Full-body tightness for F1 PEs and SEs?

Hi All,

 

I'm doing 3 days of F1 a week and one day of H1 following the suggestions to my last post. 

 

My question is regarding full-body tightness - I can do the starting exercises of F1 as seen in the initial videos, but I noticed that tightening everything in my body increases the difficulty of the exercise considerably. I am wondering whether doing this will be helpful down the line (as all the "advanced" moves seem to advocate full-body tightness) or whether I should just do my best replications of the videos and proceed once my motions look like the videos, irregardless of tightness.

 

For example, I found doing FL/PE2 (Bent Hollow Body Rocks) pretty easy if I just had to copy the video, but once I kept my abs flexed as hard as I could and protracted my shoulders as much as possible, the exercise became exponentially more difficult.

 

For HBP/PE2 (Incline Pushups), I found them quite easy to do when just pushing up, but once I flexed my abs and glutes and kept my whole body as tense as possible, the exercise became harder.

 

I'm unsure as to whether to tense my body during these workouts or just proceed when I approximate the video - higher difficulty but a more rewarding pump when tensed.

 

Let me know your thoughts please.

 

Thanks and best regards,

-Kenji 

Basically asking if it is preferable to have the body overall "tight" rather than "loose" during most of the exercises. Thanks

Hi Kenji,

The body needs to be optimally tight on each exercise to complete it with perfect form.

When you start, this may well translate to 'tense as hard as possible'

As you get better conditioned and have better body awareness, you will develop the ability to tense 'just enough' which will take much less effort but achieve the same effect so that you can pour more energy elsewhere.

This process takes time, but will happen.

In the meantime, 'too loose' will generally be bad for form

Read your post again.

As you progress, your ability to generate tension should also increase as you develop strength and body awareness.

Maximally tensing in early elements may frustrate this process by effectively training with the handbrake on, and not allowing yourself to feel that biting point

Optimal tension and trust the process

At first you may find that tightness and effort is necessary to hold good form on the exercise. As the form gets further drilled you'll be able to use less tension, i.e. the right amount of tension.

Hi Michael and Dritar,

 

Thanks for the feedback. What I'm basically getting from your responses is that, generally, applying whole body tension is a good thing, but I should not pop an eye-socket out trying to do the early PEs. Meaning, no need for maximal tension all the time just for the sake of maximal tension - I don't need to flex my abs and glutes doing incline push ups per se and miss the forest for the trees. 

 

I'm finding the very first PEs easy to complete still but I assume when I get to more challenging PEs for myself, the "necessary tension" will reveal itself to me rather than me looking for it.

 

I look forward to progressing. Thanks and best regards,

-Kenji 

The thing I love about GST is that everything about it encourages natural physical development. I think you use the tension required to perform each movement correctly, not more or less. Form comes down to the reality of how you body is arranged in physical space, not squeezing everything you've got as hard as you can just to make a movement harder.

If you're a beginner it, in terms of subjective experience this may imply an apparently max-tension effort, but if you're familiar with high-tension weight lifting techniques most of the movements will be down more down to developing your coordination rather than maxing your tension. That is to say integrating the aspects of tension and relaxation throughout the body required to produce a proper hollow body or whatever it happens to be.

Some form corrections will involve increasing tension in one area of the body or another, but from my experience and what I've learned here the blind applocation of ever more tension isn't the optimal approach to improving pefotmance, safety, or anything else.

Film yourself trying an element, compare with the videos in the program, than try again with more tension and compare again. I think this is the best way to find out for certain which subjective experience of tension output yield the best results in terms of performance.

You want to be using the minimum tension necessary to maintain good form. 

 

If you're learning an unfamiliar movement, it might seem at first like it requires maximal tension just to hold the position correctly. Over time, your body will learn how to perform that movement more efficiently, and the movement will feel more relaxed. 

 

If a movement seems easy - it might just be that it is easy for you. Test yourself for mastery, and if you pass with good form, move on. 

Hey Sven and Josh,

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the feedback gents. Will keep all updated.

 

Best regards,

-Kenji