HS/PE1: First ever sets

Ok so my first day on the handstand series. Rather then starting to train with bad form, I wanted to get some feedback on this straight away to see how far away I am from correct form.

The video contains four sets of HS/PE1 and one mobility set HS/PE1>im in the end.
The four HS/PE1 sets are literally the first four sets where I even managed to get up in the position. As you can see I'm cheating and using a mattress to support myself as I get up in it, it was the only way I even stood a chance!

As I progress in the sets, I'm trying to correct my arm positioning to get closer to a 90 degree angle. I don't really know how well I manage to do that. Also, is that back posture acceptable? It seems a bit "bent" to me, and that I should aim for straighter back. Any good suggestions on how to achieve this? Do I need to bring my knees further up on the back of my arms?

With regards to the final HS/PE1>im set, I really struggled to understand whether I'm doing this right or not. Do I need to take my arms to be further back behind my back? Do I need to lean forward more? What am I doing wrong here, and what do I need to fix? And how do I best train to fix it? 

Thanks, really looking forward to starting practicing these exercises for real!

Hi Daniel, the PE form it is ok, strive to reach the 90° elbow flexion, not more. Also keep your heels on the butt.

From the mirror your IM seems to be good, remember to hold the elbows locked, do not extend your wrists  and try to reduce gradually the hands distance till shoulders width plus one hand on every side.

Thanks for your support and input, @Alessandro Mainente. Will be diving deep into this later today and have some more questions if you don't mind:

8 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Also keep your heels on the butt.

You mean to lift my heels up more so that my heels touch my butt? I can totally see how this would help with back posture. Will try this and see if I manage. But it might be worth to note that the gymnast in the instructions do not do this:

What is preferred here?

On the iM:

8 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

do not extend your wrists

Can you expand on what you mean by "not extending" wrists? Should I make sure  not to "roll" the fist forward/backward and ensure that the top of the fist and the underarm makes a straight line?

8 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

try to reduce gradually the hands distance till shoulders width plus one hand on every side.

Just to see if I got this right, I should keep my hands straight up above my shoulders (with my thumbs basically aligned with the outer edge of each shoulder), elbows flexed fully, and perform the motion, correct? 

So I'm glad to say I'm progressing well on this one. From not being able to get into the position without help last week, to easily getting up in just a couple of sessions! Guess the body just needed to learn some new tricks.

Here are 5 x 24s sets of PE1. I'm feeling quite confident I could start practicing mastery (5 x 60s) tomorrow and have a good shot of pulling them off. But before I do so, I just want to double-check that I'm doing this with the right form (or right enough) before I start practicing longer sets. I'll continue to work on ensuring my arms are at 90 degrees, but I feel my back posture is not that straight here. But then again, I notice that the athlete's back is also not a perfect straight line when he does it in the instruction video, so I'm wondering if this is good enough? Any thoughts? Should I hold back? If so, what should I keep in mind when I practice the shorter sets? @Alessandro Mainente

P.S. the IMs are not good, I'm not happy with them, and I know I have work to do there.

HI Daniel nice effort and form on PE, on the mobility i'm sorry to say that seconds with bend elbows do not count.

Thanks Alessandro! No surprise there on the mobility. Have some work to do here.

How's this @Alessandro Mainente?

PE: I can do the 5 x 60s as I suspected, not sure if form is acceptable.

iM: Not sure about my ROM here, or my elbows/wrists. Can you tell enough from the vids? I also am using a 5kg bar, which I'm starting to wonder if it's too heavy for me at this stage. Any thoughts?

During IM the left elbow seems a little bit bent.the IM for the form check must be filmed to the side. you do not need to film necessarily the PE since it is good.

How's this @Alessandro Mainente?

1. Sorry about the limited view angle, hotel room, hope you still see enough to be able to give feedback.
2. In lack of better equipment while travelling, I'm using two water bottles that I press together to make the bar, hope that's acceptable.  

As stated in many posts, you should increase the grip so that you can flex the arms up to 180°. no reason to use a closer grip but compensate by reducing the flexion.