Hollow body - how long did it take you?

If there is one exercise that I have come to despise it is the hollow body rocks and holds. I feel like I am never going to get past them, and knowing that I have another three progressions ahead of me once I have finished my current one is a bit depressing

So, how long did it take you guys to get through and are there any tips to make this more bearable?

Isn't that like one of those "primal" exercises that you subscribe to for the rest of your life? You just keep grinding it out and refining it until the end of time. There's no end to the pain \\(^o^)//

It took me a long time, and FL/PE6 in particular was horrible. Probably 12 months to get to PE7?

On the positive side, it does build character, in addition to abs.

27 minutes ago, Mikkel Ravn said:

It took me a long time, and FL/PE6 in particular was horrible. Probably 12 months to get to PE7?

On the positive side, it does build character, in addition to abs.

Haha yes that is true. It´s just neverending 

I despise bHBR. I take one step forward one step back, not literally (although that would be easier to explain my sucky form). I need to refine form and be consistent with the 50% sets on off days.

With the recent moving up in the difficulty order of Hinge Rows and Deck Squats (after i'd pretty much mastered them) I could have shed a tear to see bHBR stay where they are.

Do you do 50% on off days? never thought of that. Does it help?

I´m currently at 4x60´s straddle hollow body and it´s killing me. One thing I have started doing with these and I NEVER did before is that, when I give up during a set, instead of just quitting it for that one, I carry on with a tiny rest until the end of the set. That way I still do the 60 even if I stop once or twice. Gotta help in the end (I hope).

When I am consistent enough to maintain 50% sets it has helped increase my reps. But i hadn't filmed my self in a while and when i recently did my form wasn't great. So i just ended up increasing volume of poor form rather than focusing on proper form. But as a method to increase reps i think it helped, but for straddle hold i cant advise but might be worth adding 4 sets of 30s on off days. One thing I do notice with bHBR is that is that any inconsistency or time off from them and the reps you add drop off very quickly. 

There's been discussion on the forums on 50% sets so worth a search. Not sure about combining off day 50% sets and mini sets/rest to complete a full set together. I'm not saying don't do it, i just don't know if it's advised as a worthwhile strategy. 

Thanks!

I've been on pe5 for a long time.  The jump between 48 and 60s has a huge psychological component to it for some reason for me.  50% on days off does help though.  It really does.

2 minutes ago, Jennifer Rodriguez said:

I've been on pe5 for a long time.  The jump between 48 and 60s has a huge psychological component to it for some reason for me.  50% on days off does help though.  It really does.

I hear ya. i was 5x48 fine on my current progression but the next step up is huge in comparison. For me it´s also theboredom factor. I knowyoure not supposed to but I have taken to doing wrist warmups during the sets to try take my mind off it.

Argh!! Stuck on bent hollow holds 4 x 48 holds. Doesn't sound like it gets any better after this progression!! The first set isn't too but, but I fatigue quickly. I'll keep grinding...

Just started PE5 yesterday. Can do all 5 sets for 60 seconds... but like the other HB holds, the last ten seconds of the last few sets are murder. To me, it's all psychological. I actually relish the searing heat of pain going through my abs during the last ten seconds. When that happens, I know the work is being done.

1 hour ago, Bill Marr said:

Just started PE5 yesterday. Can do all 5 sets for 60 seconds... but like the other HB holds, the last ten seconds of the last few sets are murder. To me, it's all psychological. I actually relish the searing heat of pain going through my abs during the last ten seconds. When that happens, I know the work is being done.

You started yesterday and finished already, that is mental.

Nice work @Bill Marr! That's impressive. It took me way longer than that.

You can do it @Marcus Patterson. What ended up working for me was always making sure to hit consist numbers each set, warming up really well, and blasting heavy metal or rap music.

I am now on PE5 and was going through those hollow holds pretty ok. I was always able to achieve the mastery number already the first day on the new PE, but it was not as pretty (tight face, shallow breath, etc) so I kept working on it during the week in such way to feel relaxed when doing it and to make it look easy and fool others whom I forced to try it   Needless to say though... For the past one year or more (since August 2015), I have been doing an "experiment" where I was doing 500 abs every day. For six months during the winter, I was doing 1,000 a day. It built my character, and nothing seemed to be harder than that)… however, when I discovered GST, I must say that I found more "horrible" things than doing 1,000 abs a day every day… ha ha. And I love it  

@Marcus Patterson the 50% on off days helped me up to PE4. Now I'm in PE5 and not in the mood for the 50% as I find my abs are generally low level sore from this and that and in between workouts. Now my main priority is to be fresh and have the stamina to complete my next session! I find if I overwork my abs, there's a point of diminishing returns.

