Need advice about new SSC

[Adriano Katkic]

My new SSC looks like this:

1X60s plank

1X60s reverse plank

1X60s planche lean

1X60s hollow hold

1X60s arch hold

1X60s left side plank

1X60s right side plank

1X60s PB support

1X60s chin up dead hang

1X60s HS balancing

1X40s German hang

1X42s frog stand

3X22s L-sit on push up bars

3X20s tuck BL

3X23s XR support

3X23s L-hang

3X10s advanced frog stand once a week

I am able to hold tuck BL for 70s, but don't have enough grip strength after warm up to exercise it in greater volume and my adv frog is 46s max, but I start feeling forearm splint and elbow tendonitis symptoms if I increase the volume. GH and FS are half max hold times. The question is about prereqs actually. I never bothered to develop 3X60 with them because when I first tried them, I could do them for 90 - 120s each, so I just started doing 1X60. They are easy to do, but I have a feeling that I couldn't pull 3 sets off. I have yet to test myself, but I think the best bet would be to put my effort on developing 3 sets. Where does that leave me with FSPs? Should I put them on hold for now? My recently finished SSC saw little gains, 4-6s depending on FSP and my first assumption was that I was maybe pushing too hard and should step back a little. Any suggestions?

Also, are there more prereqs I am not aware of? I've seen inverted hang being mentioned. Should I add that too?

[Blairbob]

I can't remember but I don't think an inverted hang is an explicit FSP. I like to do them myself with 3 version on rings. Slightly tilting forward towards FL, slightly tilting backwards toward BL, and wide arm inverted hang (which you can also do on PB). An inverted hang on a single rail is a bit more like the tilting forward to FL.

I like to alternate the preFSP as in push/pull and escalate them in load so the planks and hang might be first before the support and planche lean. So something like Hang preFSP/Support FSP whereas arch/hollow are neither. For the hell of it, I also insert a wall HS hold in there too, generally a couple of them to get them out of the way (you could do a free HS but I generally would HS work after my WU and preFSPs).

If 1x60 isn't that trying, I wouldn't see a neccesary need to do 3x60. Try it one day to prove if you can. If you can, you'll know that you can definitely just do a 1x60s set as maintenance.

You can do L-hang if you want. I don't see a need to but it's not like it can hurt. It might be good to get some extra hang work in and core work.

4-6s gains on your first SSC is decent. Some people get huge gains but that's because they are just playing catch-up.

I like to work both the supinated and pronated hang in my preFSPs and warm them up with shrugs. Or you could do pronated shrugs and a supinated hang if you are pushed for time.

You can treat XR support as your support FSP instead of planche work. Or alternate 2d/week of XR support and 2 of whatever planche variant.

Are you doing any FBE work?

L-hang can also be done instead of FL which is what I'm thinking your doing. It doesn't really work as a pull variant

[Kris CHARTON]

In prerequisite you can add arch rock and hollow rock.

I add hs wallrun in my warm up for 30s-1min, and it works rather well

[Blairbob]

Yeah, I'll usually do hollow and arch rocks before the hold when I would do the shrugs.

[Adriano Katkic]

I was living under the impression that the L-hang was prequisite for FL. Should I start doing FL instead? I can hold tuck for 40-50s, and flat tuck for 25-30s. At least I think so, didn't test them a long time.

Actually, this is my 3rd SSC after 2 months of tendonitis recovery at the beginning of the year. Started training BtGB two years ago. One should expect I would be way stronger in statics, but it just doesn't happen. Every SSC I gain just a couple of secs on every static. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I'm following WODs for FBE.

[Joshua Naterman]

My first guess would be that your nutrition is not what it should be, but I don't know that for sure. Do you get enough sleep? Have a stressful life outside of training? Very physical job?

My second guess, not exclusive of the first, would be that you have a lot of weak links that are preventing you from making strength gains. If you aren't doing specific scapular and shoulder prehab on a nearly daily basis then you almost certainly have deficiencies that are holding you back.

[Adriano Katkic]

I am unemployed at the moment. Basically all I do is eating, training and sleeping. I eat about 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per body mass kg along with a lot of vegetables and potato/rice, as well as some candy after the dinner. However, since I've been unemployed, I started eating in IF fashion. Sometimes I end up eating only 1 gram of protein on my non training days, but that's an exception, not a rule. Anyways, I'll probably quit it soon because it is hard sometimes to squeeze all those meals in a short time frame.

