Stuck with vertical press three

Hi,

I'm currently stuck at pHS/PE6. I can't raise my hips higher to reach ankle level! The mobility exercises are very easy for me, I can do very compressed pike, this video is from the past summer and I can compress even more now:

So I guess I have weak shoulders or anything? I'm doing the vertical press every week hoping I will get stronger some day, is this enough?

Nice inverted pike! Can we see your current vertical press?

I'm sorry I missed this reply! I will train the vertical press the thursday and record it. If you want to check my form, this one is from november:

I though that I could go higher when I recorded but I was wrong haha. In the sample video the guy starts in diagonal like this \ and I think he leans forward more than me, maybe should I work on that too?

Hey Eloy,

It almost seems like you're pressing against the box with your toes. Try to relax your ankles and just let your feet slide smoothly. Also, I'd like to see way more scapular elevation here; that shoulder shrug toward your ears is what will allow you to ultimately get your ankles to your hands. Try those two things without changing your forward lean. 

Looking forward to a more recent video as well. 

Hey Eloy,

Awesome suggestions from Everett! In addition to his comments I would like to see more curl in your spine during your press. The curling action of a press is, in a way, very similar to the curl you do while performing a Jefferson Curl. Great work so far!

Thank you coaches, I will try all you said. I'm not very used to curl the spine but I will try my best and see how it goes.

Review the exercise video again, notice how Allan's hips are not piked to start and lower legs and feet are away from the apparatus. This was a big help. Nice work.

Today I'm gonna try this exercise again and see if I can apply your suggestions. I have recorded a Jefferson curl so you can evaluate if my curl and shoulder elevation is ok, again, I'm not very used to do the curl motion with the spine so this is my best. I had some trouble with the stuff at my left, the barbell hit those things so I had to compress a bit, and I tucked my chin I don't know why.

You're off to a good start, Eloy! Great job curling your thoracic spine. Keep working to improve the curl in your Lumbar spine.

5 hours ago, Jeffrey Bittner said:

You're off to a good start, Eloy! Great job curling your thoracic spine. Keep working to improve the curl in your Lumbar spine.

How do you curl the lumbar spine? I'm not used to that, the 2 movements I do with my lower back are straight and arch

I'm sorry but yesterday I jumped into the trampoline and I forgot to try the vertical press  Today I tried it in the fitness gym but the set up is uncomfortable, the block is not very stable, so I didn't take a video. But one thing I noticed is that I can't elevate my shoulders, for some reason what I do is push with my arms to elevate the body and when I try to curl the spine it gets to the point where my shoulders can't take it anymore. The shoulders should stop the body from leaning forward so you can compress to elevate the hips, is that right?

19 minutes ago, Eloy Bote said:

How do you curl the lumbar spine? I'm not used to that, the 2 movements I do with my lower back are straight and arch

I'm sorry but yesterday I jumped into the trampoline and I forgot to try the vertical press  Today I tried it in the fitness gym but the set up is uncomfortable, the block is not very stable, so I didn't take a video. But one thing I noticed is that I can't elevate my shoulders, for some reason what I do is push with my arms to elevate the body and when I try to curl the spine it gets to the point where my shoulders can't take it anymore. The shoulders should stop the body from leaning forward so you can compress to elevate the hips, is that right?

I think he is referring to the jeff curl.

OK my sacrum was a bit stuck these days and the pt has released it. I'm going to do some exercises to improve my lumbar flexion.

Just wondering, what makes you raise the hips during this exercise?

Traps and scapular strength plus upper body/ compression to lower body.

OK today I tried this again and I think I went a bit higher but not too much. In the second rep I'm literally walking with the feet to go higer, that's cheating sorry, don't count it as good

Is really hard to elevate more the scapula, what I do is: squeeze the quads to keep legs straight, lock the elbows, push down with the shoulders and traps, and I think about sticking my stomach in to compress the body. Maybe should I do another additional exercise to strength a weak area? Note that I don't feel any restrinction in flexibility, my hamstrings are loose during the whole movement.

Hey Eloy, what is your level on planche training?

2 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hey Eloy, what is your level on planche training?

I started from zero, I'm doing spl3 plank wich is very easy but I'm going slowly to don't skip any point. For your information, when I trained another planche tutorials out there I never pass the tuck planche, to be honest my tuck planch was bad with hips very low. Is there any planche program exercise I can do to progress with this?

I sincerely think that the major problem is planche strength. 

during the lift there is a point where you pass through a very similar tuck planche angle.

Wich level of planche training should I master to be ready for this exercise? I will keep doing this like the past 3 months, but I'm curious about that.

For me,for my level and my clients, I would say tuck mastering tuck planche. Also, my gymnasts who are already able to perform easily the tuck planche showed faster progress over the press to handstand.

On 3/25/2019 at 1:35 PM, Alessandro Mainente said:

For me,for my level and my clients, I would say tuck mastering tuck planche. Also, my gymnasts who are already able to perform easily the tuck planche showed faster progress over the press to handstand.

@Alessandro Mainente I can do several seconds of tuck planche, however I am stuck since 1 month on this level of Vertical press (PE6). I cannot match the height of my heels with my hands. This is more or less where I am now and I feel I have strength left, but something is not working:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsB0oDmN8t0

8 hours ago, Marco Levati said:

@Alessandro Mainente I can do several seconds of tuck planche, however I am stuck since 1 month on this level of Vertical press (PE6). I cannot match the height of my heels with my hands. This is more or less where I am now and I feel I have strength left, but something is not working:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsB0oDmN8t0

 

Hey Marco, what is your level on planche now? and what about manna?

20 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hey Marco, what is your level on planche now? and what about manna?

Planche: elevated planche lean

manna: L to v hanging lift

You can try momentary only the eccentric part of the movement. so stay on the cube that you are using, put your hands on the support...walk backward a bit at letting the feet move out from the support and try to slow down the speed on the first part of a movement that is exactly where you are feeling weak. basically you can try to fix the weak angles by moving slower during h eccentric of the same movement.

Alessandro what I'm actually doing is using a spotter to lift me up in the last part and then try to go slow on my own when going down, is that a good idea? And should I aim for apt or ppt?

I'm adding some strength exercises for the shoulders too, pseudo planch push ups after the planche workout (stuck with the bent arm half planche thing but I can do the frog stand) and pike push ups on floor after hbp (stuck with the l-sit russian dips).

BTW do the body proportions affect the vertical press exercise? If you see my videos it looks like my legs are shorter or my torso or arms longer I don't know, but whenever I do a standing pike stretch when my palms are on the floor my torso can't be straight because I need to go a lot more down for that.

9 hours ago, Eloy Bote said:

Alessandro what I'm actually doing is using a spotter to lift me up in the last part and then try to go slow on my own when going down, is that a good idea? And should I aim for apt or ppt?

I'm adding some strength exercises for the shoulders too, pseudo planch push ups after the planche workout (stuck with the bent arm half planche thing but I can do the frog stand) and pike push ups on floor after hbp (stuck with the l-sit russian dips).

BTW do the body proportions affect the vertical press exercise? If you see my videos it looks like my legs are shorter or my torso or arms longer I don't know, but whenever I do a standing pike stretch when my palms are on the floor my torso can't be straight because I need to go a lot more down for that.

this is the same concept...reaching the higher part and then perform the eccentric.

you should say with PPT, if not you cannot use your abs.

Before adding exercises i suggest to post the form check of the exercise where you have reached a plateau.