F6 (PE's 1) Form Check And a Few Questions

Hello everyone,

Today was my first day with Foundation 1. I'm very exited to start progressing after a long rest and I like the programme a lot !

Here's videos from my first workout with foundation. I performed most of the exercises from different angles. I'm sorry in advance that the videos are so long and that I'm terrible at counting time.  

FL - PE&ME1 (4X48sec)

Spl - PE&ME1 (3X3reps)

SL - PE&ME1 (3X12sec)

It was really hard for me to do hip circles with feet together. How much arch should I desire to have in ABH?

MN - PE&ME1 (4X12reps)

I used 5 lbs dumbbell. I noticed my arms aren't always in line with the shoulder, but when I perform I think it is. How can I fix that?

HBP - PE&ME1 (4X12reps)

Should I protract during the whole repetition or just protract at the end of the rep and retract during the exercise?

I somehow missed to add a link for SLS :

SLS - 4X12reps

To my eye (which should not be considered official as I am not a GB certified athlete or coach)...

FL/PE1- You don't need to lift the shoulders quite that high off the floor, you also want to make sure your neck stays neutral and you don't push your chin "forward".

FL/PE1>iM- try to bring your knees under your hips. In the video they were behind your hips and thus throwing off your "cat".

sPL/PE1- try to focus your attention on protracting/moving at your upper back. Right now you are moving more from your middle back.

sPL/PE1>iM- you don't want to be rounded forward at the back when doing these, but it looks like you've got pretty good hip mobility, so just keep working these till you can get both knees to the ground and keep your hips on the ground.

SL/PE1- if your feet are together then I'd say you are good (at least in your first set, didn't watch all of them) in terms of ROM.

SL/PE1>iM- just keep working on them, it'll come

MN/PE1- you need more compression. Work on getting the tighs to the abdomen (they must actually touch).

MN/PE1>iM-you are setting up wrong which is making these harder/more awkward. Re watch the video and also watch the "assessment video" for this movement; there are also several threads about it's execution that you can read to help you understand it better.

HBP/PE1- you are rounding at your middle back too much (same as sPL/PE1), other than that it looks good.

HBP/PE1>iM-you need more range of motion, especially on the "up" arm (try to get your bicep to the side of your head, behind your ear).

SLS/PE1- looks good

SLS/PE1>iM- you need to push your hips to the side much more as you squat; watch the demonstration video again

What about RC/PE1 and RC/PE1>iM?

Answers to your questions:

SL/PE1: You plenty of arch. Focus more on maintaining your body posture while arched rather than gaining more arch in your back.

HBP/PE1: Maintain as much protraction as possible. At the bottom of each rep you can maintain some protraction by rolling your shoulders forward. However don't worry about how much protraction you can maintain until HBP/PE2.

MN/PE1>iM:  Physically look up at the weight in your hand through out the range of motion.

Keegan said:

What about RC/PE1 and RC/PE1>iM?

Here is his RC/PE1

At the moment, HB Ron is under a doctor's order to refrain from pulling exercises like bicep curls, rows, pull ups.

I'll do my best to fix my form.

Thanks a lot for the advice !

Rayne-William said:

Here is his RC/PE1

At the moment, HB Ron is under a doctor's order to refrain from pulling exercises like bicep curls, rows, pull ups.

Ah, that explains it. Thanks.

I got some questions

Keegan said:

sPL/PE1- try to focus your attention on protracting/moving at your upper back. Right now you are moving more from your middle back.

sPL/PE1>iM- you don't want to be rounded forward at the back when doing these, but it looks like you've got pretty good hip mobility, so just keep working these till you can get both knees to the ground and keep your hips on the ground.


HBP/PE1- you are rounding at your middle back too much (same as sPL/PE1), other than that it looks good.
 

1. sPL/ME1 - I think my form isn't good. How far do I need to spread the knees? Also what do you mean when you wrote "you don't want to be rounded forward at the back when doing these" ?

Rayne-William said:

 

HBP/PE1: Maintain as much protraction as possible. At the bottom of each rep you can maintain some protraction by rolling your shoulders forward. However don't worry about how much protraction you can maintain until HBP/PE2.

 

2. HBP/PE1 -  It's a pain (in the s) to keep protraction all the way in incline push-ups. In the course, the gymnast doesn't protract his scapula. Does this mean I can focus on protraction ONLY on the top of each rep ?

3. sPL/PE1 -  Does it matter if the hands are faced forward or sideways in this exercise?

Btw, Keegan , you said I protracted from my middle back and not enough from the upper back. However, when performing scapula shrugs , my upper back is fully rounded. I'm used to suck my chest in and therefore my middle back is so rounded compare to my upper back. 

For sPL/PE1 it probably isn't all that big of a deal that you are rounding your middle back so much as long as you are fully protracting your scaps and therefore fully rounding your upper back, but when you get to later PE's (sPL/PE5 for example) it is important to understand the difference between the two and you do not want excessive middle back rounding in that exercise (check out Andriano's thread about Planche leans for lots of good tips on this exercise, including critiques from Coach himself where he corrects him for excessive middle back rounding).

So, while you may still get a pass doing them the way you are, you may still want to consider not re-enforcing that movement pattern on these as you will have to drop it later anyhow.

Regarding incline push-ups, actually the athlete in the demo video does protract fully at the top on these and maintains some degree of protraction (though it's not possible to maintain full protraction while doing push-ups) throughout the exercise.

Again, I think that your tendency to round so much at your middle back (and possibly associate that motion with protracting) has confused you about what protracting the scaps feels like. In none of the HBP progressions in F1 are you supposed to maintain a very rounded middle back, but in all of the push-up progressions the athletes are protracting their scapulae.

Again though, I am not a GB athlete or coach, so don't take my word as gospel or official in any way.

Finally, regarding swivel hips, just try to replicate the course video regarding foot/leg width. What I meant about being rounded forward as that with the pelvis tilted backwards (rounded lumbar spine/hunched forward shoulders), it is generally more difficult for the femur to internally rotate in the socket. By maintaining a neutral or even anteriorly tilted pelvis however the femur can more easily internally rotate.

If you look closely at the athlete in the demo video he keeps a very upright torso posture and does not allow his chest to collapse at any time. Some of your later sets in your last video seem to show you adopting more of an upright posture like this, so I think you're on the right track.