8 months on FLPE1 bent hollow body holds

Malcolm,

If your lower back hurts in rocks, it is almost absolutely due to a form break down. You should never have your lower back arch and change shape and it should always be in contact with the floor on every rep of the hollow body rock. We will be happy to look at your form if you post your video for review, otherwise, take a video of yourself and pay particular attention to your posterior pelvic tilt, and the shape of your lower back in the rock.

7 minutes ago, Luke Searra said:

Malcolm,

If your lower back hurts in rocks, it is almost absolutely due to a form break down. You should never have your lower back arch and change shape and it should always be in contact with the floor on every rep of the hollow body rock. We will be happy to look at your form if you post your video for review, otherwise, take a video of yourself and pay particular attention to your posterior pelvic tilt, and the shape of your lower back in the rock.

Yea it's my tuck position breaks down and shoulders start to fall back.  It didn't seem to be a problem in the holds but with the rocks I feel like I'm just not there yet, strength wise.  I could grab my shins and rock all day but form starts breaking down after a couple sets with just hands extended.  I am making progress just slow.  I'll try and get a video.  

Great to hear about the video and the hard work Malcolm, we will be waiting. Keep it up!

Today is core day for me... determined to break through 48 reps!

@Johan Tideland

Keeping your advice in mind I ma going to aim for accumulating equivalent volume of the next progression but with the times of the previous. 

For example working up to 6x24 = 144s is equivalent of 4x36 = 144s in time but theoretically will be easier as the time holds are shorter. 

Starting out with 5x24 and will work my way up to 6x24 then try for 4x36. My guess if all goes well this will take about 3-6 weeks based on how this exercise has been progressing for me. Will check back in the upcoming weeks 

@Ryan Segervall

Good luck my friend!

Checking back in with you all, 

After dialing it back for 2 weeks going back to 4x24 the first week then 5x24 I was able to cruise through 4x36 for the first time today. 

A couple things that I think contributed to this

1) was giving myself a bit of time to recover. I was bashing into this plateau pushing to absolute failure each week with my 4x36 attempts. Dialing it back to 4x24 allowed the tissues involved to super compensate and finally catch up. 

2) Was building better tension by maintaining pressure through the diaphragm. Rather than just squeezing the abs as hard as possible I used pressure built up in my diaphragm (think breathing into your belly) to help maintain tension and drive that lumbar spine into the ground. 

Hope this helps anyone else who is on the struggle bus with this exercise  

I had a similar breakthrough! Pushed through 4x48 reps and am now breezing up to 5x60 reps! Still burns but for some reason it's more manageable

@Paul Wallbridge 

Awesome! Same here burn was absolutely their but form never got close to breaking down where as before my form would break down regardless of how much effort and attention I put in

Hey guys, very interesting to read about your struggles here since I'm in exactly the same spot. I've been stuck at bent hollow body rocks 4x36 for a couple of months now. The first set feels very easy. The second set starts feeling tougher. The third set I can just barely make it through, but on the fourth set my form invariably breaks down completely and no matter how hard I try to squeeze the core my back just becomes one big arch and I have to stop and rest. It's not so much that I feel tired as just my muscles struggling to maintain the rounded shape of my back that would allow me to keep rocking.

I see in the posts above that you have tried a bunch of different things. In retrospect what do you think worked best? Do you think I should dial down and do fewer reps but try to complete more sets? More reps but fewer sets? Perhaps start a bit on the next PE to see if variation can help me break through? I have seen many people extend the rest times were able to progress this way. Has that helped for you guys?

I could be wrong, but I feel like one problem is I'm not stressing my muscles enough to get any real super compensation. On the fourth set my muscles fail to keep correct form. That's it. Other than that I actually don't even feel that much burn. That's why I feel I somehow need to increase the stress to break through.

Thankful for any input!

Hi Martin, if your form is falling apart you may need to back up a couple of steps and work on staying in the hollow form for every second of each set. I've done that on other movements.

Personally, I'm stuck at this step, but I've been adding in bent leg hollow holds either after the rocks or on other workout days. I like the static hold so I don't have to think about movement, just staying tight.

As my local coach loves to say "To get better at {insert any movement} we must perform {insert same movement}". In other words, we need to spend a ton of time in the hollow position to excel at hollow body work.

Good luck with it!

I'm on 4x48s of FLPE1. Started with F1 in January..

Its so hard! And even when I endure one sessions I realize: oh I can engange my core more.. and it gets harder again and I dont get to the next step.

Hi Michael, have you ever tried to stretch your upper back prior to begin the hollow tuck position?

Hey @Alessandro Mainente, actually no, I haven't.

I'll try it next time. What kind of stretches, can you give me an idea?

Stretching - that's interesting. I'll give it a try next time. Do you think it could also be beneficial to stretch the hip flexors before this exercise?

Mike, That's a great point! We gain more awareness as we get stronger. So, I'd argue we're actually progressing even though you don't see a material increase in the rep/set count. When it comes time for the next progression, it'll come easier than you think. 

That's my theory anyway....lol

~Mark

Hi Martin,

Yes its good to warmup those hip flexors too before doing the exercise.

Hi Mark,

You are correct! The change in quality of movement also indicates progress.

Hi all,

I am also having some difficulty with bent hollow holds. My lower back seems to fatigue quickly - sometimes I can only hold the position for 12 seconds; I feel like I could hold the position for significantly longer if my lower back wasn’t an issue. I have been critically analyzing my form, and I think I’m finding it difficult to get into and maintain PPT, I’m assuming this is due to tight hip flexors and consequently my lower back over compensating for what my hips should be doing. I have been stretching my hip flexors daily, but am seeing no improvement. I am also experiencing this same discomfort when holding planks and when doing v-ups. Really not sure what to do to overcome this challenge. 

Hello all, and Happy New Year!

Loved reading through this entire thread! I'm past the Bent Leg Hollow Body Rocks, but now struggling to break past the Straddle Hollow Body Hold (FLPE3). Been stuck on 4x 48 seconds for what seems like forever...

The ideas and suggestions given here are great, I'll experiment with reducing the hold time, but increasing the number of sets, and maybe also vice versa!

Have you tried to stretch the hips flexor and the middle/upper spine? when these muscles are tight they tend to arch the lower back (hips flexor) and promote a straight spine (middle/upper back). both of them create more passive tension and the abs tend to fatigue early.

I’ve spent at least 6 months on FLPE1 step 5 @ 36 seconds.  I’ve made zero progress and even fell back a little after getting hit with a bad cold.  I’m thinking of going back down to step 4 and make sure I’m 100% on that in hopes of making progress on this.  Any thoughts?  

I also tried incorporating a dialing routine of activating this muscle with 3x10sec holds in my warm up but didn’t break through (either didn’t give it enough time or it just didn’t work).

Hey Ethan have you tried my suggestion in the first answers of the post like stretch first the upper/middle back and hips flexor?

I saw that suggestion but hadn't tried it. Truthfully I don't really know where to begin with a stretch routine for those muscle groups. Can you suggest a brief series?

I've been doing more hip flexor stretches over the past couple of weeks, and I'm noticing a difference not just in hollow work, but in a few other core exercises and the hamstring curls I have in my weekly routine. I've seen you advice that before in other threads, Alessandro, and it's been such invaluable advice ever since. I never would've thought about tight hips affecting core work, but it's so true!