Core Strength

Hi All,

I hesitated to ask this question cause I feel like the obvious answer is "too hard to tell," but will ask it nonetheless. I'm curious if for the bent hollow body hold maneuver in particular, if increasing the frequency to twice every 10 days could be beneficial?

Basically, there's been a thread of others struggling, as I have been, on progressing past 5x36" on bent hollow body holds (FL PE1). I taken the cues offered by others: stretch hip flexors before, thoracic spine, fracturing total time (180" into 7 sets of shorter duration), breathing into lateral walls of abdomen through diaphragm, less whole body tension (but just enough to maintain form); all to no avail for several months now. 

Personal factors (I mentioned elsewhere) that are likely complicit:

1) We have a toddler and infant so sleep patterns are uncontrollably unpredictable. I cannot change this obviously, despite adequate/predictable sleep being important. Some nights are better than others.

2)  I've changed to a every 10 day 'full round of Foundation workouts" schedule (instead of 1x/week); sometimes this has to stretch to every 14 days. I did this to accommodate my unpredictable sleep schedule. It's worked for the most part on other PEs. If I feel too sleepy one day, I simply skip until the next good sleep day to return to my next workout (I think @Everett Carroll cued me to this a long while back).

I'm not trying to get to further progressions faster for any particular reason, I'm really in this for the long-term health and feel patient enough. However this FL PE1 seems different. I feel the core stability/hollow body position is so (literally and figuratively) central to both the gymnastics training AND to my climbing/bouldering. It's an imperative move and I feel it on other PEs. I can tell I've plateau'd on this one, which isn't much fun no matter what perspective I'm coming from. 

Any tips/insights on my particular case are greatly welcomed and appreciated!

HI Brian, in case of tight upper, middle and lower traps the abs tend to become fatigued early. So if you have not already tried this one..stretch the upper spine muscles.

28 minutes ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

stretch the upper spine muscles

Thanks @Alessandro Mainente! Sounds like a good tool to try. Learning a lot about the interconnectedness of the body; radically different from the "isolated muscle" workouts of my past in the gym.

Absolutely.

I have a technique that has worked very well for me. Ymmv. 

1. Increase frequency. If I am hitting a plateau on the holds or rocks, I go to once every three days. 

2. I always do 5 sets, each set for 60 reps, but with rest-pause if necessary. 

Example:

Set 1: 60 reps

Set 2: 40 reps. Pause for three breaths, 20 reps. 

Set 3: 40 reps. Pause for three breaths, 15 reps. Pause for three breaths, 5 reps.

Etc. For 5 sets

Then the next day (three days later) it could look like this:

Set one: 60 reps. 

Set two: 50 reps, pause for three breaths, ten reps 

Etc. For 5 sets. 

Just did 5 sets of 60 straddle hollow body rocks. Not to mastery form, but that isn't too far away at this point. 

Oh, one more thing. I rest more than prescribed between sets until I can get 5x60 with no rest pauses intra-set. Then I tighten up the timing as I am working on the form mastery. 

I have found this method (while grueling) busts the plateau every time. 

M

On 4/17/2018 at 7:11 AM, Mark Chin said:

I have a technique that has worked very well for me. Ymmv. 

1. Increase frequency. If I am hitting a plateau on the holds or rocks, I go to once every three days. 

2. I always do 5 sets, each set for 60 reps, but with rest-pause if necessary. 

Example:

Set 1: 60 reps

Set 2: 40 reps. Pause for three breaths, 20 reps. 

Set 3: 40 reps. Pause for three breaths, 15 reps. Pause for three breaths, 5 reps.

Etc. For 5 sets

Then the next day (three days later) it could look like this:

Set one: 60 reps. 

Set two: 50 reps, pause for three breaths, ten reps 

Etc. For 5 sets. 

Just did 5 sets of 60 straddle hollow body rocks. Not to mastery form, but that isn't too far away at this point. 

Oh, one more thing. I rest more than prescribed between sets until I can get 5x60 with no rest pauses intra-set. Then I tighten up the timing as I am working on the form mastery. 

I have found this method (while grueling) busts the plateau every time. 

M

 

 

 

Increasing core training frequency seems like a good idea as I’ve been stuck on 4 sets of 48 sec bent hollow body holds for a couple months now. I’ve tried to complete 4 sets of 60 secs for the last 3 weeks but can only get 2 sets of 60, then I hit failure at around 40 sec by the 3rd and 4th set.

I’m regressing back to 4 x 48 secs and will try training core every 3 days or so. I’ve been training everything(upper body, lower body, core and all 3 stretch series) each once per week. I do welding full time for work so this has worked the best for my schedule and I’ve been slowly progressing with strength with everything, except core. I’ve just hit a plateau with that.

All the muscles in your core are made for endurance, so I’ll be curious if training more frequently will help get over this plateau. 

Look forward to hearing if this works for you. You will know in 3 weeks or so if real progress is being made. Keep us posted!

@Stephen Desrosiers, note that @Mark Chin is recommending multiple changes: increasing volume in each workout, increasing workout frequency, increasing rest between sets (at first, until you can then shorten rest times).

My two cents (personal experience) - the order of importance: increasing volume first, increasing rest between sets a close second, increasing frequency a distant third. But this is very personal, so the important messages are that there are multiple suggestions consider, and that frequency may not be the most important to you. 

@Mark Chin @Dan Schreter I appreciate all the tips guys! I’m going to regress back one step, but add a couple extra sets and see how that helps my endurance. I’m keeping the rest time in between sets the same with how ever long it takes for the mobility(which actually ends up being around 40 sec.)

I’ll keep you all posted with how it works! 

Thanks for posting this topic, I am struggling at exactly the same point.  I too will be taking on board Mark Chin's advice to get through the plateau