Can't do a single thing

Hello,

How can you scale each of the movements in the program for people who cannot do a single element correctly/with full rom/no strength/no flexibility/etc. The person in question is at a good body fat level, but is extremely weak and lacks any mobility whatsoever. weather its hinge rows or tuck ups or bent hollow body hold, everything is out of her ability.

Please, help! I thought I'd get this person on the foundation program, but I'm at my wit's end. I've tried scaling back so much, nothing I can think of is working!

Use mobility drills as strength work. Work on some static holds at the top and bottom positions of the beginning movements.

RC/PE1 - Can she attempt hinge rows while seated on the floor? That might be a little bit easier.

SL/PE1 - Someone posted a thread that lists different exercises for SL/PE 0.1, SL/PE 0.2, etc., until SL/PE 0.9, before getting to SL/PE1.

FL/PE1 - Can she at least attempt lifting legs while keeping back to the floor, then once she's mastered 60 secs, she can start raising shoulders a little bit for a couple of seconds, until core strengthens.

SLS/PE1 - There are many threads that show how this element can be tackled by those having difficulty rising from the ground.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Atticus, even the sitting hinge rows, she can barely get half way up. For SL I have tried the variations in that thread to no avail. She was actually saying the pain on her pelvic bone as she arches up is unbearable, not the actually strength part of the hold. I asked her if maybe she was being a pansy about it, but convinced me that it is actually some quite painful experience on her bone.

FLPE1, she is having trouble performing the concept of lower back on the floor, though I will give your variation a shot. And thanks, I will look into the SLS stuff!

Daniel Burnham said:

Use mobility drills as strength work. Work on some static holds at the top and bottom positions of the beginning movements.

How would you do this for sPL PE1? Wouldn't it turn into PE3?

I have tried for that particular movement to scale it back to performing it on an incline, such as with incline push ups. But her ability to retract the scaps is literally non-existent. So it ends up being this scapular movement that is just a few inches protraction and reset back to a neutral position.

For RC you could get resistance bands, they come in loads of strengths, mine even came with some handles.

FL - reps of contracting the core, maybe crunches / iM - work it with abbreviated ROM. That's how I increased it over a couple of months.

sPL - incline or even on the wall / iM - overall hip mobility

HBP - on the wall / iM - hand assisted holds

RC - bottom and top row holds. Or 1 lbs pink dumbbell rows. Just something she can actually do, no matter how easy it might seem. If everything is too hard, she's probably just going to give up. / iM - well she can probably do that

Mn - just lifting the legs or just lifting the torso, doing the whole movement but with limited ROM / iM - light weight, abbreviated ROM

SL - do it on a very soft surface, like a thick yoga mat or even use a pillow. Focus on correct activation of the glutes. The ROM will come over time. And yes she's being a pansy / iM - ?

SLS - box squats. Over time lower the box and bring her to full squats. Then deck squats. / iM - shorter ROM

General: Sounds to me like you'll have to teach her from the ground up, so emphasise correct form from day one. Mobility is also probably more important than strength at this point. Check her ROM of all the joints and then work on that. If her passive flexibility doesn't allow her to do some moves, that will need to be addressed first. Give plenty of encouragement, but also make her work. You'll also find working with another person is as much a reward as it is a pain in the a** .

I agree with Duff in general, with the following further suggestions:

FL regressions:

- Shoulders on the floor. Raise one leg (bent) off the floor and hold for time. Alternate the working leg

- As above with both legs at once

- Lift shoulders off the floor with legs bent, feet on the floor. Hold for time.

SPl and HBP:

- An easier version for both is to do them on the knees with extended hips. Easier still is with piked hips, making it possible to vary the load on the arms right down to zero. I think this mimics the loading of the original movement better than doing them against the wall.

- You should naturally be pulled into retraction by your body weight in the bottom position of SPl PE1. If not, there is probably some sort of passive flexibility issue (tight chest?) which will require further attention. Protraction ROM will naturally increase over time, but some trap stretching may help free things up.

RC

- Increasing the ring height will make a static hold in the top position easier. After a certain point you are basically standing up. The rings can be lowered gradually as progress is made.

SL

http://www.kitlaughlin.com/docs/wrist-mobility_bodyline-exercises_handstands.pdf

page 4. Bird dogs are probably even easier than variation 1, and can be good for improving activation.

SLS

- After full squats I would try rolling off an elevated surface - eg a stack of panel mats or similar

I'd be interested to hear how she progresses. I've found that some people do get put off Foundation because they find the initial PE's too hard. The irony is that these are the people that need it most.

Regarding sPL/PE1 it sounds to me like she has a Kyphotic (hunched forward) posture. IME this is usually caused by tight anterior shoulder girdle muscles (pec major, pec minor, and lats particularly) and weak posterior shoulder girdle muscles (middle and lower traps, Rhomboids, and Thoracic spinal extensors). The fact that her core is so weak is also certainly not helping.

My suggestion would be to start from the ground up and work on teaching her to activate those muscles and build the strength to at least move her shoulder blades through a full ROM while standing first with correct biomechanics, then while standing against a wall, then on an incline, and finally on the floor.

If you have the whole Foundation series, some of the later HBP iM's, namely HBP/PE17-18>iM, HBP/PE22-HBP/SE5>iM would probably make for good posterior shoulder girdle strengthening exercises (you could obviously modify them to make them easier if need be). If you have H1 as well, HS/PE9>iM, HS/PE11>iM, and HS/PE12>iM may also be useful. Can't really go into detail about these elements here though, so if you had questions I'd post them in the appropriate forums.

Good luck.

Lovely ideas, everyone! Thank you very much, and I will have to experiment with her to see which of your ideas are doable and go from there.

The person in question is my sister, I am only around visiting for a couple of months so I hope I can sort out these basics in the next few weeks. A myriad of intestinal problems caused her to become bed-ridden for a long time, explaining the huge strength gap and perhaps decreased bone density explaining why things like SL PE1 cause such pain.

Do negatives for everything possible, such as HBP/PE1, RC/PE1?