FL/PE1 Back pain normal?

Hi Guys,

When doing the bent hollow body hold I've noticed a few things:

1 - I feel almost a bit winded when I finished

2 - That after a while my lower back starts to hurt - even before my abs / inner core

I assume #1 is normal, but #2 doesn't sound right. Could it be that I'm just not tensing my core enough? 

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be tensing as such but I have done similar pilates exercises where you are supposed to activate your transverse abdominals, and so I'm doing that here. Is that right?

Any  advice? I have seen a physio for my back before so my core is pretty feeble so want to make sure I'm building it back up correctly!

Thanks,

Gehan

If your back is aching during bent HBH, your lower back is probably arching rather than maintaining a hollow or PPT (posterior pelvic tilt).  

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Ok that makes sense. Will try harder to keep the hollow and see of that helps. Thanks!

Pelvic tilt is a difficult thing to get if you haven't moved your body in that way. One thing to try is to put your back agains the wall while standing up then tilt the pelvis until you feel the lower back. This will help train you. The body is pretty good at remembering tension. Understand how this feels at a lighter controllable load and then apply it to the hollow body hold.

I'm still finding this pretty difficult - I think I just don't know how to do it properly!

One important factor is that I have had a bad back for as long as I remember, and when I have been to physios they said I don't activate my transverse abdominals or glutes enough. Also I have done a bit of gymnastics and when watching me do a cartwheel I was told that I'm not activating my glutes at all.

So, for this exercise while other people may find what to tense obvious I'm not sure I know what to do.

I can get my back flat against the floor ok but what should I be specifically tensing - in what way, and how hard? Should I be tensing my abs as much as possible? What about my glutes - I'm not sure how you could tense them in that position. Legs?

Any help would be appreciated!

I don't think glutes do much work in PPT FL/PE1 PPT position, don't worry to much about them here.

Rather think about flattening your lower back (so get it for arch to straight) and pushing it into the ground, lift your legs and arms as required to hold this hollow position while you can still press lower back into the ground.

You may at the beginning stick your hands a bit under your lower back, just concentrate to feel through your hands your back pressing into the ground, concentrate on this, maintain it.

For general glute activation you can try this:

Gehan Gonsalkorale said:

I'm still finding this pretty difficult - I think I just don't know how to do it properly!

One important factor is that I have had a bad back for as long as I remember, and when I have been to physios they said I don't activate my transverse abdominals or glutes enough. Also I have done a bit of gymnastics and when watching me do a cartwheel I was told that I'm not activating my glutes at all.

So, for this exercise while other people may find what to tense obvious I'm not sure I know what to do.

I can get my back flat against the floor ok but what should I be specifically tensing - in what way, and how hard? Should I be tensing my abs as much as possible? What about my glutes - I'm not sure how you could tense them in that position. Legs?

Any help would be appreciated!

That all pretty much adds up. Your lower back pain is likely a symptom of Lower Crossed Syndrome (Lordosis or excessive Anterior Pelvic Tilt) which means that your hip flexors and spinal erectors are likely shortened and in a chronic state of tension while your Rectus Abdominus and Glutes (and quite likely Hamstrings) are lengthened and inactive.

The good news is that Foundation should pretty much cure those imbalances and eliminate that back pain you've been living with.

The "bad" new is that it's probably going to take you a little longer to get through the first progressions of everything except RC, SL, and sPL (though PE2 is again going to require that you master this body position as well).

Welcome to the club of realizing that you are not nearly as well balanced or healthy of an athlete as you had previously thought. :-) But take heart in knowing that there are lots of others like you on this board who are going through the same thing and are happy to share their advice and experiences.

Yes it does look that way. I used to do a lot of weights but never did my core as it was annoying to do and I wasn't very good at it... If only I found all of this 10yrs ago!

Progression-wise I got a fair way through a lot of the exercises... until I realised my form was bad and that you aren't supposed to rest at all. So you're actually bang-on, I'm back on the first exercise for all exercises except RC/SL/sPL!

Are there any stretches you know of that I could be doing?

piotro said:

I don't think glutes do much work in PPT FL/PE1 PPT position, don't worry to much about them here.

Rather think about flattening your lower back (so get it for arch to straight) and pushing it into the ground, lift your legs and arms as required to hold this hollow position while you can still press lower back into the ground.

You may at the beginning stick your hands a bit under your lower back, just concentrate to feel through your hands your back pressing into the ground, concentrate on this, maintain it.

 

For general glute activation you can try this:

Ok well I tried this, and did this other thing

When I did my F1 workout today is was a lot better! Either from doing those or just from being more aware.

When I did hollow body hold it actually burnt in my deep abdominals first and they gave up before my back started to hurt!

Also when doing a forearm plank I really tenses my glutes and my back looked like video for once. My glutes gave in first and  I lost the shape. 

However I feel like the right things are firing now! Awesome! Only take 9 months to do this..

I just want to say I had a problem with glute activation and I really injured myself doing MN PE2. So just be careful, listen to your body, and if you feel bad pain doing certain movements then I would report back here.

Doing straddle ups?

How did you fix it? You ok now?

I got some good advice from my massage therapist and the forum members here that helped me diagnose my inactive glute (didn't even know that was a thing!). From there I did a few weeks of physical therapy to "reactivate" it. Myofascial release/Trigger Point Therapy massage has been my follow up treatment towards releasing my back pain.

The pain is still there, but I am hoping that doing enough myofascial release and mobility work will take care of that.

having the same problem, means i have a hollow back for many years, im now 24 and since f1 it went better, i would say.

now i can stay longer without having back pain, but its still really short and i hope it gets better over time. i always try to tell me, that i had a bad back posture for years, so it will take also long time to fix it - just realistic. i find what helps for short pain is, when standing, make ppt and tense glutes and quads too and abs as hard as you can and slightly lean back with straight legs, really stretching out the pain in my lower back.