Tension

I was training FL Pe progressions the other day and a thought came in mind about how much tension is really necessary or recommended. Up until now I've aimed to create as much possible tension as possible during my FL sets and have found it very difficult to progress. Its been almost 10 months and im still on FL PE 1 4x48s. This past workout I preformed my first two sets as I normally would but in my second two I decreased the amount of tension created to a level of just enough to keep good form but not too much to create excessive fatigue. The 3rd and 4th sets were surprisingly easier and form didnt break down. 

Was curious if anyone had anything to add to this. Is there a such thing as too much tension? recommendations? 

Hi Ryan,

Good point here. I struggled with all the first FL progressions for a long time (and whenever I start over, they're still a struggle), and you will always be able to improve the form/tension. What helped me a lot was start focusing more on the breathing. Sometimes when we tense a lot, it's easy to forget to breathe. And it's obviously pretty hard to hold your breath for five minutes in total. Try to tense at the same time as you are relaxing (if that makes sense to you?). Try to breathe more through your belly. 

Let me know how it goes  

3 hours ago, Pauline Taube said:

Hi Ryan,

Good point here. I struggled with all the first FL progressions for a long time (and whenever I start over, they're still a struggle), and you will always be able to improve the form/tension. What helped me a lot was start focusing more on the breathing. Sometimes when we tense a lot, it's easy to forget to breathe. And it's obviously pretty hard to hold your breath for five minutes in total. Try to tense at the same time as you are relaxing (if that makes sense to you?). Try to breathe more through your belly. 

Let me know how it goes  

yes totally agree. Sometimes when trying to create max tension breathing becomes very difficult. For the past couple months ive been trying to take big diaphragmatic breaths and then hold tensions for 3 seconds exhale while squeezing then repeat. You could say vary similar to the breath you would take to brace your core for a back squat. 

However with a little less tension, core still engaged and lower back pressed into the ground, by breath comes a lot easier than with this all out method not to mention the set length becomes more attainable as I described above. 

It seems to me like a no brainer that I should probably back off a little on the total amount of tension I am trying to create and use just enough to maintain good form without over fatiguing myself/holding my breath. What are your thoughts?

Hi @Ryan Segervall,

I agree with your plan. As early as the early FL progressions it is best to master your breathing as it will greatly affect your training once you get to the more advanced progressions specially the handstand.

Hi guys, how would you describe the recommended breathing pattern for FL PE1? I'm also stuck here and still haven't found a good way to manage breathing

32 minutes ago, Giulio Pizzini said:

Hi guys, how would you describe the recommended breathing pattern for FL PE1? I'm also stuck here and still haven't found a good way to manage breathing

Hi Giulio,

When I do FL PE1, it's hard to breath from the belly without breaking my form, so I breath from my thoracic cage as slow as I can.

I don't know if there's a proper breathing for this one - I want to learn it if there is one - but this one works for me well.

did a quick youtube search and found this gem by Wesly Tan. May help explain proper breathing for hollow bod work. Gonna be weird at first but will get better with time

Nice find Ryan!

7 hours ago, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

Hi Giulio,

When I do FL PE1, it's hard to breath from the belly without breaking my form, so I breath from my thoracic cage as slow as I can.

I don't know if there's a proper breathing for this one - I want to learn it if there is one - but this one works for me well.

 

Breathing in the upper rib cage will result in sternum elevation. sternum elevation decreases the amount of abs work, promotes spine extension and increase the effort on the hollow body hold. Breathing will be more natural once a basic strength it is achieved. My suggestion it is to stay supine on the floor, put a 5 kg weight on the abs and try to move it up and down. The goal is to try to increase the diaphragm range of motion.

Please notice that the ability to breath with diaphragm can be limited by spine range of motion. a loss of:

-spine extension

-spine rotation

leads to tightness in the diaphragm, and thus it is a limiting factor to its expansion during belly breathing.

14 minutes ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Breathing in the upper rib cage will result in sternum elevation. sternum elevation decreases the amount of abs work, promotes spine extension and increase the effort on the hollow body hold. Breathing will be more natural once a basic strength it is achieved. My suggestion it is to stay supine on the floor, put a 5 kg weight on the abs and try to move it up and down. The goal is to try to increase the diaphragm range of motion.

Please notice that the ability to breath with diaphragm can be limited by spine range of motion. a loss of:

-spine extension

-spine rotation

leads to tightness in the diaphragm, and thus it is a limiting factor to its expansion during belly breathing.

Thanks! It's a good thing you corrected!  Will fix that.

@Alessandro Mainente please correct me if im wrong but I think what @Wesley Tan is queuing here is expanding through the obliques rather than through the midline of the core, but still breathing through the diaphragm and NOT upper thoracic cavity  

A way that I would practice this would be to put both hands around the side of your core and practice pushing them outwards to the side. 

13 hours ago, Ryan Segervall said:

@Alessandro Mainente please correct me if im wrong but I think what @Wesley Tan is queuing here is expanding through the obliques rather than through the midline of the core, but still breathing through the diaphragm and NOT upper thoracic cavity  

In fact, I was referring to the post showing the experience about E'tienne.

Just want to say this change in breathing/total amount of tension being generated helped significantly as I cruised through 4x48s which was previously next to impossible to make it through without passing out. 

I find it way harder to breathe towards the end of the last 2sets with the abs sucked in, BUT it significantly improved my compression strength and maintaining form in a hollow position.
When breathing correctly with the diaphragm in a relaxed fashion (e.g. meditation) you'll actually feel your breath drawn into your back below the ribs, rather than your belly.
I guess when contracting your abs supine in a hollow hold your back can't raise/fall so you'll feel the raise/fall rather in your sides/obliques.
 

On 10/1/2017 at 12:20 AM, Ryan Segervall said:

Was curious if anyone had anything to add to this. Is there a such thing as too much tension? recommendations? 

I had the same problem at the beginning. Prior to GB, I followed the RKC and Strongfirst principles of complete tension on planks. 10 seconds is about all you can muster at maximum tension. Like a sprint won't last longer then that. There's no way to do a 60 second max hold - that doesn't physiologically work. Once I eased up and just used enough to correctly hold the position I went through the progressions much faster.