Hollow Body, ATP & lower back pain

Hello everyone!

Hollow Body work has always been my most needed and dreaded area and with F1, I want to put it on my regular schedule.

For context:

20 years at the desk have talen their toll and a few years ago I started struggling with, at times severe, chronic back pain and it repeatedly seizing up in diagonal/twisting motions.

I regained a lot of confidence and stability through deadlifts - working myself from 20kg to over bodyweight in the last year, which I'm mighty proud of. And I can dance again, which added a whole new dimension to my quality of life.

The struggle with hollow body work for me has always been lack of lumbar flexion - full on donald duck butt. I reckon that I'll be on FL/PE1 for quite a while.

When I press my lower back into the ground, I can feel the exercise working its magic, but I also begin to experience lower back pain relatively quickly.

I can differentiate between 'good' pain and 'bad' pain quite well, but I feel that in the spine these two have a different character than in the extremities. I also realize that there's a psychological component to it - i.e. fear of pain/injury.

For example, my last session gave me a kind of soreness that I used to dread and avoid and I'm thinking that - as with deadlifts - I'll have to reframe some formerly threatening sensations as signs of progress.

Did anybody here start with a similar foundation of strong anterior pelvic tilt and low lumbar mobility and can share some specific insight? I'm especially curious about pitfalls, sensations to avoid/seek, programming adjustments - anything more specific than the common sense stuff of slow and steady wins the race.

Thank you bearing with me and for any wisdom you may share with me.

-Sascha

Hi Sascha,

Sorry to hear about your lower back pain. Hollows ARE like magic so I'm sure it's very frustrating to not be able to train them. Consulting with a medical professional is going to be the safest route to take here. Do not continue training through the pain. Before working on hollows, you'll want to get a diagnosis and sort out the issue with your doctor. 

6 hours ago, Sascha Herfort said:

Hello everyone!

Hollow Body work has always been my most needed and dreaded area and with F1, I want to put it on my regular schedule.

 

For context:

20 years at the desk have talen their toll and a few years ago I started struggling with, at times severe, chronic back pain and it repeatedly seizing up in diagonal/twisting motions.

I regained a lot of confidence and stability through deadlifts - working myself from 20kg to over bodyweight in the last year, which I'm mighty proud of. And I can dance again, which added a whole new dimension to my quality of life.

 

The struggle with hollow body work for me has always been lack of lumbar flexion - full on donald duck butt. I reckon that I'll be on FL/PE1 for quite a while.

When I press my lower back into the ground, I can feel the exercise working its magic, but I also begin to experience lower back pain relatively quickly.

I can differentiate between 'good' pain and 'bad' pain quite well, but I feel that in the spine these two have a different character than in the extremities. I also realize that there's a psychological component to it - i.e. fear of pain/injury.

For example, my last session gave me a kind of soreness that I used to dread and avoid and I'm thinking that - as with deadlifts - I'll have to reframe some formerly threatening sensations as signs of progress.

 

Did anybody here start with a similar foundation of strong anterior pelvic tilt and low lumbar mobility and can share some specific insight? I'm especially curious about pitfalls, sensations to avoid/seek, programming adjustments - anything more specific than the common sense stuff of slow and steady wins the race.

 

Thank you bearing with me and for any wisdom you may share with me.

-Sascha

Hey Shasha,

I was having the same problem than you. I m already for more than 6 months in PE 1 and always feeling uncomfortable in my lower back. I solved it stretching the hip flexors before doing the exercise. As soon as I started doing this my pain stop it. I have extrmely tight hip flexors and hamstring. If you don t have front split purchase it, if u do already make it your priority. Vertical lunge bent is the one I recommend you. I do it everyday. I recommed you form check on pe1 fl and vertical lunge bent. Coaches will give you good guidance.

I already read about this in the forum and the coach Alessandro said the pain in the lower back was due to a strong contraction of the hip flexors. Not saying it always have to be this, but you definetely should give it a try and tell us how it goes!

Hello Sascha,

just as Everett suggested choice 1) Find out exactly what's happening with your back from a physician.

2) Although this probably isn't the complete reason for your pain in hollow rock, front splits is a wonderful recommendation by Antonio and generally hip flexor and hamstring stretching reduces back pain in almost everyone, and will be even better after you get a diagnosis from your physician .

3) In the case of your hollow rock with pronounced APT (like myself), I found a solution to the movement not only to be over emphasizing PPT (posterior pelvic tilt), but also making the hollow rocks into tinier and more precise movements. This will make the rock target your core more, and reduce undue stress from inefficient movement and stress from breaking position.

Feel free at any time to submit a video of your hollow rock to our professional forum coaches for advice. 

i hope this helps, and congratulations on your progress so far. 

Thanks for the input, guys!

As for doctor visits: I've been to various physicians and therapists, had my x-rays done and ended up with the classic, "nothing's broken - we don't know why it hurts". So I'm trial-and-error-ing my way in baby steps and it's gone uphill ever since.

Yesterday I did a core session with hip flexor stretches as a warm up and reduced volume and my back is a lot happier today than last week. Certainly MN/PE1  seems to be part of the culprit with their explosive compression, so I'm going very easy on them for now.

From reading more in the forums, it seems like the ATP & low back pain issue is not uncommon, so I'll continue to take it veeery slow and stick to higher frequency and low intensity.

Thanks again,

-Sascha

Hey Sascha  

Happy to hear that it helped stretching the hip flexors. 

Please keep us posted on your progress, looking forward to follow your training