Hollow and Arch

Hey fellas,

First, thank you very much for activating my account here. I am very new to gymnastics, I stumbled upon this site after reading one of Coach Sommer's articles on planche and front lever progressions. Needless to say, I have been hooked since--I do believe gymnastics is the best blend of strength, power, flexibility, endurance, balance, and everything else an athlete would want; it is also VERY fun!

Onwards to my question, I learned something recently called "hollow body." Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing (as I am a newbie and may have the wrong name), basically I held a isometric hold on the floor with my legs and arms slightly raised. I then applied the same technique on a pull-up bar and noticed that I pulled up a whole lot easier, it brought me within tasting range of a muscle-up (and mmm, did it taste good!). As a matter of fact, the only thing that stopped me from shifting my grip and possibly completing a muscle up is that there was a ceiling right above my head.

How did that happen? Why was it so much easier to pull up and generate so much more force through a "hollow body" technique? Also, sorry for this newb question, but can anyone describe and define the difference between "hollow" and "arch"? I am still confused between the two concepts but WOW do they generate some exceptional force!

Thanks gentlemen,

gettingstronger

When you're in a hollow hold position, you're actively engaging lots of muscles as opposed to when you dead hang (hang from the up bar with a relaxed body).

The pull up would have felt easier because you'd already prep'd the body for the movement by getting those muscles engaged and ready.

Pull/chin ups make a good example for this actually - the movement is substantially harder starting from rest/relaxation. It's common when you see people doing sets/reps of them to not lower all the way down and relax, they keep some tension in their arms/shoulders/core at the bottom before going back up. While not 'wrong', the exercise is substantially harder if you finish each rep at complete rest (apart from your grip) at the bottom. It means for each rep, you have to bring the various muscles involved out of rest and back into play which is more tiring than keeping them active (for a short period).

Arch is the reverse of hollow. Lie on your stomach, raise your legs, arms, head (and optionally your chest) off the floor. (I'm not describing a technically good gymnastics arch - I honestly have no idea how much of the body should be elevated for a correct gymnastics arch).

There's also the concept that I learned from Pavel Tsatsouline, on hyperradiation.

Basically, if muscles close to the working muscles tense hard, they increase the tension in the working muscles. Think of it in terms of "nerve force" increasing.

So if you do a Pull-up, and you tense your abdominals, quads, and glutes, they kinda "turn your CNS on" even further, so the lats/biceps tense more.

You can see this concept used in stuff like Bench Pressing, where the lifter will tense ALL of his body to max out his tension, create a stable lifting base, and make the BP easier.

Part of the answer is that a proper hollow position puts your lats more directly in the line of pull, so a larger part of the lats is going to be working which will make the movement feel easier. You will of course feel the lats working more directly in most cases as well.

Thanks for the responses guys, that makes sense. It certainly felt like my lats were completely engaged, as opposed to when I feel it mostly in my arms. It also felt like I was getting a slight "kip," even though my legs and feet were completely static before initiating the pull.

So then the arch would be like a superman hold on the floor? Belly touching floor, hands, shoulders, head, feet and legs lifted in the air?

Edit: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

gettingstronger said:

Thanks for the responses guys, that makes sense. It certainly felt like my lats were completely engaged, as opposed to when I feel it mostly in my arms. It also felt like I was getting a slight "kip," even though my legs and feet were completely static before initiating the pull.

So then the arch would be like a superman hold on the floor? Belly touching floor, hands, shoulders, head, feet and legs lifted in the air?

Edit: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

Yep, superman is as described! ASIS to lower ribs is the only part of your body touching the ground. Thighs and chest are off the ground. For the head, don't try to look forward... just pull the neck back. Don't be looking up, be pulling the neck back between the shoulder blades. This will make more sense when you try it, the words may not make sense as written.