SLP PE1 take 2

I have been working on my form for SLP PE1. I don't know if I have actually improved.

so, the problems I see are: I don't have very good retraction, I lose connection in my core during retraction, I can't get my knee to the ground in my mobility. There might be more problems, but these are the ones that stand out to me. 

I have been trying to treat some of the finer points--hand position (directly underneath shoulders vs slightly wider); hand rotation (fingers pointing forward vs to the sides); squeezing my shoulder blades as hard as I can; trying to squeeze my butt and my core together. However, I can't seem to get my shoulder blade closer together without losing the tightness in my core for a split second at the max retraction. I feel like my anterior shoulder and chest are really tight, and I lack mobility to achieve maximum retraction without "taking" some mobility from my core. Or, maybe my strength is unbalanced, and my upper body easily overrides my core.

so, I am looking for advice. I am assuming that it is extremely important that I don't lose my core connection throughout the exercise and if I have to sacrifice some retraction that is better than letting my back sag, even if it is just for a moment. Should I stay at step 1 until I can get better retraction? Is my retraction ok as it is, and I can keep moving through the steps? Obviously I would have to stop at step 9 until my mobility is satisfactory.

Hi Valerie,

You are doing a fairly good job on these. Your protraction looks pretty good. Like you said, you are not fully retracting. This can be a difficult position to learn as many times our muscles do not want to "relax" enough to allow foll ROM. Keep working on it and it will improve. You can also see in your video from the side that you are picking up quite a bit of movement in the core, especially in protraction. Remember that protraction and hollow are two different things. Hollow is the curling of the spine while protraction is the lateral movement of the scapula. This should not effect spinal position to a large degree, if at all. Work on keeping your back flat and holding PPT throughout your set. I recommend doing the fundamentals version of this exercise (on hands and knees) to be able to feel scapular retraction more easily.

On your iM you are doing a nice job of trying to keep your gluts on the ground as you drop your legs to the side. This is another exercise that takes patience to master. Improvements will be small each week, but they will keep getting better if you are consistent. Keep at it!

 Nice job Valerie, great that you're able to correct yourself too. Always good to film the exercises, because sometimes our mind can fool us

Great advices from Jeffrey. I often find it helpful to break down the exercise and focus on one specific cue at a time. Working on retraction and PPT alone will definitely make you more aware of those movements.

Looking forward to the next video  

Thanks for the advice. very helpful.

@Valerie Morwood Happy to help. We're looking forward to seeing your improvement!