FL PE4 +iM

Hi guys,

So I have been playing around with FL PE4. The rocks feel kinda.. weird I guess. But I feel I will figure them out. The mobility is giving me a very hard time when turning over. My hip drops down a lot and I feel as if I can't place my hand down to the ground. (it feels as if something in my upper back is holding me back) I also notice that my fingers are not pointing backwards but slide out.  Any tips would be welcome. I can reach full ROM with the previous mobility progressions.

Hi Shane, 

First, thanks for posting. I'm working on this element too and look forward to follow your progress and see what the coaches say. Like you said, we need more practice time to make them look more fluid and continuous.

Regarding your >iM, I think part of the “temporarily limitation" is coming from your anterior shoulders and chest mobility. If you own HS1 or Thoracic Bridge, you could add extra mobility in your warm up (or days off) for such said areas in order to enhance your progress. I was going to say "speed up," but with mobility, there's no speeding. Only doing + consistency. 

The main thing I see is that you need to synchronize your shoulders and hips to turn at the same time. 

Right now, you’re turning in steps: shoulders > hips > hips > shoulders (one rep = 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4). 

In the video course the athlete turns both at once (like a plank of wood): shoulders + hips > shoulders + hips (one rep = 1+2, 1+2).

A minor detail that could make a difference: those comfy black socks look slippery on that shinny floor. You may have a better chance to engage your legs more by doing your >iM barefoot. It seems like you’re not pressing enough with your legs to keep and lift your hips higher. Do you know if you have tight hip flexors? 

Thanks for your input Eva! Regarding your comment about the extra mobility work.. yeah I need to do it, I am doing it but all these years of just doing strenght training have really payed their toll. It is going to take quite some time to fix I think. But thats okay. 

I get what you are saying with turning in steps versus like a plank. I will try to see how it feels next time.

Ow and thight hip flexors? Yeah add that to the equation too.

Right, so a couple of months later and I am now at this point:

- 5x54 reps of rocks (actually did 64 in the vid because i lost count) Form okay on these?

- Mobility is getting a bit better but still having quite a hard time with this. Sometimes it also hurts the elbow a little bit. (Sorry about the not-so-pretty-angle on this)

I have been doing sets of 3 reps of mobility to get used to the movement and to not hurt my elbows. I have a feeling im pretty close to getting 5x60 but I think I will stay stuck on this progression for a while due to the mobility.

All feedback is appreciated!

The rocks are very solid, and good to go.

The iM, well it's happening, but it's pretty obvious that you limitation is shoulder extension. I'd recommend you do some extra shoulder extension drills to work on this. It could be a simple as the previous table or table rocks focused on getting the hands at least under the shoulders.

Thoracic Bridge course has some good extension work in it as well.

Hi Cole,

Thanks cheers. I think my shoulder extension is the worst part of my body mobility wise. Doing shoulder extensions on the ground im not even close to touching hands and I am not feeling like I am making a lot of progress with this. Are there any additional excercises iM wise in foundation you know of which can also help with this?

Thanks!

Iirc the bulk of the shoulder extension work here in the early FL elements, but there are a couple of awesome ones towards the end of the MN progress; MN 11 & 12 iM. You can scale both of these down to where you are at.