Rings Inlocate

Well. Mats asked me what I did, so I thought I would share this here. I haven't got the slightest clue what Coach has as pre-requisites for this.

We know I've always been pretty strong in the muscle up department. I was doing wide MU's very quickly. This definitely showed some underlying strength in the internal rotation department.

However, what I did was to practice inlocates with the freemotion machine. I put the arms up to the second notch (one down from the highest position) and set them at the second to closest horizontal notch( one out from the most adducted setting). This puts the handles about 4 feet above my head and perhaps 2-3 inches wider than my shoulders. I felt that this was the closest simulation I could get to real rings after playing around with different settings.

I started off with 15 lbs, which was strangely challenging. I now use 37.5 lbs per hand and it's easy. I do the same thing with butterflies and this is how I learned the proper activation and movement pattern. That took quite a while, but I believe it has paid off down the line since I can also do butterflies on cross trainers or rings with secure strap loops now.

The major thing, aside from building the strength in the inlocate pattern, was learning to use my shoulder blades.

Also, about two years ago I had developed my German Hang to the point where I could exlocate out of it back into a regular hang. This came as a surprise to me... I did this at the May 2011 Seminar I think. It was my first time, and it just felt right so I did it.

I believe that very deep GH + either band or free-motion inlocates are the key here. This was part of what Dillon showed me, and I am pretty sure he also showed this to the seminar group but I can't remember. He used bands but I had freemotion available at the GSU rec center and I felt that would be much more precisely loadable so I used that instead of wrestling with bands.

That is all I did. I was hanging on the rings at practice and I thought "Hey, I wonder if I can do an inlocate." So, I spent about 10 seconds finding my scapulae and locking them in place (this is still a bit new to me) and boom, felt like nothing.

I am pretty sure Coach has a much more structured approach to this lol

The slow weighted inlocates are indeed a very good mobility element.

However also note that this is an advanced mobility element and, as most of you have not yet mastered the fundamentals (FL, HB, RC etc), your time would be better spent focusing on more generalized unweighted mobility.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks Josh and Coach!

I definetly found à weak link!

As a general note: I found out yesterday that trying an inlocate two days after a hard pressing workout is a bad idea My pecs were inflamed (as any muscle will be after it is worked) and they were less flexible than normal which really made this difficult.

I also tried Kit's shoulder stretch with the dowel and a partner and it is pretty nice. I didn't feel anything terribly noticeable at the time, but today there is a noticeable difference from yesterday. Interesting stuff.