SSE17, 19, 21, 23

I just can't perform most of these exercises.

I have no problem holding a hand stand against the wall for more than 1 min.

I can do some handstand push ups (probably with terrible form)

When I try to do 17, 19, 21 my upper body feels too weak and the restriction on my T spine makes me fell like it is all fused.

SSE 23 I can muscle trough it and still looks bad but I don't want to do that.

Parts of me just want to drop these exercises all together and try again in 2 months, reason being is that it feels pointless

Any advice?

For all the exercise it is not matter how high you put your feet/hands, if it necessary to scale the movement do it. I would like to see your attempts with a scaled position.

For the SE23 simply begin closer to the stallbar and move hands down until you can feel yourself in a safe position. no necessity to maximize the range of motion always at the first attempt.

@Marcio Silva

These are exercises that a lot of us struggle with.

Here is a link to a thread that helped me a lot.

Thank you for your answers

@Marcio Silva, today was my TB session 8 and my thoracic spine finally responding a little little tiny bit. My shoulders have opened a lot during the past two months though. Regarding SE17, to this day I cannot push myself into an elevated bridge. I tried on the ball support then push myself. Nothing. I tried lower or higher legs, nothing… However, I can push myself into the bridge (not a pretty one) from the floor, so I do that, and just working on straightening my legs and opening more the thoracic spine week by week. Maybe one day I'll be strong enough to push myself into an elevated one. I am trying each week… In the floor bridge, I can only do 20 seconds, so I do 3x20 seconds…. For SE19 and SE21, I do the version that the girl shows in the picture/description. Standing away from the wall. Before it felt kind of weird, sort of too easy, but still not right… I just kept going and doing my best. Today, something happened I was able to really feel the thoracic spine, keep my arms straight and push through them. I guess the lesson is: just do what your body is capable of right now, even if it is just a little tiny bend backwards, and it gets better, week by week. My SE23 was so horribly stiff. Last week I posted a video, got some tips to step away further away from the wall and it actually helped. Just keep patiently trying… I also included some of those cats (inverted and elevated) to do a little bit every day. I think it is helping too. 

For the elevated bridge try this adjustment:

-push the hips off from the floor

-the push a bit with hands until you can reach the support of the head on the floor

-increase the arms width (because it reduces the triceps leverage)

-push up with the arms wider

-then move the hands back in the beginning position when they are completely straight

-perform a slow negative at the end in order to increase a bit the strength for the nearly future session

Today I found a modification that can be helpful: I had my body from waste down on a bench!
Still quite hard but since most of my body weight was supported I could at least get in a proper position.

A lot of work to go...

Remember that presssing up is the bridge has by far more beneficial compared to your version. consider to adjust the execution with my suggestion.

On October 3, 2016 at 4:17 PM, Alessandro Mainente said:

For the elevated bridge try this adjustment:

-push the hips off from the floor

-the push a bit with hands until you can reach the support of the head on the floor

-increase the arms width (because it reduces the triceps leverage)

-push up with the arms wider

-then move the hands back in the beginning position when they are completely straight

-perform a slow negative at the end in order to increase a bit the strength for the nearly future session

Thanks Alex for the tip on widening the arms. I've been struggling to get into bridge to do push ups after SE17 (due to fatigue from SE17), and was just using a lower rung to get into bridge for SE19. Yesterday, I widened my arms, as you recommended, and I was able to do my "version" of bridge pushups at the same height as the elevated bridge. So thank you for that tip.

do not forget to use the wider stance only for pushing yourself up, then move the hands on the correct width.