Prep Elements - Hollow Body

I've just started week 8 of the PE 1's and I'm able to complete everything and am doing well except for the hollow body hold. I'm on the 4x48s right now and I can complete the first 2 sets well and then the 3rd starts to drop in quality and then on the 4th set, I have to raise my legs higher and my lower back can't stay pressed to the floor all the way. I'm thinking I should repeat this week and if that doesn't work then I should go back maybe 2 weeks. Do you guys know what I should do?

How challenging were the first three or four weeks of HBH? It's very easy to cruise through those shorter sets without exerting maximal body tension, which could easily contribute to the problem you have now.

They weren't very hard. Should they have been?

Sam Carr said:

They weren't very hard. Should they have been?

Anytime an appropriate or higher progression isn't challenging or cause discomfort, it should be an immediate warning bell going off in your mind. Technique and body tension are the first things to typically check. For example, lack of body tension early on will not teach the necessary muscles to fire properly under load. Without stimulating them, there will be no adaptation and hence it's easy to hit a wall suddenly because you've increased load and they've not gotten stronger or more efficient.

I'm approaching the end of the regular hollow body hold times for 5x60, and I have been doing them while holding a dowel down by my waist. I noticed that for the HBH rocks, your arms need to be extended beyond your head. Should I redo the HBH 1 with arms extended up and work that until I get the 5x60, or will it not matter?

You should be conditioned enough for it, but there is certainly no harm in trying a 1x60 that way and see how you feel. Good tension, shoulder are in a good position etc. If all is good then move on, if you feel you could use some work there then do it. It might be a full cycle it might be going backwards 2-3 weeks and just fine tuning it.

Extra time spent on these basics is never wasted. As you get stronger and better skilled the basics actually get more "difficult." Yes your conditioning is better but you also know what the form should be and how to generate tension.

Nic Branson said:

You should be conditioned enough for it, but there is certainly no harm in trying a 1x60 that way and see how you feel. Good tension, shoulder are in a good position etc. If all is good then move on, if you feel you could use some work there then do it. It might be a full cycle it might be going backwards 2-3 weeks and just fine tuning it.

Extra time spent on these basics is never wasted. As you get stronger and better skilled the basics actually get more "difficult." Yes your conditioning is better but you also know what the form should be and how to generate tension.

Okay, thank you. I've definitely noticed the form/ability to generate tension with the HBHs and there have been a few times where I've had to redo 2-3 weeks to be able to move forward, but I think I'm learning how to get it right.

Anytime. Keep up the good work.

Hi,

With regards to the HBH I've been doing them from the start, after the seminar in July with my arms over my head shoulder blades just off the ground, feet just off the ground, lower back pressed strongly into the ground,good body tension. Making progress, all be it very slowly. At 5 x 36s at the moment still don't think I'm ready for 4 x 48s yet. However from reading the previous post, should I be doing these with my hands by my hip?? Because I think I'd be done with these by now if that was the case???

Thanks

You can do them both ways. Arms overhead is more challenging and a good prep step before rocks. You want to progress through the arms overhead before moving on to rocks.

I just started doing arms overhead and I had to move back down to week 3 due to the higher difficulty. I realized tho that having arms extended makes it so I can't pack my shoulders/upper back which in turn causes me to have to contract my hips/glutes/abdominals more intensely. I'm excited to see how this affects my progress.

Also as a sidenote, for forearm planks, should I be feeling it in my traps? If I protract as hard as possible, I feel more contraction in my traps and bottom of my neck, but I begin to not depress as much and then I don't feel it towards the bottom of my lats as much. Is this a mobility issue?

Yes and no. Don't think to much here. Protract and depress it will sort itself out as you go. By the fact that you are feeling both, you're on the right track. It will become clearer as you progress.

In the Finland seminar Coach said that both HBH and HBR can be done in arms forward position as they are meant for FL development. However he did encourage trainees who wanted to do overhead to do so.

Cole Dano said:

In the Finland seminar Coach said that both HBH and HBR can be done in arms forward position as they are meant for FL development. However he did encourage trainees who wanted to do overhead to do so.

Do you think that going back and doing the HBH with arms overhead would be worth the extra time and lead to greater benefits later on and make other progressions easier?

I don't want to give a definitive answer to that.

I'd keep doing the HBH and HBR as warm up if you don't step back, and if you like, do them arms overhead.

My method has been to do HBR first practice day of the week and HBH second. I learned to do them arms overhead, so always did so. However, I have to admit on the HBR's my arms do slowly creep forward.

Of course if you get completely stuck as you move on from HBH to the following steps you might consider stepping back and then why not go overhead.

HB work is the kind of thing that the more I do the more I learn from and don't think I will ever drop it.

Cole Dano said:

HB work is the kind of thing that the more I do the more I learn from and don't think I will ever drop it.

I've also noticed this, it keeps on evolving as other skills merge into the routine. I think chest-to-wall HS done really close to the wall has had the greatest impact on my hollow hold. In the early beginning I was pressing my lower back to the floor but it left my hips somewhat piked. The CTW HS taught me how to posteriorly rotate the pelvis while keeping the legs in line with the rest of the body. Of course, big leaps in shoulder and hip mobility training don't hurt. It's all interwoven.

Working toward the perfect HS alignment together with all the mobility demands of GST has been and still is the biggest motivator for me to keep on doing the mobility work.

While I was stretching some time ago a friend said "you really like to stretch". I responded with "I stretch, because my training requires me to do so".

Sam, I think of it this way, you have absolutely nothing to lose by doing them with arms overhead except that maybe your ego takes a hit and you move through the progressions a little slower.

But, there is so much to gain from spending more time perfecting and strengthening possibly the most fundamental of all body positions.

It reminds me of that saying "the wider the base, the higher the peak".

So it's well worth the effort in my mind.

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to go ahead and start back at the beginning with arms overhead. I feel like I'm always learning new parts when it comes to the level 1 prereqs. Next time I get the chance, I'll probably film a set of each of put in on here to see what you guys think.

Quick question -> Do you guys superset the PEs or do you just do 1 at a time and rest for a bit between sets?