pHS/PE1 and PE1>iM Form Check

While many exercises in Foundation, I have done before… this is all new to me and never done any of these things before. I would love to get pointers on my form, so I can start the whole thing the right way. Thank you, coaches and fellow gymnasts.

Hi Suzanna,

For the PE, you want to maintain as much protraction and elevation as possible. Push firmly into the ground! Also ensure you are returning to the plank at the bottom; your hips were not coming all the way down.

For the iM, try to get your feet off the ground (if those bars aren't too scrunched for that) and make sure to keep your knees completely locked. 

Thanks, @Everett Carroll!!! Will work on it on Wednesday again. Your advice is much appreciated. I see what I can do on those bars with feet off the floor— the bars are kind of slippery and a little shaky and high up in the air (first floor). 

On September 19, 2016 at 9:30 PM, Everett Carroll said:

Hi Suzanna,

For the PE, you want to maintain as much protraction and elevation as possible. Push firmly into the ground! Also ensure you are returning to the plank at the bottom; your hips were not coming all the way down.

For the iM, try to get your feet off the ground (if those bars aren't too scrunched for that) and make sure to keep your knees completely locked. 

Here is the new version, Everett… In the iM, my knees are straight/locked, even though the grey fabric insert in my tights make it look a little weird  I was able to do it with the feet on the bar, but had to go closer to that supporting pole, because I was bending the bar in my first set. Scary  

Hi Suzanna,

You did a much better job of making sure that your hips were down on your PE. Be careful not to let your hips drop below horizontal when doing so. Continue working to keep a proper protraction in your thoracic spine. Personally, I like to imagine that I have a string tied to my back pulling it toward the ceiling. This mental image helps me to maintain protraction. Your iM is looking much better. Nice work!

@Jeffrey Bittner thank you for the string tip. That will help. Will work on it and post my progress. 

An improved version: no hips dropping below horizontal and thinking of that string pulling me up (protraction). Am I getting it right now? 

Much better. Continue focusing on elevating and protracting to help build strength in your upper back.

Hi Suzanna, putting the ball of your feet against the support will increase the stretch on the calves.

I would offer this advice (re the pe) , which is admittedly a bit abstract and maybe a little at odds with the focus points.   At the outset of this exercise, you can imagine that the shoulder joint (both shoulders/arms considered together) is like a ball (your upper rib area) sitting in a bit of a bowl (your scapulas), which is attached to your arms.  In this exercise, because your hands are fixed in position (fixing your arms and scapulas - those being being protracted), for the most part, the 'active' part of the joint is the 'ball'.  Therefore, once in the proper plank like position, with a feeling of expansion along the body (so that there is sufficient normal force at the feet to maintain their position), without flexing the spine, and relaxing the hips, roll the 'ball' forward.  That idea of rolling forward and pulling the hips up, rather than feeling like you're pushing the floor away forwards and pushing your hips up is more the sort feeling/articulation you need for the subsequent exercises that progress to the half press.

1 hour ago, Matthew Hanham said:

I would offer this advice (re the pe) , which is admittedly a bit abstract and maybe a little at odds with the focus points.   At the outset of this exercise, you can imagine that the shoulder joint (both shoulders/arms considered together) is like a ball (your upper rib area) sitting in a bit of a bowl (your scapulas), which is attached to your arms.  In this exercise, because your hands are fixed in position (fixing your arms and scapulas - those being being protracted), for the most part, the 'active' part of the joint is the 'ball'.  Therefore, once in the proper plank like position, with a feeling of expansion along the body (so that there is sufficient normal force at the feet to maintain their position), without flexing the spine, and relaxing the hips, roll the 'ball' forward.  That idea of rolling forward and pulling the hips up, rather than feeling like you're pushing the floor away forwards and pushing your hips up is more the sort feeling/articulation you need for the subsequent exercises that progress to the half press.

 

What are you trying to say here? I'm rather confused by your description.

@Matthew Hanham thanks for the tip. Got it. It makes a lot of sense… that's the feeling I don't have right now when I was just playfully going ahead and trying to press myself. There was nothing! I had no idea what muscles/body parts to use and how. I will focus on feeling it the way you describe and see if it will bring some new awareness. 

4 hours ago, Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

What are you trying to say here? I'm rather confused by your description.

Its my first attempt at describing what to me was a bit of an insight, but may very well be obvious or insignificant to others.  The root of it, for me, was the realization that a joint articulation feels (to me) different depending on which side is actually moving.  Shoulder flexion where the hands are free, like in H1/PE1, where the arms are moving in space, feels totally different - I have to 'do' something different - to when the arms are fixed in space (like in H2/PE2).  The business with the ball etc is really how I imagine it, ie its more my personal experience of how it feels, and that may or may not be so useful. It does fit though with the general movement required in the press where the shoulders open and the back, in a way, unfurls.  (There's gymnastic minute video, you can find it with www.google.co.uk/search?q=gymnastic+minute+muscle+memory+press that speaks to that).

To put it another way, rather than using cues that speak about doing something with the arms, imagine the arms and shoulder blades are more or less fixed in position and you want to move thorax/abdomen so that is pivoting at the shoulders.  The ball image then comes about because I visualize the upper thorax as a ball sitting in a partial cup formed by the scapula and that ball rotates forwards.

In the press, that forward rotation continues until the shoulders are open and then the back sort of unfurls and then the legs raise.  One of the complications is that for a decent amount of this motion you need to compress at the hips so as to facilitate the movement of the cog forwards and over the wrists.  And there's a degree of skill there too (mobility and strength notwithstanding).

It may not be clear from the above, but I can't as yet do a press, so despite my confidence that I'm not completely off track here,  I may be wrong or the points insignificant.   But when I do the progressions with the things I describe above in mind, it feels like I'm on the right sort of path.