Hi,
I was diagnosed with hip OA 8 years ago when my hip siezed up completely. 2 years ago I had bad impingement in my shoulders and couldn't move them. Docs told me it's part of getting older (I'm 51) to stop all exercise but swimming and wait for a hip replacement. I've always known it was really just a muscle imbalance - twisted pelvis from years of karate pracitce - so I worked away at loosening everything off and balancing it out. 8 years on I'm making good progress, and having learnt so much about how my body works in the process I realise that what I really want to do now is develop good gymnastic skills (along with oly lifting for lower body). I am still struggling with muscle imbalances though. I'm strong, but have poor mobility throughout.
I started on Foundations 1 last week and aside from a couple of things requiring extreme hip flexion I'm doing fine so far. I'm confident the hip flexion will come in time - it won't be rushed tho'!
So, that's the background. Pullups is something I've been working hard on and I'm getting quite good at them. I want to keep working on them whilst working through F1. I figure that in time the improvements I get from doing F1 will start to show up in my pullup form.
However, it would be awesome if people could give me feedback on my pullup form. So that I'm not working against what I'm trying to achieve in F1. I've learnt everything from street workout videos and watching bodybuilders in my local commercial gym. It'd be good to hear some feedback from gymnasts. For example, I'm figuring that I should be thinking about this 'hollow body' position as I do my pullups?
Here's a video with 4 reps done yesterday and 4 from the week before. Last week I'd asked bodybuilder friends for feedback and they told me my grip was too narrow. I widened my grip and I think it both feels and looks better. The wider grip puts the emphasis more onto my back and that seems to be working wonders for loosening off my chest and addressing my poor shoulder mobility! It's been suggested that I concentrate on pulling my elbows in more to get my arms more out to the side - so to put yet more emphasis on my back?
Any thoughts/tips would be very welcome.
pre-5k-pullupss-2.wmv