Form check

Ok, so finally I've gathered courage enough to open a topic to check my form on exercises. (It's only me that finds it intimidtaing the first time? haha). But I think is the best way to start correcting exercises and progress.
 
So today I'll be posting some reps on MN/PE1, which is giving me trouble due to the compression.
Password is 'mn.pe1'
 
http://youtu.be/kluAqCXVcys

 
Im trying to work on it by sitting and sticking my feet to the bum, and then try to hold the torso close to the knees without help of the hands, which currently is quite complicated for me. Feels like someone is trying to separate really hard my torso from my thighs.
 
Any advice on this?
 
Thanks lads

Where's the video?

Sorry lads. Im trying to embed my vimeo video on the post. So i just copy paste the link and it seems the forum system leaves the space for the video to fit but the video is not shown. Ive tried already to wrap it in tags but no success this far as well. Ive tried to search in the forums about how to embed videos and found nothing this far. Anyone can help me with this?

Sorry mate, Ive modified the post so it now includes a link to the video as I cannot embed it.

Looks good so far.

 

If you want to make your tuck up tighter, squeeze your abs and hamstrings.

 

If you are apprehensive about posting form check videos, you can always compare your performance against the performance of the course videos.

What you see in the video is the hardest I can squeeze (actually my face reflects that), to the point abs are absolutely burning and hammies are close to cramp. Just wanted to know if it is enough compression, or at least if with time it will get better. I don't know if it's a flexibiity issue or strength issue yet. As I said, I can't sit as well with my feet touching the bum and chest touching knees, in that position my torso tends heavily to go backwards and get separated from the knees. So I use this position to exercise my compression: sitting on the floor, feet on the ground and as tucked to the bum as possible and try to avoid torso going back for 10-20 seconds.

Just keep doing your best. Tuck compression will get better over time.

Not sure if you are still stuck but if you watch the course video there is some room for touching the floor (with your fingers), the compression comes much easier with that knowledge.

 

 

Not sure if you are still stuck

Yeah Im still struggling a bit with these.

I'm thinking I might be limited maybe from hamstring flexibility? I assume that if my hamstrings are tight they wont allow me to bend at the hips and let my chest touch the knees?

Following Adriano Augusto reccomendations my current approach is as follows:

+Try to hold the compression on each rep at the top for a few seconds to strengthen hip flexors

+Do the Jefferson curl more often to stretch the hammies

+Do MN/PE6 as an auxiliar exercise to get more hip flexor strength

Im not noticing any major improvement yet, but Im gonna stick with that a bit more. Will ask again if I cant get any better

 

Thanks!!

I think the cue of squeezing the hamstrings may be counter-productive. Certainly if I try it that way I can't get as much compression. I say just let the lower legs hang loose - that's what it looks like in the course video anyway. The focus here should be on activating and strengthening the hip flexors. That is the main thing which is going to give you that extra compression. You can look at this exercise as a really scaled down version of leg lifts, in the sense that not only is the leverage greatly reduced, but bending your legs effectively takes any hamstring tightness out of the equation. This gives you the opportunity to strengthen your hip flexors at the very top of your ROM; something you wouldn't be able to do with straight leg exercises unless you were already very strong and had very loose hamstrings.

 

So I wouldn't discourage you from stretching your hamstrings - you're going to need that flexibility later on - but I wouldn't expect it to help your ROM a great deal. PE6 seems like it would be way too advanced at this stage. If your hamstrings are tight there's no way you'd be able to get into the correct starting position, so you wouldn't be able to work that crucial ROM. A bent leg version might be of some use I suppose.

 

If you want to check your passive ROM, lie on your back with your lower back flat on the floor and pull your knees to your chest one at a time. You should be able to get your leg to touch your abdomen. If you can't, most likely some stretching and release work around the glutes is in order. If you do have the ROM then you just need the strength. Slowly release your grip on your leg and try and hold it in the same position with your hip flexors alone. You should expect to feel your hip flexors firing uncomfortably. It's this feeling you're trying to replicate in your tuck ups. Learn to love the burn. I would agree that holding the top position for a couple of seconds is a good idea.

 

Sorry to be controversial. By all means carry on with what you're doing if you're getting results. Just thought I would offer another approach.

One thing that has helped me (though I am still working on maximum compression as you are) with these is to not pull my feet in real close to my butt at the top of the rep. The athlete in the video does not do this but instead has his feet out a ways in front of him and I have found that personally this improves balance and allows for better compression.

Also, squeezing the hamstrings is not what you want with these, the hamstrings extend the hip (which is the opposite of what you want here). What you want is to squeeze the hip flexors and abs and seek to bring your knees/thighs to your chest, not your feet to your butt.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Kibbo and Keegan, actually that makes a lot of sense. Il correct that and keep trying