RC/PE1

I suspect that doing the static Coach mentioned above is probably the quickest way to nail the technique into ones brain if they struggle to grasp it

I also struggle with medium volume bent arm stuff for some reason :S high reps are fine, say pushups, and low reps are comfortable albeit not easy, say HSPU, but that 10-15 range is uncomfortable for me :S that str-end range before switching to pure endurance I guess.

I too have been struggling with RC/PE1, for 10 long months and I'm at a loss for what to do. It seems if I suffer any setbacks whatsoever, such as getting sick for a few days or missing a workout, it's like I lose two months of progress.

Before I started this I could do over 25 strict pull ups, probably not GST caliber form but definitely no kipping, and could do a pull up with over 100 lbs hanging off me. How is it that this is giving me such a hard time?!? I feel like I'm constantly taking two steps forward and then three steps back. So frustrating. Same for HBP/PE2. My only hope is the seminar in Rhode Island in October. I really hope I can sort through all this then.

I am really encouraged to hear that I'm not alone with this. I want to nail it!

It's very timely that I was watching Ninja Warrior yesterday. I saw a few guys with plenty of upper-body strength not have the endurance after the net climb to get through the rope swing. Don't want to be that guy!

Jon Douglas said:

that 10-15 range is uncomfortable for me :S that str-end range before switching to pure endurance I guess.

I know what you mean. It reminds me of running the 800m, the sweet spot of pain between shorter ATP distances and longer aerobic distances.

Adriano Augusto said:

Wheezer, what's that post of Mark Collins? I read it too but I cannot remember where.

 

To me hinge row were easy compared to PE3. I re-tested when the new form was released (that bulgarian type) and no issue. But PE3... I get stuck there for months! When I hit 4 set (of 5) and sixth repetition I begin to lose ROM, I don't know if is the huge pump in my arms-back or what but it is terrible.

PE3 is hard, but PE4 is the worse. Full ROM is hard and it destroys the forearms.

I just tried static holds for PE1 - a conservative 4x24s. It felt great! Like I was conditioning, instead of straining.

Very happy to build up volume from here.

Just yesterday I made it to mastery on RC PE1.

I milked it for 9 months. 5 months on 4x6. 2,5 months on 4x9. Half a month away in frustration. Than listened to coach webinar again, talking about pushing and connective tissue. 4x12 on next session. 4x15 on the other. 5x15 on last session. It seems I spent a lot of time building connective tissue (early on, my elbows would ache, but not anymore) and that was good.

I also noticed the same thing about ABH. I was stuck on 4x24. I decided to try until body would fall (bad, I know), just to see where were my limits. It just happened that I'm near 4x48. But, surprisingly, it wasn't that bad to hold past 24 secs. A lot of my back strain was gone (except in the last sets ). It seems that connective tissue makes the hell of a difference in the way muscles act, for most of my PEs stale for a month or two and then jump leaps and bounds. Ocasionally, this period extends into a few more months, but I have to make sure it's not my brain doing what's used to, instead of going to the body's limit.

This one is causing me a lot of grief as well. I have an ongoing issue with tendinitis in the inside right bicep (golfers elbow?) when I do this or even hold the static position. I am desperate to try to progress this but I fear I tinker too much with it. I can do PE2 without any issue ie tendinitis and am thinking of just doing this, trying to crack that first then move back to PE1.

Does anyone think there is a problem with that ?  It's either that or nothing till the tendinitis clears up.

wheezer said:

I just tried static holds for PE1 - a conservative 4x24s. It felt great! Like I was conditioning, instead of straining.

 

Very happy to build up volume from here.

I've been doing the holds for 2 months+ now, 4x36s is hell for me

Coach Sommer said:

Start with a hinged chin hold (build to 5x60s), then progress onto negative hinge row and then move on to to regular hinge rows.

 

 

 

Is the negative hinge row just a hinge row in reverse? 

 

 

So glad I found this post.  I did the PE1 Initial Assessment yesterday and I had no hope of even 1 rep for RC/PE1.  The chick in the video makes it look so effortless.  I have a feeling I will also struggle with the hinged chin hold but at least I have something to aim for.

