Hollow body hold. Butt on or off the floor?

Hey guys, 

I have been working on the hollow body hold for the past year and think I may have doing it incorrectly.

When I perform it I push the small of my back into the floor and then slightly raise the top of my butt off the floor. This places my thighs pretty close to 90 deg from my body. This places most of my effort into my lower abs.

However the demonstration in F1 shows the thighs having a bigger angle from the body.

If I do the above my but touches the floor but the small of my back remains pushed into the floor. I can hold this version for longer and feel it more generally throughout my abs

Which method should I use

Thanks

You're looking for both; to press the lower back into the ground with your bottom slightly off And thighs past vertical. It can be tricky to feel but this is the position we are trying to build.

Your best bet is to post a form check but you definitely need the hips more open than 90° and lower back pressed firmly down. I don't know how strict things get for the bum position but I strongly recommend focussing on that now as best you can. Just my opinion

Max

Will do, thanks for the response.

posting form check now

If your legs are 90 degrees to your torso you are not in a hollow body position, you are in a pike.

Please post a photo.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Hi coach

the following video firstly shows a demo of what I have been doing the a demo of what I now think Inshould be doing

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Open the hips until the feet are a few inches off the floor.  When the thighs are vertical the lower abs are mostly disengaged.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

p.s.  Zach is correct.  No need to use your arms to pull yourself into position.  Use those abs!

As above. With the full hollow I have my butt partly on the floor but tilted away from it; more off than on

Thanks guys. Much appreciated this makes sense to me now.

My confusion comes from the fact that historically I have had issues with activating my lower abs and my Psoas doing the work. As a counter to this I used to do a crunch type exercise that involved having my knees at 90 and then pushing the knee cap towards the sky thus lifting my but off the floor completely. I guess my brain was steering me towards that again.

Just performed the Hollow Body Hold the way you have all described and it makes more sense, plus I can feel the whole of my stomach being worked

wish I had asked sooner

I will attending a class at Forma in the Uk soon so will get everything tightened up there

Thanks again and keep up the awesome work

Forma is great and Wes will sort you out

Max