Multiple Form Checks

If anyone could take a look at these and tell me if they're ok or not that would be great .

SLS/PE4

I think this is ok...

SLS/PE4>iM

Am I leaning back far enough? I can do mastery with this form but I don't know if I should move on or not.

HBP/PE3

Looks like my hands should be back slightly further towards my hips?

FL/PE3

Looks like maybe my upper back should be raised a bit more?

SLS PE4 - a little bit too much lean forward, try and focus on keeping your chest up.

SLS PE4 im - not mastery, notice how you pike when going up. You need to keep a straight line during the rep. Hips flat, no arch in the back.

HBP PE3 - same problem as with SLS PE4 im, you need to keep a straight line. Only your arms should move. Your back is arched, try to focus more on PPT and protraction. Double check that your PE2 doesn't have the same problems.

FL PE3 - this one looks good to me. Now post last set of 5x60s   .

Duff said:

SLS PE4 - a little bit too much lean forward, try and focus on keeping your chest up.

 

Because of his headphones 

Thanks for the help!

Yes I noticed I lean forward a lot... I find it very hard not to. I guess I'll have to cut down the reps and work on form.

Am I leaning far back enough for SLS/PE4>iM?

I'm not 100% clear on what's wrong with HBP PE3... I don't see an arch? It looks maybe like I'm just dipping my chest into the ground instead of lowering my entire body, and that my ass is too high up.

SLE/PE3: The lean forward is most likely a preference to use the quads much more than the glutes. It's very common. Balancing this imbalance will take a bit of time, but it will work wonders for you in later progressions. Spend some time working on leaning back as much as you can, concentrating on your butt on the grounded side.

HBP/PE3: The arch is as you say,  , your butt raises higher than the straight line of your body. It's all about PPT. Focus on lowering the front of your hips to the ground, not your chest to the ground - everything else will fall into place. From now on, I recommend lower yourself to the bottom position, hold for a moment and roll the bottom of your butt forward so that the front hips or quads touch the ground along with your chest. That is the line you want to hold throughout the reps.

Ok thanks so much I will work on both of those and take some more videos.

Are my hands close enough to my hips for HBP/PE3?

Is this planche pushup any better? I tried as hard as I could to lower my hips to the ground and only move my arms.

Also is the planche lean somewhat ok? Looks like maybe my ass should be down more and my upper back more rounded?

Ok so on HBP PE3 you aren't touching your chest to floor. Your back is still rounded and you lack protraction. You also lack protraction in planche leans. I'd like to see you do previous PE's because I suspect you are doing the same mistakes there. Post them and then we can work from there.

Ya that's likely. Ugh man I really don't want to go back to regular pushups but I guess I'll probably have to. I'll post a video later on.

Oh PROtracted... this entire time I've been thinking protracted meant REtracted. Thank god it finally clicked in my mind when I read it this time that I had it wrong.

So... I think I made a significant improvement in my planche lean. I tried to PROtract as hard as I could for this one.

And here's HBP PE3

As far as I can tell the first pushup is ok (or decent at least), and then I lose my protraction and go back to my previous form:

M K Mossop said:

Oh PROtracted... this entire time I've been thinking protracted meant REtracted. Thank god it finally clicked in my mind when I read it this time that I had it wrong.

Well, that explains it . Certainly there is much improvement, but you should still protract more. A good measure of protracting enough are your shoulder blades; they should stick to the body. Look at the top position of your PPP - that's what you don't want. What you want is this:

P.S.: When evaluating myself, I find it easier to take picture/video from the same angle as in the course. It makes it possible for my untrained eye to see the difference .

M K Mossop said:

 

As far as I can tell the first pushup is ok (or decent at least), and then I lose my protraction and go back to my previous form:

 

Don't think about bringing your chest to the floor, maintain the hollow (try to get more PPT). Point your toes, keep your legs straight and touch your quads to the ground. In hollow, your chest wont touch the ground, but your ROM will be the same.

i can easily say that if you take your shirt off you are not activating the lats. if you look on the Allan's photo you can see how the lats work to depress the scaps. people usually think that hollow bpdy position is only about push yourself off the floor. NO.