I do Ido's routines every training day as a part of my wu.

[Joshua Naterman]

It is hard to say much more without watching you exercise, but the nutrition sounds good.

Ido's shoulder work by itself isn't enough, but is an excellent start. The things I would suggest doing in addition to that are standing scaption lifts, prone victorian lifts and prone T lifts. It is very important on all of these to retract the scapulae first, before any arm movement begins, and maintain the retraction throughout the movement from beginning to end, relaxing at the end of each rep and retracting again to start the second rep. The "plus" part of a push up with a plus is very important too, and shrugs in every basic direction. If you can hit the 4 cardinal directions that would be great, and if you can also hit the 4 in-between directions that would be even better. Weight is far less important than controlled full ROM.

I am doing the eat, sleep, work out thing over the break as well. It is awesome

[Adriano Katkic]

Thanks for those slizz.

What are prone victorian lifts? I tried to google it but with no success. When you say shrugs in 4 cardinal directions, what exactly are you thinking of? Shrugs hanging of high bar or with weights? Can you please elaborate just a little bit?

And what with l-hang/FL question? Is that seminar material and you can't answer that?

[Joshua Naterman]

Sorry, 4 cardinal directions are protraction, retraction, elevation, depression. You need to load all of those. If you can hit the halfway points between them as well, such as protraction+elevation, you will be making an X pattern with the movements whereas the cardinal directions look like a + sign.

The X and + refer to drawing the directions of movement from the shoulder joint when looking at your body from a standing position with a side view.

Shrugs are super, super important.

[Blairbob]

And what with l-hang/FL question?

Without a decent L, FL work will eventually stall and go nowhere. You probably won't get past tuck FL to advanced tuck/flat back tuck. However it does work the shoulders if it's done in a tuck/"ball" tuck fashion or when spotted.

[Adriano Katkic]

Thanks again slizz.

Sorry to be pain in the ass, but can't find what are prone victorian lifts. Help?

[Joshua Naterman]

Just lay on your stomach on a bench with some light dumbbells, with head past the end of the bench and body held straight.

Next, squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep them there for the entire rep. Once you have full retraction, hold it while lifting your straight arms into a victorian position. It 's the same as a maltese. Use palms up and palms down, one set of each. Use this each day to help strengthen your scapular stabilizers.

At first, 3 lbs can be very challenging. I HIGHLY recommend that you move up in .5 lb increments at the most, it is very important that you never lose perfect form and you probably will if you go from 3->4 or almost certainly with 3->5 lbs. Sets of 2-3 reps are fine at first if that's all you can do perfectly, you want something like a 313 tempo. That tempo does not include the scapular retraction, you just set that before each rep and release it at the end of each rep. Sets of 6-7 reps at this pace are the goal before you try and add weight. 1-3 sets is good, you want to work these every training day. See how you feel each day to determine the number of sets you do.

[Adriano Katkic]

If I understood it correctly, the difference between those and prone T lifts is the angle between arms and body. T lifts = 90 degrees, victorian lifts = say 45 degrees. Am I getting that right?

[Joshua Naterman]

If I understood it correctly, the difference between those and prone T lifts is the angle between arms and body. T lifts = 90 degrees, victorian lifts = say 45 degrees. Am I getting that right?

RIght!

You can also do these standing, with the body inclined 45 degrees or whatever you like, and I recommend practicing the Y standing straight, standing with a forward lean, AND prone. They all emphasize different parts of the ROM

[Adriano Katkic]

I had some private issues for the last month, so I didn't even started training the above mentioned SSC. After the brief hiatus, I'm back. I decided to focus on developing 3X60 prereqs, as well as eating more, since I figured out my eating habits weren't on the level.

The question is: Is the list of prereqs I mentioned in OP ok? Should I add more stuff, leave other?

Should I completely drop any FSP work? Or maybe keep stuff like frog stand, XR support and GH?

Thanks for any bit of info.

[Blairbob]

I like inverted hang. I can't really remember if it's one of the official PreReqs. It's good to be able to hang upside down before working the levers. So you don't slip and fall on your noggin.

Keep the XR hold and German Hang.

Following the ring strength progression of first mastering XR support is a bit different than the floor planche progression of Frog Stand, Adv Frog Stand, Tuck PL, etc.