F1 & H1: Introduction and form check

Hello,

I'm Sascha - a 40 year old (or young) male from Germany. I started F1 / H1 around 15 weeks ago after attending a mobility seminar. My sports background is in martial arts (mainly karate, almost 20 years, no competitions), when I was in school I did some gymnastics on a very basic level (practice was once a week).

My current practice schedule including F1 / H1 looks the following (doing the 2-day split), any feedback on that is also very welcome:

Monday: Karate (2hr)

Tuesday: F1 (FL, sPL, HBP) + Karate (2hr) [can't do RC, because there is now way to hang rings, so I moved that to Wednesday, is that ok?]

Wednesday: F1 (RC, SL, Mn, SLS) & H1

Thursday: off

Friday: F1 (FL, sPL, HBP) & H1 + Karate (3hr) [again no RC]

Saturday or Sunday: F1 (RC, SL, Mn, SLS)

I started at level 1 for all exercises, I'm in no hurry and first wanted to see how my body can handle the additional amount of training, which is really going well.

I currently (and also in the past) have no major injuries, but from time to time having some problems on the spine (mostly SI-Joint, which I assume is coming from some difference in hip-mobility between left and right side), also shoulder mobilty is different between left and right. This was like the main reason to start with F1 / H1.

On Tuesday I videotaped myself for the first time on the excercises, to review them was really interesting and I learnt already a lot from that itself - so I would highly recommend that to anybody who hasn't done that so far. Some exercises where I thought I'm having trouble on the movement quality looked good on Video, and also the other way around..

FL ( Bent Hollow Body Hold (bHBH) & Cat Cow)

- looks ok for me

sPL (Scapular Shrug & Swivel Hips)

I just saw the the video is missing, need to add that this afternoon

- Scapular Shrug looks ok for me, for Swivel Hips there is some mobility missing, any help on that would be great

HBP (Incline Pushup & german arm swing)

- looks ok for me

RC (Hinge Row & Upright Lat Lean)

- here I was really suprised that it looked good, because I'm really struggling on the intensity (currently I'm doing 4x12, and on the last set around 8 or so, form is lost and I try to fight for the last reps, but not really satisfied on that)

SL (Arch Body Hold (ABH) & Standing Hip Circle)

- I was not really satisfied on that as well, so I read again the thread on that, so the main question : is that arch enough or do I need to work on that?

Next would be Mn (Tuck up), but currently I'm having a really stiff lower back and figured out for myself that doing SLS (Deck Squat & Skiers) before Tuck up enables me doing Tuck up without an aching lower back.

So is this ok to switch the order of Tuck up & Deck Squat?

Unfortunately the video of the Deck Squat & Skiers was not recorded, but for me it felt good and smooth.

Mn (Tuck up & Stiff Leg Windmill)

- to my suprise the mobility on the Tuck up look ok, any comments especially on that

- the stiff leg windmill looked really bad, I'm here having problems especially on the right arm / shoulder

the later reps for stiff leg windmill look a little better:

(and I just recently read in a post to turn out one foot to the side, I did not notice this in the video before and just corrected it now)

For H1 form check I will add another thread in the H1-forum section.

So this became a quite long post right now, thank you for reading so far and any comments are much appreciated. This is really a great community here with a lot of information in the forum. Thank you all for being part of that! 

Best regards,

Sascha

Hinge Rows: Lower your rings more and scoot back more so that you have to pull upper body up into hinged position.

Incline Push ups: Get used to maintaining a posterior pelvic tilt with your push ups and tighten your abs and your serratus anterior muscles to keep your upper body more rigid. Rotate your upper arm so that your elbows are pointing backward instead out to the side.  

Stiff legged windmill: Consciously look up at the weighted object in your hand through out the range of motion. 

FL PE1: Legs should not be at 90 degrees angle with hips. It's a little more open, close to 45. Cat cow loos good, but most of the bending seems to come from lumbar spine on the arch down part. Try to make it come a bit more from the medial spine (that's my karma =().

HBP PE1: Great core stability. I'd focus on keeping shoulders forward. Also, try tucking in the buttocks, as your pélvis is neutral, but should be in PPT (you're aiming at a hollow, a similar position to FL PE1).

RC PE1: PE looks good. But iM is supposed to be done with both hands in order to stretch both sides. It DOES make a difference to stretch both sides simultaneously. Other than that, looks good.

SL: Arch isn't enough. Also, it's coming from the wrong places. Legs should be straight, so thights and ankles should be nearly inline. You're bending at the knees and that part should come from the glutes. Try squeezing glutes and extending legs far behind, not up.

