Question about statics

I had a bad week and only got to thursdays workout today.

My elbow injury has been flaring up a little lately so I decided to go down to some easier variations for the statics with longer holds.

I used the embeded sets to test my times and here is what I got:

Advanced tuck back lever = 25 seconds (did not test tuck)

Advanced tuck front lever = 20 seconds

Tuck front lever = 33 seconds

Now, I never did work up to the full 60 seconds on tuck and adv. tucks because I was going by the book and not the articles.

I can do a straddle back lever for 15 seconds and a straddle front lever for 5-6 seconds (up to 10 if done fresh instead of the end of the workout) and one leg forward front lever for 15 seconds.

Does the relationship between my adv. tuck back lever and straddle lever indicated anything to you? Seems like I shouldn't have as long of a straddle given the length of my adv. tuck.

Also, whenever the embeded workouts come up, do you think it would be good fro me to work up to longer holds with easier variations or stick with my best hold for 15 seconds?

On embedded sets you should be treating it like strength work, so work hard! That's why they don't show up all that often. For warm ups stick with the easier work and do a 60s total.

To me, that FL stuff sounds very strange. I would like to see a video. There are a couple explanations that I can think of but this probably doesn't cover all possibilities.

1) You have strength imbalances that are causing neurological inhibition once you reach a certain threshold.

2) your form is not good

3) you may have sub-standard strength-endurance.

4) your stabilizing muscles may not be as well developed as your prime movers. This, in my opinion, almost certainly plays a role, along with #2. Most people aren't doing FL right. Scaps have to be retracted and arms need to be locked straight.

I personally didn't start making really good progress on my FL after my injuries until I started doing the FSP warm up and the WODs. I hate repeating that, but it's so true. That lower intensity FSP work has led to some massive increases in my ability, and I think it's largely due to lowering neurological inhibition through developing my supporting muscles. You can't really accomplish that with heavier work because you cannot hold a correct position with the heavier load.

What do you think?

Well the thing is Coach told me not to do the FSP's in the warm up at my level. He said that the WOD's would be sufficient and that I should just work up to 3x30 sec floor l-sit as the only FSP that I do in the warm-up.

I'll see if I can get a video some time soon.

That is his preferred progression for planche work. There are trees of skills for each FSP that you should go through before working them directly, and as of right now those are only available to the seminar attendees. For your warm up you should ideally be performing the pre-req work for those trees, but if there was only one thing to start with it would definitely be the L sit. That's the beginning.

For your FL work I honestly think that, as you have limited access to the best info until the 2nd edition of BTGB comes out, that you should concentrate on building up to a 60s tuck FL. I wouldn't work past that, and I would work that with full scapular retraction and locked arms. You'll get a lot out of that, but a general focus on retraction work will help a lot of skills. You could also look into simulating some of the positions with a lower intensity.

The WODs are definitely the best base, without those you'd be pretty handicapped in your development. How are you doing now?

slizzardman said:

That is his preferred progression for planche work. There are trees of skills for each FSP that you should go through before working them directly, and as of right now those are only available to the seminar attendees. For your warm up you should ideally be performing the pre-req work for those trees, but if there was only one thing to start with it would definitely be the L sit. That's the beginning.

For your FL work I honestly think that, as you have limited access to the best info until the 2nd edition of BTGB comes out, that you should concentrate on building up to a 60s tuck FL. I wouldn't work past that, and I would work that with full scapular retraction and locked arms. You'll get a lot out of that, but a general focus on retraction work will help a lot of skills. You could also look into simulating some of the positions with a lower intensity.

The WODs are definitely the best base, without those you'd be pretty handicapped in your development. How are you doing now?

Yeah, I gleamed some of these trees from his posts on the board. I have them saved in a word file but I'm not at that computer right now.

I think what I am going to do for the embeded WOD's is go back to tuck for the front/back lever and do sets that are just shy of my max hold. When I get to 60 seconds straight for 3 sets then I will do the same for adv. tuck.

What do you mean how am I doing?

How are you feeling? How are your holds coming along?

I don't know, that was the first time I did them since complaining earlier.

My elbow injury has been flaring up a little lately so I decided to go down to some easier variations for the statics with longer holds.

Do not train thru an injury.

With your old elbow injury flaring up, my preference would be for you to take a minimum of 2-3 days off of FSP work and then re-evaluate the status of the elbow. If it is still tender, take an additional 4-5 days off of your FSP work. During this recovery period, you may engage in light upper body FBE work, but be careful to not be overly aggressive. Remember that the primary focus during this interval is to allow the elbow to heal.

You may however work your core and legs to your hearts content. 8)

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I'm doing the same thing right now, I've just been doing a set or two of dips, triceps pressdowns, reverse curls and biceps curls as my basic upper body stuff, and like 4 pull ups, and so far so good. My elbows are already feeling better, so now I am just forcing myself to remember that I am not healed yet.

My elbow is feeling just fine at the moment, thankfully!