Form Check, HS/PE1, Im and wrist work

As the title suggests, do you see evident problems with these elements?

Thanks a lot in advance!

F

Edit: on the Im, I reduced the width by ~10cm in the last month. I suppose that mastery is about other 10cm away, as the athlete in the video starts with his hands closer than mine, but not at shoulder width.

For the wrist work, your hips should be straighter.  You're currently piking at the hips.  Think of it more as a knees-pushup position than a kneeling position.  The wrist portion of the exercises you showed look good, but you left out FKP and WR.

HS and IM look good.  It's hard to tell how far apart your hands are from this angle.  Inside of the hands should be lined up with outside of shoulders to progress.

tex0413 said:

For the wrist work, your hips should be straighter.  You're currently piking at the hips.  Think of it more as a knees-pushup position than a kneeling position.  The wrist portion of the exercises you showed look good, but you left out FKP and WR.

 

HS and IM look good.  It's hard to tell how far apart your hands are from this angle.  Inside of the hands should be lined up with outside of shoulders to progress.

Thanks for commenting. Yes, you are right, I'm piking at the hips. My goal is to complete the mastery template with this form, and then perform another microcycle by increasing the lean, to give my body more time to adapt. I should be able to progress smoothly on this one.

You then confirm I have at least 10cm to go on the Im. Well, I'm getting very positive feelings from this one and really like it. I found out that doing dislocates as prehab further improves my ROM.

Will continue on those and post an update in due time.

Ditto what tex said.

Also it may help to throw in some super slow WP as you did with the FT ones. I occasionally do a full set of 10s (each hand 10s). Really good for the wrists and makes sure the momentum is non-existent.

I hopefully made good use of all your comments.

I post a form check for WP/PE4 (4x3r) and WR/PE3 (4x3r), which I started last week as new elements.

Also, the same leaning as in WR/PE3 is not applied to FKP/PE3. Is that sufficient? Any note?

For what concern HS/PE1, I can say that I'm feeling very good now in that position and I'm currently at 4x40" with ease. On the Im, I'm getting closer and closer to mastery and I gained other 5cm since last form check.

Thanks a lot!

Not sure what you mean about the sufficient lean aspect.

The WP seem a little too tough for ya IMO. You are using some momentum to pump back up from the bottom position. If you watch the demo vid, even though his wrists don't go all the way to the ground, he is using pretty much 100% wrist strength to get back up. He also has a little more weight on the wrist not pushing back up so that might help as well.

TANSTAAFL said:

Not sure what you mean about the sufficient lean aspect.

 

The WP seem a little too tough for ya IMO. You are using some momentum to pump back up from the bottom position. If you watch the demo vid, even though his wrists don't go all the way to the ground, he is using pretty much 100% wrist strength to get back up. He also has a little more weight on the wrist not pushing back up so that might help as well.

1. Sorry, probably my bad wording. In the video I posted last July, I was piking at hips. Now it seems I corrected that (on WR and FKP) and I just wanted to cross check.

2. On the WP I noticed two things: i. the athlete in the demo video is not involving the thumb in the movement ii. he has a more limited ROM. The first thing I can correct easily, perhaps I gain in stability. On the second one, is my ROM dangerous? I don't feel anything strange to be honest. With time, I'm planning to slow down the execution. Perhaps I can try to reduce the ROM a bit?

Let me know!

F

1) Yes pike is gone.

2)I go all the way down as well thought I am still going on PE1/2 from a previous injury. I wouldn't say it's dangerous if you have the strength for it, which I'm not sure you do yet. I still think the demo athlete can do them very slowly, potentially pausing at any point in the rep, then continuing. That's the control/strength I'm speaking about.

Personally I would just go back to knees and work with no pike on the knees until you can do it without momentum/any jerkiness, but I'm me and you're not...so at least feel fortunate about that .

TANSTAAFL said:

1) Yes pike is gone.

 

2)I go all the way down as well thought I am still going on PE1/2 from a previous injury. I wouldn't say it's dangerous if you have the strength for it, which I'm not sure you do yet. I still think the demo athlete can do them very slowly, potentially pausing at any point in the rep, then continuing. That's the control/strength I'm speaking about.

