Moving on from BL Flat Tuck

[Iwan Thomas]

Hi guys,

I have been stuck on the BL Flat tuck for a while now. I'm not currently doing a SSC because I don't have the necessary facilities but I am training BL hard twice a week.

Are there any exercises or "aha" moments that helped you get the full BL?

Thanks,

IRT

[Ian Legrow]

I cannot help with the full back lever because i am not there yet. What i have found though is determining the problem gets you that much closer to the solution. do you think it's your elbows giving you trouble or your lower back. have you tried doing arch-ups? (if you don't know what that is its on youtube). How long have you been training the back lever flat tuck?

A good way to get stronger is increasing volume. Lets say your doing 6x10s right now. If you lower that to 8X7s you are increasing your volume and getting stronger. But we will need a little more information from you

[Uzeeh]

8x7 is less than 6x10.

[Ian Legrow]

I know. Isn't that the point? TO increase the number of sets and lower the seconds/reps slightly to increase volume? Becasue obviously if he is doing 6x10s and having trouble, recommending he do 8x10s would be rediculous.

[Uzeeh]

I think volume means the total work done. More sets doesn't necesarily mean more volume.

[Joshua Naterman]

Hi guys,

I have been stuck on the BL Flat tuck for a while now. I'm not currently doing a SSC because I don't have the necessary facilities but I am training BL hard twice a week.

Are there any exercises or "aha" moments that helped you get the full BL?

Thanks,

IRT

What do facilities have to do with running a SSC? You just hold for a consistent count each rep for a few months, then take a new max and run half of the new max for each set.

8x7 is less total time under tension than 6x10, but neither of those is a really good idea. If all you are doing is 7s holds you're still working nearly pure strength, and if you do more than 4 sets of strength work you are going to be more tired than you need to be. When you get stronger you will be able to hold longer, and 4x8 will be plenty, and it will turn into 4x10 and then 4x15 as you go from one SSC to the next and all of those times will be easy.

I know it says something different in the book, but in my experience with post-adolescent people this is working better than trying to do 10 sets of 6 seconds or 6 sets of 10 seconds. Sometimes I only suggest 3 sets, and it's enough.

[Iwan Thomas]

OK Thank you all ill keep working away and update you on my progress!

[Joshua Naterman]

If BL is literally the ONLY strength work you are doing that day for the shoulders and arms then feel free to do 6 sets, but if this is part of a workout it is a bad idea to do that much strength work. When you're a kid or you are fairly light (under 140 lbs is sort of my arbitrary threshold there, use your judgement) the strength work just isn't anywhere near as intense because of the lower forces involved. There's no getting around that... as you get bigger, you have to control your volume more carefully. Children and adolescents also heal significantly faster than adults, which again forces you to control your volume more carefully once you're over that 1-17 or so age group. Yes, I know that men often don't reach full physical adulthood until 23-25 years old, I am simply stating my experience with college age guys and a fair number of high school athletes. Less volume as part of a comprehensive workout is working better than more volume either with the same workout OR on its own.

I can not answer specific questions regarding how many sets you should do, that is YOUR job. Start with 4 sets, and if it is too much do 3. 3 should be FINE. It won't be very long before you can do a longer max hold, which means longer holds in each set. Before you know it 4x15 will be the plan of the day and it won't be a struggle. That is literally all there is to it.

That pretty much goes for all static positions, period. I highly suggest that this be how you run your Steady State Cycles.