 

 

There's some nice ideas in here. I've been on this one for 8 months and don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I tried inserting rest between the iM and the next set over the last 4 months or so and still can't hit 5 x 15. For me it's a combination of failing grip and endurance of my external rotators.

I was thinking of going back to the 5x 10 template without any rest to see if that helps build some endurance. I can do additional volume during the week while staying well under failure to see it that helps. The static holds sound brutal, but I guess they'd make PE 6 a to easier

Cheers

Ben

Just for the record, it took me 8 months before I could even do a few of these with proper form.  (embarassing but true)  But just this last week I successfully did 5x9r.    (yay!)    So no matter how frustrating, just keep plugging away.  It'll happen eventually.

So glad I found this post.  I did the PE1 Initial Assessment yesterday and I had no hope of even 1 rep for RC/PE1.  The chick in the video makes it look so effortless.  I have a feeling I will also struggle with the hinged chin hold but at least I have something to aim for.

 

Due to an old shoulder injury which I am still healing and nursing (and being out of shape from surgeries and other injuries), I had to start this one with a regressed version. I simply left my glutes on the ground and performed the movement. I had no issues with the required shoulder mobility. I made it through a 12 week cycle at mastery, and tried next to move to the full movement but felt too much discomfort in my shoulder. So, I adjusted the leverage by about half by putting a box under my legs from knees to feet, and am now on week 11 of that cycle. Once I get through mastery of this variation I will try again for the real deal, and if it doesn't click I will test myself on the holds and negatives that Coach suggested.

Edit: Had to finsh the post after it auto-posted before I was finished.

Shoes Magoo said:

I simply left my glutes on the ground and performed the movement. I had no issues with the required shoulder mobility. I made it through a 12 week cycle at mastery, and tried next to move to the full movement but felt too much discomfort in my shoulder. So, I adjusted the leverage by about half by putting a box under my legs from knees to feet, and am now on week 11 of that cycle. 

 

This sounds good.  Yesterday I did a modified hang in a deep squat position since I don't seem to have the strength to do the Hang in the hinged position.  Your idea of just leaving the glutes on the ground sounds less complicated as it is still a hinged position.  I'll try this one out tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks for the idea.

Thankyou everyone for feedback on this devil of an exercise.  Today I really started to wonder what was going on as I failed to do week 9 for the fourth time round(I've been on RC/PE1 for about six months so far). I had thought that previous failed attempts were due to fatigued muscles from surfing but today after a week of no surfing I still failed sets 3 and 4 of week 9.  So upon reading ideas on this thread I will now consider experimentation with some holds and negative reps whilst keeping in mind the connective tissue adaptation period.

Matthew Berghella said:

Thankyou everyone for feedback on this devil of an exercise.  Today I really started to wonder what was going on as I failed to do week 9 for the fourth time round(I've been on RC/PE1 for about six months so far). I had thought that previous failed attempts were due to fatigued muscles from surfing but today after a week of no surfing I still failed sets 3 and 4 of week 9.  So upon reading ideas on this thread I will now consider experimentation with some holds and negative reps whilst keeping in mind the connective tissue adaptation period.

I can't say that I wouldn't mind having this as a problem. :-D Being land-locked certainly has disadvantages.

As an update, I failed the mastery cycle twice with my knees-supported-by-box hinged row modification. The first cycle I got 2.5 sets of 15r and ended up doing a few more sets of 3-7 depending on fatigue, all of which were to failure, and I did not make 75 total reps. The best I got was last week at Monday: 6s of 10r and Friday: 7s of 10r. Not sure if it was from taking two weeks off before the last cycle or if i've just been reaching past the kind of load that my body can currently handle. On the plus side I feel like I would have the strength to do a pullup again, although I will hold out on that so as not to chance messing up my shoulder. After this deload week I'll test my times on the static hinged chin hold and complete the following cycle with it.

Even though i'm having to baby this area of strength and make progress only at a snail's pace, my shoulder health continues to steadily improve, and I can't express how much i'm looking forward to being able to hang from a pullup bar again.

