  Try to maintain the same body position for the whole rep.

Coach himself has said that staying hollow comes secondary to full scapula ROM though, and I've found trying to stay really tight in the core can reduce ROM in the movement.

It looks like you have caught on to something with the hollow hold: If your legs are too extended, and your arms are by your sides, you will be on your butt instead of your lower back. There are two solutions, each equally valid. 

1) Do what you have done, and bring the legs in until you are supported on your lower back

2) Raise the arms closer to shoulder level. The more you straighten the legs in front of you, the closer your arms will get to a handstand position. The exact arm position is unique to each person until you hit the full lay, when we should all be in a handstand-like position.

Scapular push ups:

Your primary focus should definitely be on the ROM. As you get better at it, what will happen is that you will learn to move your shoulder blades independently from your spine, which is a really good thing. Give it time, and keep scapular push ups in your warm up routine forever once they are mastered, even if it's just one set.

I have a tip for you that I think will make a substantial difference in your form: point your eyes at a spot on the ground about a foot (or maybe 20-30cm) in front of your hands. You are looking at the wall right now, which is making your neck arch too much. That is forcing the lower back to arch as well. 

A good thing to remember is that the neck and the lower back have the same curvature. Curve one a certain way and the other tends to follow. Keep a straight neck, which means in line with the upper back, and you will have much easier time keeping a straight lower back.

You can actually see this in action in your video: compare your very first scapular push up at 58 seconds to the ones at 1:17. There is nothing better than being able to see yourself in motion. Don't watch the whole sequence, just watch those two push ups. Jumping straight from one to the other will let you see exactly what I am talking about.

Windmills:

The main thing I see here is not having a straight elbow. I know that probably won't happen at first, and you may find it easier to learn by improving ROM first and working on straightening the arm all the way, but I will suggest that when you reach your current maximum ROM you then straighten the elbow and KEEP it straight as you return to the starting position. This will help you get the feel for the straight arm and how the shoulder must move. Before you know it, you'll be able to go through your windmills with straight arms the whole way up and down.

You seem to be taking a quality-oriented approach to your training, keep it up!

Hip mobility:

Your feet are too close together. Try setting up like this: sit on your butt so that your knees are bent to 90 degrees. Next, spread your heels so that the space between them is about the length of your lower leg from heel to knee. I think you will find that this makes a large difference for you.

Joshua, thanks  a lot! You are extremely helpful!

Yes, definitely, quality is what makes the difference. Not sure you guys have noticed my body structure, not that of a PLer (more that of a road cyclist). In PLing I did "miracles" and I did that by putting all my efforts on quality.

Good to hear I am on the right track for the hollow. I will apply all your other suggestions. I will set out to start from week9 for the scap shrugs. This should give me enough time to catch up. 

I also have to see whether the arch in my arch hold in the previous video is considered to be much better than what I showed you before.

Finally, do you guys make use of back off sets? In WL/PLing, if one needs to work hard on the correct technique for a given movement, a way to add volume without impinging to much on the session is to add 1/2 sets at the end of the planned scheme, with ~1/2 the reps of the latter. (e.g 4x12r + 2x6r back off). Would it be a good way to go, so that one can also couple it with the corresponding Im and hence do a little bit extra work on mobility as well. Plus, you get closer to mastery volume, with different intensity. Just an idea, let me know if it does make sense.

Thanks!

federicoC said:

Finally, do you guys make use of back off sets? In WL/PLing, if one needs to work hard on the correct technique for a given movement, a way to add volume without impinging to much on the session is to add 1/2 sets at the end of the planned scheme, with ~1/2 the reps of the latter. (e.g 4x12r + 2x6r back off). Would it be a good way to go, so that one can also couple it with the corresponding Im and hence do a little bit extra work on mobility as well. Plus, you get closer to mastery volume, with different intensity. Just an idea, let me know if it does make sense.

 

Thanks!

I can't speak for others, but I definitely do this when I'm working on a new element. Sub-max practise goes a long way.

OK! Thanks, I will use it then in a tailored way.

Today I could not make videos. However, the session went quite well.

On the ABH I have the feeling I do now cope well with the 24s. Hip rotations are also getting smoother, although CW rotation is smoother than CCW. I think this is related to the fact that everybody has a natural hip tilt with a favored rotation (in PLing, e.g., we use it to determine which grip you should use on DL).

