Back Lever Question

As with all the other FSPs, should the elbows be locked?

In all other static holds, I find it extremely uncomfortable to lock out, so I don't, and just have slightly bent arms. However, the back lever is the only exercise that locking the elbows causes no pain.

All straight arm work should be elbows locked. It is preparing your joints for the stresses to come.

I've seen coach write many times that bent arm progressions do not transfer to straight arm strength.

If you are feeling pain, not discomfort, i would take it as an indication that you, or more importantly, your joints are not ready for your currently chosen level of progression and that you should take it back a notch.

I see.

I practice my progressions with almost straight arms, just not hyperextended. Keeping something completely straight without going to either side is really hard. I'll just go back a progression or two and start over, depend on what happens in the elbow thread I made in the joint section.

For example:

Ultimately it's going to be your choice whether your lock out or not. I'm pretty sure you wont find anyone on this forum, Coach Sommer especially who'll give you any kind of support for training with bent arms. I saw your other thread in in flexibility and joint prep about having differing degrees of hyper extension. That is a bit of an interesting conundrum, but I still don't think it's going to change anyone's response. Everybody is a little lopsided, I know that my hyperextension on my left side is a few degrees different from my right as well. The problem is that you really can't do anything about that, you can try to make your arms even by bending one slightly and still remaining in hyper extension, but you'll never be able to do it perfectly. As long as you don't lock out, how much your bend your arms is going to vary from workout to workout and depending on how tired you are and how disciplined you may be.

Beyond that, the purpose of locking out your elbows ultimately is a safety thing as much as it is for asthetics and strength building. I mean yea, having nice straight lines in your FSP is important asthetically, but only really if you care about it or if your being judged, and yea you will build less strength in any given position if you keep your arms bent, but it's not like building strength at a sub-optimal level is morally contemptible or something. The real issue is that conditioning with straight arms will build strength in the elbow joint itself over time. Locking out your elbows doesn't have to be uncomfortable, if you step back to an easier progression and keep your elbows locked you will develop strength in the joint to the point where it isn't unpleasant anymore. If you don't, however, you are putting yourself at risk of injuring your elbows. Think about it, I know you have some pretty lofty goals with gymnastics conditioning, If it hurts your elbows to be locked out in some of the most basic progressionary static holds, what's going to happen if you work your way up to an iron cross and accidentally hyper-extend your elbow under that kind of strain without having put any time into conditioning that joint?

It's your choice how you train, but people aren't telling you to lock your elbows just to slow you down or to conform you to some arbitrary gymnastics ideal. Keeping your elbows locked regulates the intensity of your FSP, It builds strength in your elbow joint that will prevent injury in the long run if you progress carefully enough, and you will build more strength overall if you do it.