I think that another thing that should be considered is the lenght of the straps: probably we all use the rings fixed with a hook that is not very high and at the end of the movement the straps are inclined outwards, and I believe that this makes the exercise harder.

The straps in the course video instead are vertical even at the end of the row.

Have some of you experienced with different straps lenght?

Good point Stefano, I'd almost forgotten about this detail.  Gymnastics rings in the gym are definitely hooked up differently compared to the way most of us have to use them at home.  When I get the opportunity I'm going to go to a gym, try the exercise to see if there is a significant difference.  Thanks for the reminder.

Not directly related to this thread, but in the final position here the shoulders are depressed and fully retracted?

Yes

FIRST POST! also not directly related but didnt want to start a new thread..

literally just started foundation, this is probably the exercise im finding most difficult. im not new to working out and can do normal rows fine. its just the technique of this exercise.

i'm so used to just rowing the hinge feels so wrong, any tips on how to row and hinge at the same time?

As you can probably see earlier in this thread static holds in the top positio go a long way in developing ease through the motion. I couldn't do one rep without weird clicking in my shoulders. 2 months working up to 48 second holds (couldnt bring myself to the torture of 60s) lets just say the hinge is starting to feel a bit more "familiar"☺

Stefano Baral said:

I think that another thing that should be considered is the lenght of the straps: probably we all use the rings fixed with a hook that is not very high and at the end of the movement the straps are inclined outwards, and I believe that this makes the exercise harder.

The straps in the course video instead are vertical even at the end of the row.

Have some of you experienced with different straps lenght?

The motion is definitely smoother with long straps, but there isn't much difference in the difficulty.

unfurledgnat said:

FIRST POST! also not directly related but didnt want to start a new thread..

 

literally just started foundation, this is probably the exercise im finding most difficult. im not new to working out and can do normal rows fine. its just the technique of this exercise.

 

i'm so used to just rowing the hinge feels so wrong, any tips on how to row and hinge at the same time?

Previous Post by Coach Sommer on "scaling down"  Hinge Rows

I've been stuck at this pulling routine for months on end. I'm grateful for I'm hearing from others, as I read other posts in the past, that this is much more difficult than RC/PE2 and PE3.  Last night, I'm flexing one arm at a time and notices all the veins bulging out.  And of course in relaxed mode, my left arm has the long vein from shoulder to forearm and same on the right with additional veins within the inside of the bicep muscle belly.  

So what's my reason for writing in this post?  

Clearly I'm stuck as well and looking to progress.  As I'm stuck in this upper body pull, I'm stuck in upper body push; HBP/PE2.  I read through that post as well and got some info that may help to master this...  Slow motion (TUT) to stimulate all the muscle fibers being worked.  There may be less reps in, but it maybe helpful to go at it for a while for overall progress.  

kingzlo said:

I've been stuck at this pulling routine for months on end. I'm grateful for I'm hearing from others, as I read other posts in the past, that this is much more difficult than RC/PE2 and PE3.  Last night, I'm flexing one arm at a time and notices all the veins bulging out.  And of course in relaxed mode, my left arm has the long vein from shoulder to forearm and same on the right with additional veins within the inside of the bicep muscle belly.  

 

So what's my reason for writing in this post?  

 

Clearly I'm stuck as well and looking to progress.  As I'm stuck in this upper body pull, I'm stuck in upper body push; HBP/PE2.  I read through that post as well and got some info that may help to master this...  Slow motion (TUT) to stimulate all the muscle fibers being worked.  There may be less reps in, but it maybe helpful to go at it for a while for overall progress.  

Guys, you're not "stuck." You're making progress, albeit slowly, and almost imperceptibly. But the progress is there.

If there were a device that measures progress (let's call it a progressometer) you'd see your score getting better after each session.

Kingzlo, you're absolutely right.  PE2 and PE3 are relatively less difficult compared to hinge rows.

Sit tight and enjoy the ride.

I was "stuck" at these for more than 13 months, but I can now do 24-25 consecutive for a warm up.  

You'll get there, sooner rather than later.