Static Hold queries

Hi All

Hope everyone is doing good.. Just started doing the Front Lever and Planche progressions today, boy even the starting holds are tough. I managed to complete the 60 seconds Frog stand, First hold was only 5 seconds but my balance sucked, managed 15 secs on second hold, got balance ok and managed 40secs to make the 60sec in 3 sets, my wrists ached a bit and my hands were always adjusting for balance, overall it was ok..

The Front Lever was a different matter alltogether. I hung from my pullup bar, and brought my knees to my chest, managed 15 secs, thought it was ok, went to do another set got back into same position knees to chest, but this time as I held all I felt was intense pain in both my shoulders, managed 15sec again, done another 2 sets at 15sec but the pain was still quite brutal.. Has anyone experienced this type of pain in there shoulders? I managed to work through the pain to get my 60secs but I am a little worried.

Also held a handstand position feet on wall belly facing wall, wrists around 3 inches away from wall, held this for over a minute, I could have held it for longer but I felt a little dizzy, guess I am not used to being upside down . Managed to do 5 headstand pushups, not very pretty or controlled but they were there, looks like i am quite a bit away from being able to do proper full ROM handstand pushups, lol.

Oh another question, I have terrible flexibilty in my hamstrings, I am around 8 inches from being able to touch my toes, so this makes doing HLRs very difficult for me, can you suggest other good core exercises that I can perform until I get my hamstrings a bit more flexible?

Cheers

Dougie

i experienced that pain in my rear delts when starting the front lever progresssions. this is just due to your muscles not being used to this kind of straight arm disadvantaged leverage holds. my pain during the front lever stopped after about 2-3 weeks of training.

other good ab exercises are v-ups, L-sit lifts, ab wheel rollouts.

stretch your hamstrings as often as you can

On my power tower, I can grip on the standards, which leads to a grip with my palms facing towards my ears about shoulder width. I can either grip outside the standards in an overgrip or inside the standards with an overgrip.

Awhile back I tried the front lever progressions with my hands outside the standards. It ends up being a wider than shoulder width and it did aggravate my shoulders ( which are problematic ).

I'd watch that you're not using a wide grip for the front lever stuff.

According to my experience, a very good exercise to obtain flexibility is

the stiff-leg deadlift. I know this is not a gymnasticslike movement but it does wonders in terms of flexibility. If you decide to try it, just a warning: do not use much weight in the first training sessions and have a coach teach you the proper execution in order to avoid injuries.