Hollow is about:

push yourself off the floor + depress the scaps + reverse the pelvic tilt

all those devices lean to perfect hollow body position.

IF the protraction is strong is practically impossible touch with the chest before the shoulders do it. you can cjoose to loose some protraction as you descent down that is normal at the beginning, maintaing a strong protraction as you go down is harder simply due to the bio mechanic work of the chest that can increase the maximum strength when elongated . elongation is made with both scapular depression and retraction. you are simply building up chest strength using less rom. this of course is why you can build up impressive strength gain in benchpress whit HBP work.

Thanks again... I'm trying to keep everyone's comments in mind and improve.

I think I've made some slight improvement, but not much. Here's my planche lean now... is this ok to start moving towards mastery, or do I need to improve my form more first? If so, how do I do that? I can't protract my shoulders any more... are there any exercises which purely work on shoulder protraction?

Here's my PPP again. I think my form starts out ok, but I have real trouble keeping protracted as soon as I descend, and when I come back up my shoulders aren't protracted anymore. So should I just start at the very bottom and start working towards mastery, or keep working on form first?

And lastly is this squat ok? I think I eliminated the forward lean pretty well.

Nice work on the SSS. Good to move on, I think .

Use a wall for reference for PPPs. Do the lean with head to wall, then do the pushup while keeping lightly in contact. This should prevent you from leaning less as you go up.

So I shouldn't continue with the other two until my form is better? Even for the planche lean?

You mean you shouldn't move on to the next progression until you master the current one?

No I mean is my form even good enough to try to get to mastery? Like should I just keep doing say 4 x 2 until my form is better, or is it good enough to work through and try to get to mastery?

Does this look any better? I think I'm improving, however very slowly. I can't even do 3x2 of these so I'm not sure what to do. I just noticed now that I'm on my toes, but my feet aren't pointed, so I'll work on that.

I reckon your problem is with Planche Leans and you just notice it now on a drill that require very solid leans to begin with.

In your latest video, at 0:04, as soon as you push back up, you break the line, your hips raise too much (just compare your shape between 0:04 and 0:00) and there's no protraction.

At that point I think you "remember you have to protract" and in your brain you activate that shape, but instead you bend your mid-back section rather than hollowing your upper one, meaning that it's more likely you haven't metabolised such shape.

I'd spend more time on sPL/PE5 or previous variations in case protraction is an issue from the form standpoint...

Yes you're right about thinking about having to protract and breaking form. I find it very hard to keep protracted while coming up so I try really hard to maintain protraction.

I've been working hard on sPL/PE5 and have made good progress. Here's my latest... I think my form is ok (other than the toes).

M K Mossop said:

(other than the toes).

So why don't you stop doing it like that? I really don't think you can get the proper feeling for these moves with your feet in the wrong position. With your feet pointed on a slippery surface it forces you to control your body with your arms and upper back. If you keep your feet in a traditional push-up position, you're creating an additional point of support that means your upper body can slack off. It may seem like nothing, but the devil is in the details.

Because I just noticed it now when I posted the video... I had never seen a video which included my toes before.

thecolin said:

So why don't you stop doing it like that? I really don't think you can get the proper feeling for these moves with your feet in the wrong position. With your feet pointed on a slippery surface it forces you to control your body with your arms and upper back. If you keep your feet in a traditional push-up position, you're creating an additional point of support that means your upper body can slack off. It may seem like nothing, but the devil is in the details.

Daniel Burnham mentioned this a little while ago too, specifically re a yoga/stability ball elevated pl leans . Getting on top of the ball and leaning forward, or using a furniture slider on a block, couch etc. is a different feeling to either piking in a lean and pushing the ball back, or having a solid place to rest your feet on. More productive IMO.

Please don't take this too harshly, it's tough love. 

That sounds interesting, I'll have to try that.