As for your back, your thorax is almost straight, which means the heavy lifting is coming from the lumbar. It's not what you want (too much stress on lumbar). You either ain't contracting FROM the thorax or lack thoracic mobility (take a look at the cow part of cat-cow and you'll see what I mean). Try coming up, one vertebrae at a time, to get the feel of thoracic mobility. If it's lacking, try more cat-cows of foam rolling. Tried last one this week and smiled when thorax bended a little =).

Mn: Try a straighter back. You're arching it too much. Also, try touching your chest and your knees with straight backs, as to get compression. It won't be perfectly equal, but try bracing your legs to the trunk using your arms. That would be close to ideal compression.

As for iM, it's supposed to be done with straight legs. You're bending one of them as you go down. Try to correct that and see if mobility still good enough =)

Iguanus said:

 

SL: Arch isn't enough. Also, it's coming from the wrong places. Legs should be straight, so thights and ankles should be nearly inline. You're bending at the knees and that part should come from the glutes. Try squeezing glutes and extending legs far behind, not up.

 

As for your back, your thorax is almost straight, which means the heavy lifting is coming from the lumbar. It's not what you want (too much stress on lumbar). You either ain't contracting FROM the thorax or lack thoracic mobility (take a look at the cow part of cat-cow and you'll see what I mean).

 

I beg to differ here. Thoracic extension looks fine to me. It's very similar to that demonstrated in the course video. Few people (at our level at least) can actively arch their thoracic spine; in even the best form checks it goes no further than being completely straight. It's unavoidable that the lumbar spine will be under the most load - it's simply physics. And there must be some arch in the lumbar spine or you'd never get off the ground. The important thing is not to hyper-extend the lumbar spine, which the OP is not doing.

That said, I agree with the comments about the legs.

It's not perfect, but it's a great start.

Another tip for windmills: Push the hips sideways so that the non-working leg remains vertical.

Iguanus said:

RC PE1: PE looks good. But iM is supposed to be done with both hands in order to stretch both sides. It DOES make a difference to stretch both sides simultaneously. Other than that, looks good.

 

 

Is it really done with both hands? I just checked with the course material and there it is called "One Arm Upright Lat Lean", so I guess it is with one arm?

And thank you for the detailed comments and feedback, great!

Best regards, Sascha

Thanks to everybody so far for taking the time to look through my stuff and giving feedback - highly appreciated. I will work through it.

Best regards, Sascha

Few things here with OP's videos and the comments.

Hinge Rows: Agreed they should be started with sitting down with hips pretty much under the rings and straight back. From here, there should be a slight bend in the elbows. Then get into position from there. Other than that though, they look really good. The Lat Lean is only 1 hand at a time and it looks fine.

Push Ups : You are making these harder for yourself by using a very low, unstable surface, the nature of which is forcing you to go almost into a PPPu by having to lean forward of your shoulders as you go down. Just be aware of this.

Tuck ups: Try to keep a PPT (flat back on the ground) throughout the entire set, even when extended on the ground. Others had good tips about the iM. I would also suggest bringing the legs in a little closer as well.

Arch : Agreed with Kibbo. Upper body looks good, just focus on using the glutes hardcore to get those legs up. Some self massage/trigger point work around the glutes, core, lowerbody area in your warmup might help as well.

Holy crap! I've been doing these the wrong way for so much time =(. Sorry about that! I remember I did with both hands because I couldn't see the model's other arm! Didn't really read the name of the stretch. What a shame! That said, I really fell the stretch stronger when done with both hands, but that's not what course suggests.

As for SL, am I being too picky with it? I dislike my forme because it's lacking thoracic curvature. It will be kindda hard to do ABR with a flat stomach, indeed, so it may ask for more lumbar curvature.

RC/PE1>im -- It is supposed to be both arms but 1 at a time.  Stretch right arm for 30 seconds, then stretch left arm for 30 seconds, then go back to the rings.  You get 60 seconds "rest" between work sets on this one.

Thanks to everybody for the feedback. I just still have a couple of questions:

For the 2-day-split : is it ok to do RC on the 2nd & 4th day? 1st day F1 (FL, sPL, HBP) + 2nd day F1 (RC, SL, Mn, SLS) & H1

For Mn (Tuck up) : currently I'm having a really stiff lower back and figured out for myself that doing SLS (Deck Squat & Skiers) before Tuck up enables me doing Tuck up without an aching lower back. So is this ok to switch the order of Tuck up & Deck Squat? Any supporting exercises for getting the knees closer to the chest?

Next 8 days I will be at a karate-summercamp, which will mean 3x 2-3hr intenses outdoor training sessions / day in the summer heat, after that there will be 10 days vacation with my family, so let's see how I will keep my form and progress over that period.

Best regards, Sascha