RC/PE1 and PE1-im

Again....back to posting this. The camera angle is less than optimal as the gym was crowded today (yay sunny weather -- sigh).

 

Tried to focus on having my hips directly below my shoulders (as I do normally), but because of my doing this on a smith machine near a wall, I was a little limited due to the smith machine's proximity to the wall behind it. 

 

On the im, I have always tried to focus on feeling it in the lat and the rear shoulder (forgive my lack of knowing the specific muscles) anyways, I know that I don't necessarily resemble the athlete in the video and am wondering how best to alter that, or if it's necessary.

 

 

 

Er, I would say lower the rings so the angle is better, but if you're by the wall you're kind of stuck. Is there enough room on the other side for your torso to go through?

As for the iM, raise the bar some for the stretch. Your thighs really only need to be in a 45 degree angle quarter squat to do this stretch. That and keeping your torso straighter will let you feel it more. The way you're doing it now is more testing your grip strength than stretching

I've found a deeper stretch with the im if I maintain PPT which results in a more upright position for my torso.

Noted. I tried that initially and basically put all my weight leaning back but didn't feel much stretch. I'll work on it some more.

I was the same way. Didn't feel it much. Playing around with it will be your best bet. Ive found It's really more based on your posture. For me, having the bar at about belly button height or a little higher is a good height, step close enough to grab the bar with a straight arm but not feel like you are reaching forward. Make sure your shoulders are relaxed and square in this stance. That way when you lean back into the squat, your arm is straight and the shoulder is still low where it needs to be with a straight back, just slightly pulled forward for the stretch. Not letting your shoulder roll forward.

Also, question, through working on these ims and sets over time, I felt that I had achieved mastery and subsequently moved on to RC/PE2 and subsequently RC/PE3.

 

Is it okay to make these adjustments as you all have suggested and what I feel are minutiae of the movement during my warm-up sets with these moves? This would be in comparison to degressing and making hinge row or incline row my main focus for my pulling exercises in the workout. I was able to sustain the hinge row for 5x15, and same goes for incline row and while my hips might not have been completely far enough back and I might not have gone exactly deep enough in the incline row, I feel like I was able to complete the requisite mastery with my PE and im form with form that seemed pretty good or 'close to perfect' (I know that moving on to harder moves when not having mastered the easier progressions can lead to injury; but by 'close to perfect' I know that I may not be precise-precise, but I feel that it's good enough to progress beyond but not necessarily to completely leave behind and ignore).  I'm just wondering because I'd like to continue making gains in my strength and mobility of harder moves (in this case RC/PE3, which I'm still working through on 4x6 currently), while increasingly perfecting my form with the easier im and PE's

 

Sorry, to be long-winded. I guess my ego maybe felt the need to defend itself and justify myself in this case. 

IMO, as long as you have perfect form from the waist up then you're good. Because it's an upper body movement and you experience enough tension if they're in the right position. And just perfect form on the mobility as a warmup

As for PE2, I would go back and just try that 3rd block with super perfect form and see how you fair. Being meticulous has more benefit than haphazardly doing a harder movement because you couldn't do the previous form perfectly. That's my opinion. But specific to this situation I consider ground rows fairly easy, but the mobility is the important part to perfect. I think for most people that is the issue with this element, the mobility.

But if you're ok with moving on to PE3, then I would say, just don't move on to PE4 after you've tested mastery until you can also test mastery on the previous mobility elements with perfect form. So just maintain mastery level strength on PE3 until the mobility catches up. Then from there you can move on

without worry. Because of how early these elements are I think you have some wiggle room, but if you continue this pattern in the future you will injure yourself so it's best not to make it a habit.

Oh, I'm aware. I was only referencing these three in any case. I've gone back and forth on HBP and SLS progressions for this same reason, because I needed to shore up mobility. But, of note, I wasn't planning to progress out of RC/PE3 any time soon as 4x6 is sufficiently difficult, so doing 2-3 warmup sets allows me time to improve my mobility each week, while also increasing my strength. Thanks for your input though.