The Importance of the Hollow

In reading here and my own experiences, I've come to realize how important a rock solid hollow position is.

My pre-req hollow work is not as good as it should be (maybe 45/45/30 - haven't tested the max in a while), but that's now what I want to talk about here.

I want to find out if it's possible to "step up" or progress the hollow hold. For instance, getting arms and legs closer to the floor with a proper hollow will probably be harder; as would doing a "face down" hollow (hands and feet on the floor).

So if you want to scale this and keep working on the hollow position as more than a warmup, what options are there? I've been including some "hand walkouts" to an extended hollow position recently. These are the same thing as wheel rollouts except you step out with your hands. The biggest problem is the switch from a piked position to a hollow - it gets messy as you fatigue

One thing i think has been told to me was if you become proficient at Hollow Holds, begin Hollow rocks. Is the hollow hold position but rocking back and forth. You want to aim for sixty reps per minute.

phrak said:

In reading here and my own experiences, I've come to realize how important a rock solid hollow position is.

My pre-req hollow work is not as good as it should be (maybe 45/45/30 - haven't tested the max in a while), but that's now what I want to talk about here.

I want to find out if it's possible to "step up" or progress the hollow hold. For instance, getting arms and legs closer to the floor with a proper hollow will probably be harder; as would doing a "face down" hollow (hands and feet on the floor).

So if you want to scale this and keep working on the hollow position as more than a warmup, what options are there? I've been including some "hand walkouts" to an extended hollow position recently. These are the same thing as wheel rollouts except you step out with your hands. The biggest problem is the switch from a piked position to a hollow - it gets messy as you fatigue

Try "hollowing" everything you do, well, almost everything at least.. I even try to make some kind of hollow when I'm walking, at least the core part.. pushups, pullups, dead hang from bar.. hollow rocks allows you to get to the dynamic part of things, bar kip is also good, you learn to go hollow more quickly.. but, as for everything, practice makes perfect.. spend more time in a hollow position...

Start from your back flat on the floor, legs and arms lifted.. bring then down to a level where you are still with lower back flat on the floor.. work from there.. when you loose posture, stop, rest and start again in the next rep.. don't pratice your slide until failure, when you compromise the hollow position, stop.. memory muscle I believe, it must learn the right way..

Do not walk around in a hollow. That is not smart. All the rest, push ups, pull ups, etc is the right way to go.

Edit: Practicing getting into a hollow randomly is a good idea, but make sure you don't start getting stuck in a hollow. You always want to have a neutral resting posture if possible.

Wasn't there something posted recently that said it's better to do pull ups without being hollow?

Sam Carr said:

Wasn't there something posted recently that said it's better to do pull ups without being hollow?

Not for strength that carries over to other movements.

For prehab it is a very good idea to practice arched pull ups that focus a bit more on scapular movement, just as arched FL pulls that do the same can be very beneficial, but those movements are just that: prehab elements. Accessory work. They do not work the prime movers or integrate the structural supporting muscles with the prime movers.

Does that make sense? Many things have their place in training, but the hollow is central because it is the position that so many movements are built on top of. It is not the only position of importance, but it is good to know what place the different positions should take in a training plan.

can someone post a video of hollow pull-ups? almost all pull-ups I found on youtube talks about the "chest out" style.

seiyafan said:

can someone post a video of hollow pull-ups? almost all pull-ups I found on youtube talks about the "chest out" style.

Here is a quick demonstration I filmed earlier tonight. It's a little hard to tell the position with normal clothes on, but I think it shows the idea. I'll try to do a better one later if someone else doesn't beat me to it. I also show a standing hollow demonstration in the beginning of the video.

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Also if anyone has any criticism of my body position I'm definitely open to correction.

This is also going to be in a new thread in the Basic Strength forum, but since this thread is the beginning of this question and has a number of views, here is my video for hollow pull ups.

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I might be wrong but i don't see why you can't continue to progress the on the floor hollow position by weighting it. I imagine once you have achieved a fully open hollow position on the floor for a reasonable time you could add little weights in your hands and feet to load the movement.

If you got super strong you could even do a hollow on a box with significant weight in your hands and hanging weight off your feet. I don't know if anyone does this or if its worth doing though. Just achieving a fully open hollow for 60 seconds is pretty hard to me personally.

If you were in pursuit of the world's most heavily weighted hollow position then sure, that would work!

In terms of practical performance... I don't think it would help very much. Once you can hold a fully laid out hollow for 60s, you should be moving towards harder movements like body levers that more closely simulate the free-floating position of the body in the hardest gymnastic positions. The hollow rocks really help when trying to maintain a hollow during dynamic movements.