Things I Know Now After Doing the Recommended Routine for 1 Year That I Wish I Knew From the Beginning

@sydneyelise For anyone reading this thinking "huh the RR doesn't give much progress for a year", this guy's progress was remarkably slow and it's clear why in his video. He doesn't use full ROM, he doesn't have great form, and he tries to progress to levels higher than he is ready for and subsequently gets hurt.

In a year you should be far past this guy. I'd take his advice with a grain of salt, and be honest with yourself. "You're not strong enough yet" is something some people refuse to hear
 
@dawn16 Yes I agree my progress was slow which I acknowledged in the transformation post I made a couple months ago.

So I can learn, fix, and improve, can you point out to me:

- which exercises specifically, am I not doing with full ROM?

- which exercises specifically, do I have not good form? (excluding the ones I already mentioned in the video like pull ups)

- The RR recommends progressing to the next level once I reach 3x8 of the progression. I progressed when I reached anywhere between 3x8 ~ 3x12. What other cue, should I use to see if I'm ready?
 
@sydneyelise Alright, just sneaking in but I would also like to answer these questions.

- Basically I would just state that you pull ups are not full ROM (not enough control of the negative phase IMHO and not totally extended arms when down from the pullup position, especially at 1:38 of the video), the rest seems fine to me in terms of ROM.

- Honestly I don't really like the form of your PPPU (I don't see any hollow position holding there, here for reference of what I mean as a good form).

- Always keep in mind that the RR is an approximation of what a training should look like, but you always have to change it accordingly to your strenght and weak points. I would recommend you to do isokinetics excercises (1" holds when your forehead gets to the bar, for instance when doing a pull up, or making the pulling phase of the pull up last for 2/3/4/5"). Always have more strength than you think you deserve before stepping up to new excercises, otherwise there are good odds you would get injured.

This is not to put you down, you did great job and I can see that having to deal with this whole all alone can be hard. I really recommend you to take on an online trainer, not because you suck but just because, with this help, you could become even better and spend your training time in the most efficient manner. Furthermore if you really want to approach static strength excercises, as you state in the video, you have to get a coach (especially when dealing with planche).

Cheers.
 
@forcedmeme Thanks for your response!
- 1:38 pull up. Won't it become chest to bar pull ups if I increase ROM more than this? And yes I can see my control is pretty bad in the negative phase. Will try to improve on that.
- For PPPU, if you look at page 462 of Overcoming Gravity edition 2, the pictures seem to have straight body rather than hollow body. Even in the description, it says to do with straight or 'slightly' hollow body. Not sure if I should follow OG or the link you provided..
- "(1" holds when your forehead gets to the bar, for instance when doing a pull up, or making the pulling phase of the pull up last for 2/3/4/5"). " I'm not quite following what you are saying here. Can you please elaborate more?
- " Always have more strength than you think you deserve before stepping up to new excercises, otherwise there are good odds you would get injured. " This is a great advice. Thanks!

Thank you again for taking the time to answer some of the questions and for these good words!
 
@sydneyelise
  • i am stating that your standard pullup ROM is not respected since the arms are not fully straightened.
  • for PPPU I don't think that straight body ones are going to work since the PPPU is an excercise that should prepare you for the tuck planche and in all of the planche excercises (from the PPPU to the full) it is required the hollow body position, additionally doing the PPPU in the way i suggest you is going to be more challenging and is going to build more strength and adaptation to the position. Obviously that's how I train and everyone will follow dofferent routes, I am just saying : try it out.
  • I recommend you to google "isokinetic excercises" on google sonce there are people which are way more qualified than me to explain it.
 
@sydneyelise About the roudness of the back it is kind of a complex issue, some say you should have flat spine, some others (like me) say it should be roundish. Even at a competitive level there is still no consensus. I would say to try it out and see how it feels.

Anyhow I am just saying how i learned it, how I progressed and how I was advised.
 
@sydneyelise Hey there, I saw in your video that your pull-ups weren't progressing. Just sharing from my experience, two tweaks really helped me progress my standard pull ups.

- Try an isometric hold at the top of your pull up. Just hold the position at the top for a couple seconds before going down.

- Maintain tension throughout the entire set, especially during the eccentric and at the bottom. It's really easy to let things go slack and let gravity do all the work, but I found a much better workout if I concentrated on making the motion as much as possible by using my arms/back, and maintaining that tension going into the next rep.

Don't know if these will apply for you, but worth a shot if you haven't tried!
 
@dawn16
he doesn't have great form, and he tries to progress to levels higher than he is ready for and subsequently gets hurt.

And these are things that probably happen to most of the people who don't some kind of athletic background when they start training for the first time. For a person who has no clue about anything exercise related (and I'm speaking from my own experience here) it's very difficult to judge when they gave good form or when they should increase the difficulty of the exercise. People who have spent years sitting in offices just don't have any level of mind-body connection to give them feedback about their training.
 
@rmartin it should have been ironed out in a couple months at the maximum, tbh. He doesn't seem to ever realize "hey I'm 4 months in and I've added 3 reps to my pullups, maybe something is wrong?"

This isn't a difficult process
 
@dawn16 No, it actually is quite a difficult process, otherwise most people who do a google search Sunday morning for "no gym workout" would progress to gymnasts.
 
@dawn16 He points out that his upper back arches when it shouldn't be during the L-Sit pullup, is this necessary to be considered good form? I don't see anything inherently wrong with that, when I arch my upper back I feel like my shoulders and scapula are in a healthier, safer position.
 
@thruve L sit means posterior pelvic tilt. You can't both arch your lower back and keep PPT (but seems he arches his lower back, not upper)

Id have to see you do it to know quite what you mean. You should be able to balance a plate on your shins, unlike his.

Regardless, working toward one arm chinup is superior to l sit pullups
 
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