Back To Square 1 - Quick Prerequisites Form Check

Hello Community,

 

 

after lots of reading here on the forum i decided to abandon my routine and go back to the very beginning and work up to the expected standard on the pre-requisites.

 

I train alone and have no one to coach me, so i would be very grateful if the community could have a quick look at what i'm doing in the video and point me in the right direction. I kept the holds short to make the video short, i can hold the the reverse plank for 40sx4 and the rest 30sx4 without breaking the form i'm showing in the video. So still a lot of work to do.

 

Yeah and i know i have very tight shoulders... I'm working on that too :-)

 

http://youtu.be/VxsvQsZv-tU

 

 

Good start that's what I decided to do also.

 

Hollow:

 

I don't know if it's just because I can't see the video properly but are your shoulder blades off the floor?

 

 

Plank & Reverse Plank:

 

elevate your feet when you are able to.

 

 

The initial prerequisites (3*60):

 

Hollow

Arch

Plank

Reverse Plank

 

PB Support - you can do on two chairs if no dipping station

Chin Up Grip Hang - no way around this really will have to get a pull up bar or find somewhere to hang lol

 

 

You can try to really get your arms back during hollow.  That's helping me with opening my shoulders more.  Also I can't remember who said it - think it was Josh N - but lying face down, using abs to go hollow and raising your arms off of the floor as much as possible and straight all while staying hollow is helping massively with my active shoulder flexibility to get my shoulders more open.

 

It's a pain going back to basics but IMO this rudimentary, boring (only if you make it boring - I've come to enjoy prereqs)  stuff separates the truly committed & dedicated & determined from the average joe.  

 

Good luck and great progress - sometimes taking a step backward is the best way forward!

 

Thanks for the reply! Normally i'm training deadhang pronated/supinated and PB Support as well but yesterday i was killing time in my hotel room :-) and anyhow, these exercises are the ones where i'm not sure my form is correct.

 

I think in the video i had my shoulder blades on the floor during the Hollowhold, but thanks for pointing it out... Will remember it when im training next time.

 

The bodyline drill you mentioned is extremly hard for me, i can hold the position for maybe 5 seconds but no chance in raising my arms even one mm. Is there an easier version of this?

You must have pretty tight shoulders.  I would work Shoulder Dislocates, Wall Extensions, Shoulder Flex Pulls as well as the exercise above.

 

 

As far as decreasing the difficulty of the exercise, I would just try and work up your time.  As long as you are striving to lift up your arms to open your shoulders more with straight arms while remaining hollow trying to keep your hands off the floor, every time you do the exercise you are bit by bit getting those shoulders to go where you want them.

 

Your stomach to wall handstands will GREATLY be improved by that exercise I have found.

 

 

Check out this thread also as it may be of use.  The video shows a cat stretch which is similar to the exercise I told you about above except cat stretch is passive flexibility while the hollow on the floor open shoulder raise exercise is active flexibility.

yeah i know... the results of a sedentary decade with a job involving sitting for 12hours or more. So many areas to work on, so few time... Tight Hip Flexors is another area im fighting with.

 

I think i really have to construct a routine from all of this and make dedicate much more time and effort to it to make progress.

 

All in all, awesome feedback thank you!