On the MN/PE1 instead, although I could manage the 4x12, I still think I am not there with the form and tried to neutralize my arms drive. I also did a back off set of 6 reps. On the windmills, I applied your suggestions and focused on having a straight arm. Feels good on my right, I am almost there in terms of ROM. More work to to on my left side, in contrast.

I now can say that I got the crack of SLS/PE1, they are getting easier. Did a 4x12 with good form (only failed 1 rep in total). Skiers are also highlighting some improved mobility. 

Completed the work with isokinetic chin ups 3x3 full ROM, hypers 2x10 and 3 sets of leg extension.

I feel tired today, it can also be due to the fact that I am increasing the volume on my swimming sessions.

federicoC said:

OK! Thanks, I will use it then in a tailored way.

Today I could not make videos. However, the session went quite well.

On the ABH I have the feeling I do now cope well with the 24s. Hip rotations are also getting smoother, although CW rotation is smoother than CCW. I think this is related to the fact that everybody has a natural hip tilt with a favored rotation (in PLing, e.g., we use it to determine which grip you should use on DL).

On the MN/PE1 instead, although I could manage the 4x12, I still think I am not there with the form and tried to neutralize my arms drive. I also did a back off set of 6 reps. On the windmills, I applied your suggestions and focused on having a straight arm. Feels good on my right, I am almost there in terms of ROM. More work to to on my left side, in contrast.

I now can say that I got the crack of SLS/PE1, they are getting easier. Did a 4x12 with good form (only failed 1 rep in total). Skiers are also highlighting some improved mobility.

Completed the work with isokinetic chin ups 3x3 full ROM, hypers 2x10 and 3 sets of leg extension.

I feel tired today, it can also be due to the fact that I am increasing the volume on my swimming sessions.

What is an isokinetic chin-up? I've done many types of chin-ups/pull-ups in the past (putting them on hold to focus my energy on the F1 material ATM) but I am unfamiliar with that version. Do you use a specialized machine to perform them?

Always interested in learning new exercise variations. :-)

Sure. 

isokinetic (constant speed) chin ups are chin ups with a 5-5 tempo. From the dead hang to chest to the bar in 5", 1-2" hold and then down to deed hang in 5". Actually, I shouldn't have done them today, as tomorrow is F1 again. I will see how do I feel because tomorrow I have some important duty at work and should I feel still sore/tired, I will take an extra day off. This does not hurt, especially if you are beginning a new program.

federicoC said:

Sure.

isokinetic (constant speed) chin ups are chin ups with a 5-5 tempo. From the dead hang to chest to the bar in 5", 1-2" hold and then down to deed hang in 5". Actually, I shouldn't have done them today, as tomorrow is F1 again. I will see how do I feel because tomorrow I have some important duty at work and should I feel still sore/tired, I will take an extra day off. This does not hurt, especially if you are beginning a new program.

Ok, so then your understanding of isokinetic is off.

Isokinetic exercises can only be performed on specialized machines which automatically adjust the amount of resistance in order to maintain a given speed of contraction. In other words, you are "pushing" (technically muscles only pull) as hard as you can at all times and the machine either increases or decreases the amount of resistance so that the rep speed remains constant.

What you are referring to is simply performing chin-ups with a controlled tempo. Two very different things.

Thanks for your clarification. I think is it simply that translating from Italian to English does not always work. In Italian, we do refer to isokinetic as controlled tempo, e.g. 5-5 or 10-10. Anyway, I find them very good to help maintaining a good form with the additional benefit of being more challenging than normal chin ups, as they do not allow cheating in any way.

federicoC said:

Thanks for your clarification. I think is it simply that translating from Italian to English does not always work. In Italian, we do refer to isokinetic as controlled tempo, e.g. 5-5 or 10-10. Anyway, I find them very good to help maintaining a good form with the additional benefit of being more challenging than normal chin ups, as they do not allow cheating in any way.

Yeah, totally agree that they are a great exercise. And completely understand about the translation issue.

Sure. Thanks.

Today, despite quite some stressing workload I could manage to perform a decent WO. I made a video of the cat cows, of the scap shrugs, of my push ups and Xiaopeng fwd, and of the XR incline rows.

Joshua and Coach, I applied your suggestions and felt the difference. Im my opinion the cat cow are better now, as well as the scap shrugs. Keeping the head down really helped there. I am enjoying the Xiaopeng fwd as well. I completed the WO with some additional set of that movement and with exercises for shoulder and lower back stretching.

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOV84aA6vOE

Suggestions welcome, as always. Thanks a lot for your help!

Federico