Like Jennifer noted, to get to the last 10-15 sec (to 60) is deadly. They have that "impossible" quality that require you to dig deeper into your soul, haha. 

This sentiment has been the case for all my FL/PEs, but even more so at PE5 (for me). 

@Bill Marr I haven't learned to relish that part yet. But I agree it's my indicator that I'm crossing my tolerance threshold while wishing my abs won't explode. I'm sure I'm not the only one allergic to pain and boredom. Btw, I would love to see your form. I'm having a hard time getting to do 5 sets with very little rest in between and I used to do HB holds prior GB at 60 sec mark, just not 5 sets back to back.

How long has it been?

Who cares when it feels "forever!" How it feels matters most to me that how long it's been. I can't change the time, but I can change my attitude from "oh, no. Again" to "this is what I'm doing right now. Get it done." 

I find rolling my traps out first and relaxing my neck help with HB. No upper back tightness pulling you down that way. Well worth the 30 seconds of pain foam rolling with a ball.

@Jason DeFranco try the 50% sets on off days. So 4 x 24s with the usual iM. May help break your plateau.

First off... With a background in competitive swimming... for me hollow body position is similar to the swimmer's "Streamline" body position.

Although I still work on it with the handstand course and during bad weather days. I, initially, spent a four week cycle on it.

If you are dreading hollow body hold or hollow body rocks. Enjoy arch body hold and arch body rocks.

At the start of this year, I added a couple of 60s sets of FL/PE5 before going to bed every night and have made great progress.  I think I just needed the extra practice to learn to properly activate my TVA.  My previous efforts were mostly rectus abdominus; perceived effort was high.  Now, 60s holds are almost like brushing my teeth.

I wonder if the boredom has more to do with people not Instagraming these basic movements so that they seem uninteresting.  Consider that Handstand One culminates in 5x120s freestanding handstands yet I don't think anyone would feel bored holding handstands that long.

What got me over the hump mentally was hearing elite gymnasts on YouTube talk about how core work was something they always did, even when too injured to do their skill work.  For years @Coach Sommer has been preaching about maintaining mastery of the basics, but it didn't sink in fully until hearing the sport's elite say the same thing.

I can't wait for GB to roll out its podcast.  Would love to hear other gymnasts' perspectives on training.

On 10/4/2016 at 8:01 AM, Jason DeFranco said:

Argh!! Stuck on bent hollow holds 4 x 48 holds. Doesn't sound like it gets any better after this progression!! The first set isn't too but, but I fatigue quickly. I'll keep grinding...

It gets MUCH worse.  hahahaha.  This is definitely my least favorite F1 progression!

Now that RC/PE6 mastery has been reduced to 5x30s, FL/PE6 is definitely the hardest F1 exercise. 

Still, I haven't yet heard about tendonitis in the abs, so go ahead and smash 'em, it's perfectly safe.

I've struggled with this one a lot.. I've been on PE2 for over a year and a half, and still stuck at 4x36r. My form has definitely gotten a lot better, so that's part of it I'm sure.

I finally reached out to one of the coaches and he gave me some extra sets to do each day to increase weekly volume, including some short sets of a more difficult progression.

So, looking forward to seeing how the extra sets pay off...

I must say, it's reassuring to learn that other people are struggling with the same element

The 50% protocol on off-days is a really good method. It helped me coast through PE1. I fell off in doing it for PE2 because I progressed right around the time the new interface came out and decided to get froggy and through all sorts of things at my workout routine (even though what I had before was pretty solid). Going back to it now and I don't doubt that I'll be progressing onto harder elements soon enough. If only the 50% idea worked as well for FLS and FBAS, lol. I always find that I'm too sore even to want to do 50% of those elements on my off-days.

On October 5, 2016 at 11:08 AM, Mikkel Ravn said:

Now that RC/PE6 mastery has been reduced to 5x30s, FL/PE6 is definitely the hardest F1 exercise. 

Today, I tried the FL/PE6 Hollow Body Rocks for the first time. What a torture! Guys, enjoy PE2 and all the others, because this one, indeed, is intense. I think I was rocking too big/slow, so the first set took me 1:20 minutes (80 seconds) to do the 60 reps, which completely pooped me out. (I am thinking that a good tempo should be probably 60 reps in 60 seconds). Next sets, I struggled and did 50, 45, 40, 39 reps, while crying like a baby (in my mind only, of course, ha ha). Curious how my real session (this was a "test" session) will be next week, when my body recovers from this shock