RC/PE1 Hinge row feels strange. Hard to get form down.

Hey guys. So I did F1 today and the hinge row felt kind of strange to me. I watched the video on how to perform it a few times, and I felt like I had trouble getting the form down. I believe it's where you're supposed to simultaneously hinge at the hips and pull shoulders back. The movement to me looked like you're supposed to pull through the rings, so I tried to envision that. It felt as though I had too much bicep involvement, also my right shoulder had slight pain when doing this as if it was trying to externally rotate when I began pulling through. Any tips?

 

P.S. I had a question about the integrated mobility portion of the hinge row. If I have rounded shoulders/kyphosis, should I be doing the upright lat lean? I feel that when I do this it's pulling my shoulder forward and I feel pain around my pec minor/clavicle area pretty bad when I do this. Any tips?

I just focus on keeping shoulders depressed, keeping butt and legs still, and hinging my torso vertical. As the torso passes in front of the rings, the shoulders will pull back.

wheezer said:

I just focus on keeping shoulders depressed, keeping butt and legs still, and hinging my torso vertical. As the torso passes in front of the rings, the shoulders will pull back.

So pretty much, I'm not pulling towards the rings which makes it an isometric movement? So my hip hinging is what's supposed to get me in position at top of the movement? I still feel like you'd have to pull for your arms to be in that flexed position, or am I missing something?

Sorry that wasn't very clear... yep use your arms to pull yourself up into that hinged position. You'll feel it in biceps, lats and mid-traps.

Your kyphosis (tight/short pecs, shoulders, quite possibly biceps and lats) is most likely what is making the exercise feel strange and not allowing you to feel it in your back the way you should.

If done properly though, this exercise should go a long way to fixing that issue.

When you pull yourself through the rings, try imagining that you are "puffing out your chest". This should activate the correct muscles and stretch the pecs/internal rotators.

Keegan said:

Your kyphosis (tight/short pecs, shoulders, quite possibly biceps and lats) is most likely what is making the exercise feel strange and not allowing you to feel it in your back the way you should.

If done properly though, this exercise should go a long way to fixing that issue.

When you pull yourself through the rings, try imagining that you are "puffing out your chest". This should activate the correct muscles and stretch the pecs/internal rotators.

Thank you for the advice:) So should I continue the upright lat lean stretch?

ZeroGravityFox said:

Thank you for the advice:) So should I continue the upright lat lean stretch?

If you want to have any chance of open shoulders in a handstand, yes.

 

For what it's worth, the hinge row should feel something like this:

Honestly I would have to defer to Coach, Mark Collins (a Physiotherapist), or another professional on whether you should continue with the upright lat lean stretch.

I personally would generally advise people to not do things/exercises which perpetuate or exacerbate postural dysfunctions until they have alleviated (or at least greatly reduced those dysfunctions), but I am not professionally qualified to give such advice.

I'm no professional but I would bet his lats are tight as well. In which case stretching them may help. Just a guess though.

For myself going through this exercise I thought about pulling my butt down. To start with my butt would sink and raise with each rep, which you don't want, but I found it helped me dial in the hip hinge, then I slowly decreaed that sinking as I got more compfortable with the movement. Then worked towards keeping it in place with no movement. I hope that makes sense.

Work your T-spine a lot and keep it straight (extension) while doing the lat-leans. Go slown and do not let the lats win over your upper-back, even if the stretch feels minimal at first. Do not hurry for it, keep your back flat.

You should focus on you're posture and do a max of rehab, focusing on the T-spine extension, ribs in, handstand prehab etc. 

For me Hing rows are a great assessement tool.