 

Personally I would just go back to knees and work with no pike on the knees until you can do it without momentum/any jerkiness, but I'm me and you're not...so at least feel fortunate about that .

 

 

I do the "control" test you described very often. In fact, I can do very slow and controlled reps in the kneeling version. My current plan is to repeat this cycle and further polish the form. I will record this again in 2-3 weeks time. Meanwhile, I will try to record other elements.

Thanks a lot for your help, and be happy about not being me

Already in today's session I felt a better control on the WP/PE4. I got the thumb out of the fist and in fact I used it to stabilize myself in the starting position.

Also, after the session I briefly attempted to push up one leg at a time and recorded that:

while PE1 is getting extremely easy (I'm just being very cautious for personal reasons I explained in the F1 forum), I feel like I won't be able to hold PE2 for even a second as I most likely won't be able to get into the final position. Hence, following an advice I got in the forum some month ago, I just played a bit with the transition I show in order to see where I stand and what I should work on.

Feedback/comments welcome.

Since you're just "playing"...try PE2 with your back against a wall, then 6" / 15cm away.  Play around with rolling out of PE1/PE2 some as well.  Your confidence in PE2 will be a lot greater knowing you can safely bale if needed.

tex0413 said:

Since you're just "playing"...try PE2 with your back against a wall, then 6" / 15cm away.  Play around with rolling out of PE1/PE2 some as well.  Your confidence in PE2 will be a lot greater knowing you can safely bale if needed.

Thanks tex. I've tried what you suggest couple of times but I got scared because for some reason I felt more unstable (and hence I was falling, pretty much collapsing on my neck) leaning against a surface than in the free standing version. However, I can try again and see how it changed. 

Question: in the single leg version I'm showing above, is there anything else I need to do before starting moving the leg? I mean, my back is rounded and I don't expect this to be helping. On the other hand, I suppose the position of the back in PE1 depends on individual body proportions, isn't it? I repeat myself but I have no problems with PE1 and can confidently hold it for time.

I don't see that you're doing anything wrong.

For stability in a headstand, make sure your weight is distributed on your head and hands.  You could try taking your tripod into a tuck headstand by just lifting your knees off your elbows, then gradually going higher.  When I worked this I'm sure I entered 1 foot at a time (more like SE10 than the tuck up in the PE2 video).

Also, don't underestimate the value of a spotter.  It doesn't take tons of training to "Help me keep me from falling over."  Once you get the feel for the balance position in the headstand, it will develop quickly.

Also -- how is your roll out?  If there's one skill I would add to this program, it would be a forward roll.  PE2 and PE3 are a lot easier when you know you're not going to get hurt if you overbalance.

tex0413 said:

I don't see that you're doing anything wrong.

 

For stability in a headstand, make sure your weight is distributed on your head and hands.  You could try taking your tripod into a tuck headstand by just lifting your knees off your elbows, then gradually going higher.  When I worked this I'm sure I entered 1 foot at a time (more like SE10 than the tuck up in the PE2 video).

 

Also, don't underestimate the value of a spotter.  It doesn't take tons of training to "Help me keep me from falling over."  Once you get the feel for the balance position in the headstand, it will develop quickly.

 

Also -- how is your roll out?  If there's one skill I would add to this program, it would be a forward roll.  PE2 and PE3 are a lot easier when you know you're not going to get hurt if you overbalance.

Very helpful again! Thanks for sharing this!

Roll out? Exactly what I wanted to work on in my locomotion practice. 

If ya have a link to your 'cautious tale' I'll definitely read it. Minus that, what exactly is your weak link in putting the legs up? Fear of falling, too much pressure on the neck, etc.? Knowing that will help a lot with further advice from everyone.

TANSTAAFL said:

If ya have a link to your 'cautious tale' I'll definitely read it. Minus that, what exactly is your weak link in putting the legs up? Fear of falling, too much pressure on the neck, etc.? Knowing that will help a lot with further advice from everyone.

Here you go:

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/17307-my-progress-and-questions/

you can find all details and my current program/progressions, which are just much slower than official ones (including the fact that I'm using PE0 exercises on some elements).

The weak link? I think simply balance/proprioception. Certainly not pressure on the neck, and I'd say fear of falling is a minor at the moment.