SL PE9 Reverse Leg Lift

Tried to do this for the first time today and totally failed.

I did it from a headstand against the wall for my first time (after seeing that was a possibility from researching here on the forum how on earth to get upside down on stall bars).

So far so easy. But once my legs were up and I started to lower them, I got to about 15degrees from vertical and then gravity took over and everything fell forward and down.  Couldn't keep my back and butt against the wall and just lower my legs into a pike.

Starting from the bottom and working up was OK, except I needed to bend my legs for balance, and then couldn't lower them again.

What muscles should I be concentrating on activating to counteract my balance and gravity so that my back and butt stay against the wall/bars?

I seriously thought it was getting upside down that would be hard, not the actual leg lifts.

Help!

Paul

1. Your lower back and butt are going to come off of the wall even if you had a "Closed pike." The lower back of the gymnast in the course video comes off of the wall also.

2. You need to concentrate on your lower back muscles [IE: Erector Spinae, Quadratus lumborum, Trapezius (lower)].  Reverse leg lifts in general are kind of like hyper-extensions.

HI Paul the reason it is that you cannot be too close to the wall because as the legs move down you need to counterblance them to hold the center of gravity over the head, try to stay a bit far from the wall, 40 cm are fine and try again.

This is one of those exercises that didn't work at all for me either when I first tried them. Even if I got into position, my weak and dysfunctional back couldn't do a single repetition, not even negative ones. Then I just ignored it and worked on the rest of Foundation for about 3 months, and when I tried again I could suddenly do 3-4 repetitions. That felt really good  I've tried that handstand variety as well, but can't get that far down. I'm sort of squeezed in between the wall and a pillar at the gym though, so if I feel like I'm about to lose balance because gravity makes it too heavy, I can just counter by placing my feet on that pillar (although I try to avoid it).

Now I love this exercise.

@Alessandro Mainente - did these again today with your tip of having my head about 40cm out from the wall - and it was much better!  No feeling of gravity taking over at all.

If I do try them on stall bars at some point, how do you avoid overbalancing?  The video makes the athlete look pretty vertical hanging there.

Today was my first try on this… I was not sure how strong my grips are going to be and if I can hold myself upside down, so I put a nice soft mat under me. Just in case   It turned out really great. My grip was solid, I didn't have much pressure on my head, but felt safe… next time, I can do it without the mat   I am posting this, because I thought that maybe you could figure out  how to put a bar close to a wall, and then you could do sort of "hanging headstand" version, kind of what I am doing… Or you could do it in a squat rack and put something behind you so you can put the back against it. I think that could work maybe better than the headstand? Just an idea.  I am super excited that I was able to do this the first time, yaaaaay, I surprised myself. (actually, it was the second try, the first one was without a camera, I didn't believe I could do it). 

Nice suzanna! You could even turn the mat sideways so you get more range

I didn't like having my head supported AT ALL with these. Walk to the bar, pike, move forward until your back taps the bar, then reach up, grab the bars, and you're away. The real trick is not using your head to push away from the bars.

7 hours ago, Maksis Riley said:

Nice suzanna! You could even turn the mat sideways so you get more range

Absolutely… this was just like a try Zero… pre-try. Next time I will probably do it without the mat. I was not sure if my grips are strong enough to hold myself up, so the mat was just a safety   

@Nicholas Murray, I don't have much pressure on my head. I wanted to be close to the mat in case my grips will slip and I crash  this was my first ever try, was not very confident in my grip strength. But it seems to be getting better. I'll do your version, the real version, next time. 

@Suzanna McGee yes, this really hits the grip. You could try dead hangs in this position too (and add movement later) if you are not sure your grip will last for all of the reps

@Nicholas Murray, I was curious how I can do it without the mat, so I tried today. The way you described. I did 3 reps with the full leg movement, then I stopped trusting my grip, so I dismounted. I think this is going to be workable in the future  My next F7 is on Monday, so I will work it for real. You are right about the head. It was digging into the stall bars like crazy  

Suzanna you've been training so long that your grip will improve rapidly. I had to do this element on a day separate from eveything else, as RC/PE9 and 10 just killed my forearms.

58 minutes ago, Nicholas Murray said:

Suzanna you've been training so long that your grip will improve rapidly. I had to do this element on a day separate from eveything else, as RC/PE9 and 10 just killed my forearms.

I hope so, Nicholas… My grips were so horribly weak. REALLY weak. But last month, I was obsessively working on getting them stronger and did this 30-day hanging challenge. It really caused a big improvement. Then when I was done, I missed my daily (14 times daily) hanging, so I started a new challenge, now hanging on one arm. Because this is really hard, I do what I can, often just a few seconds… or I help myself with the other hand, on the side, so my body wouldn't move… It's been 7 days now and even this is getting slightly better. I actually realized, that I started to do the Side Lever Block (SL/SE1) while helping myself with that other arm. I can do it for 6 seconds now  Hey, at least I will get some benefits from this later   I slowly start trusting my grips more and it's a great feeling. Even my RC/PE2 (yeah, I am stuck there) is feeling stronger thanks to my improved grips strength. Amazing, new opportunities… now everything I do hanging will improve the grip. So it's going to be a synergetic process. The Foundation is getting super exciting now, because it seems like everything is now clicking and everything is helping everything. I start seeing nice results. Yay.