sPL PE3 + iM

I have been working on these for a while, and would greatly appreciate any input to help me progress. I am trying to maintain PPT, but I think focusing on this causing me to keep my hips too high during the hold. I would appreciate some expert eyes to give this a look. Thank you so much for your time, it is greatly appreciated!

Hey Devon,

You nailed the hip height issue. It can help to think of the body line this way: you want to have a nice, angled line leading from your shoulder blades, through your hips, and down to your heels. Press your hips toward the floor until you can achieve maximum glutes and core tension. Keep that tension, straighten your knees (quads tight), protract, and then begin leaning. 

For the iM, I'd like to see your hips be much lower. The closer they are to level with your hands the better. In other words, get your body as parallel to the floor as you can for the iM. 

Thanks, @Everett Carroll! I will give it some time and practice while keeping your advice in mind while working this progression. I always feel like I'm starting to get pretty good at some of these progressions, and then I see a video of myself and think nevermind! Haha. I definitely appreciate your time and advice and will submit another form check after I've had some more time to practice. 

I have been working on this while keeping Everett's advice in mind. I would like to know how my progress is coming along, and if my hips are still too high or anything else I am missing. Thank you for your time!

HI Devon, my impression now is that there is too much spine flexion which has low to do with protraction. try this: extend the neck at the point where you can look the wall in front of your at the height of the shoulders, if you feel too much work in the traps then the flexion in the spine is too much.

@Alessandro MainenteThank you! I definitely see what you are talking about. It still didn't look right to me when I filmed it but I just couldn't figure out what it was that I was missing. I feel like training in front of a mirror would be beneficial for me, so I could start seeing improper form sooner but unfortunately I do not have one, so I think I need to submit form checks more often so I am not wasting this much time working a progression with improper form and improve at a more efficient rate. I have been working on some of these progressions for almost a year and not sure if that is too much time or it is normal. I would appreciate any advice that would help me evaluate my own form more efficiently. Thanks for all you do Alessandro!

At the beginning, you can use a mirror, with the time you need absolutely to be independent from it.

I have been working on reducing the spinal flexion during this progression and thought it was a time for a form check. I appreciate your time and advice. Thank you!

The PE is ok, the IM no.

you need to replicate the same angles of the course video, don't you have a bench or a table?

2 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

The PE is ok, the IM no.

you need to replicate the same angles of the course video, don't you have a bench or a table?

Unfortunately, I do not have a bench or table. Do you have any suggestions on how I can adjust the straps to get parallel with the floor? I would consider getting a bench, but I think most of them seem to be designed for weightlifting and would not be tall enough to perform a reverse hyper. As always I greatly appreciate all your help Alessandro. Thank you!

You should look for the "seal row" bench. the problem is that your upper body is never relaxed completely with the straps.

@Alessandro Mainente I have not been able to find a seal bench, but I have been playing around with the height of the strap and thought I should lower it almost to the floor to get parallel and reduce the load on the upper body. This is what I got let me know what you think Alessandro. Thank you!

Now the equipment is better but the form requires refinements. as you can see from your video, you are extending the knees and the hips and then you are moving the legs to the straddle position. on the other side, you should reach the maximum legs straddle position in the same moment as the knees reach the maximum extension and the hips reach the maximum extension.

@Alessandro MainenteThank you! I think that I understand what you mean and I will work on correcting that and submitting again. Thanks again for all your time!

On 8/20/2018 at 4:58 PM, Alessandro Mainente said:

Now the equipment is better but the form requires refinements. as you can see from your video, you are extending the knees and the hips and then you are moving the legs to the straddle position. on the other side, you should reach the maximum legs straddle position in the same moment as the knees reach the maximum extension and the hips reach the maximum extension.

I was working on your suggestion and I wanted to check my form on this one. Thank you!

Very nice, now try to reduce the amount of spine extension.

@Alessandro Mainente Would it help to maintain PPT during the movement?

you should hold the PPTin order to maximize the future work.

Thank you, Alessandro! I greatly appreciate you keeping on track.

I have been working on this for a few more months and wanted to check on my progress. Any critique would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Very nice work. now is good.

@Alessandro MainenteI appreciate all your help, Alessandro! I am happy to move to the next progression.

On 8/18/2018 at 3:08 PM, Alessandro Mainente said:

The PE is ok, the IM no.

you need to replicate the same angles of the course video, don't you have a bench or a table?

@Alessandro Mainente One question your feedback for Devon on the angle here: In the course video example 2, the angle is about 45 degrees from the floor -- similar to Devon's video. But it seems like you were wanting him to do the movement parallel to the ground. Is one way to do this better than the other? See the screenshot below from the video. 

As reference use the course video demonstration, especially in this case is necessary to learn how to hold the legs horizontally while the body is fixed but still horizontal.