On the other hand, mobility is your active range of motion. For example, have someone raise your leg up and now can you lift your leg up and out of that person’s hand? No, then lower the leg and see where you can lift it up to without the assistance of your partner. The height you were able to lift it on your own is your mobility.

There are no scientifically conclusive flexibility training routines. There are a number of factors that impact your flexibility including your age and your stiffness, how tight your muscles are is maybe another way of saying it.

Your flexibility does impact your mobility in so far as it provides a range of motion that while static is a marker of sorts. But, in order be mobile you need to have muscle strength in order to freely move through your range of motion, while also wanting to have a full range of motion to be as mobile as possible.

Everything is also related to your specific activity or sporting preference. An Olympic weightlifter is going to have a different level of flexibility and mobility than an Olympic gymnast, although I train both weightlifters and gymnasts.

Which brings me to why I don’t see any separation of flexibility and mobility, and I don’t even see any separation by sport because who doesn’t want to move as freely as possible, whatever their activity?

In my Gymnastics Strength training program, one of the athletes, Stanley Cecil Bastien, demonstrating the movements is a weightlifter, his picture is the top of this article.

When someone gets injured, it’s not always easy to tell whether the injury is the result of some limitation in movement or overuse. If the athlete’s ability flexibility and mobility are optimal it does give the athlete more reasons to avoid injuries that can arise from sudden changes in direction, bad form or just plain bad luck in an active situation.

Mobility is end range strength training. Having strength in end ranges will open up an athlete’s ability to do more movements and they are less likely to sustain an injury if they have better control of their joints ranges of motion.

The post Don’t Separate Flexibility and Mobility: You Need Both appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Core Work

The L-sit requires static compression. It involves compressing your body at the hip, lifting your straight legs up towards your torso, and holding the position. There can be some limiting factors preventing you from getting into a good L-sit position but we are going to address your weak core first. If you are unable to lift your legs and hold them up while keeping them straight due to your core, then try these progressions:

Level 1: Tuck Up

• Lift your knees up as high as possible in a bent knee position and hold. The shorter lever created by keeping your legs bent makes it a little easier to recreate the compressed position necessary to maintain a hold. This should help you edge into building your core strength.

Level 2: Tuck to L-Sit Extensions

• Start in the bent knee position as was done in the simple tuck up (Level 1).
• Extend your legs out straight and then pull them back into a tuck position.
• Repeat this movement progressively trying to hold your straight leg position for increasing durations.

Straight Arm Strength

The role of your upper body is to hold yourself up off of the apparatus (e.g. parallettes) or floor. In the L-sit your arms should be straight and locked out while driving your shoulders down as hard as possible (shoulder depression). If you are weak or lack the range of motion for this then here are a couple of exercises that will transfer over to the L-sit shoulder depressions.

Level 1: Elevated Depression Presses

• Place objects of your desired height (like yoga blocks) on either side of you while you are seated on the ground.
• With your arms straight, drive your hands down into the blocks trying to lift your hips up off of the floor. Your feet can stay on the ground while doing this.

Level 2: Flat Depression Presses

• Seated on the ground with your legs straight out in front of your body, place your hands on the ground by your sides.
• Drive your hands into the floor with your arms straight trying to lift your hips up off of the ground. Your feet can stay on the ground.

Hamstring Flexibility

Another obstacle that may challenge some athletes trying to do an L-sit hold is hamstring flexibility. A limitation in hamstring flexibility can make it difficult or impossible to extend your legs while flexed at the hip. I would suggest addressing this with hamstring-specific flexibility and mobility exercises and not while trying to L-sit. Here are some of my favorite movements for this.

Jefferson Curls – This will work on increasing both hamstring flexibility and full compression.

• Start this movement by holding a light weight in your hands with your feet together and legs straight.
• Slowly lower the weight towards your feet reaching as far as possible.
• Then slowly curl back up to start.

Front Splits

• Start in a lunge position and extend your front leg until it is straight.
• From here, slide your front leg out as far as possible until you get a really good stretch in your front hamstring.

Skill Transfer

One of my favorite things about having athletes develop the L-sit is that I can use it to progress them to harder skills like V-sits, manna, and press handstands. It is also a great transition skill for movers.

Find creative ways to move in and out of L-sits! Challenge yourself! Here is a fun flow that incorporates L-sit and squat.

• Squat down and place your hands behind you on the floor.
• Extend your legs out to an L-sit.
• Pull your feet back under yourself returning to a squat.

This is just one example of the possibilities. Play around, build strength, gain control, and move better.

The post Master the L-Sit appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Photo by Bev Childress

Many people focus on static passive stretching as a means to increase mobility. I’m here to tell you that it may accomplish this, it’s true, but there is a better way. In my opinion, passive static stretching in adults does very little. Weighted mobility is the approach I take with my athletes and in my Gymnastic Strength Program.

There are three types of clients I come across most often. Are you one of these?

• Flexible + Weak
• Strong + Tight
• Tight + Weak

Weighted mobility can help in each of these situations.

Flexible + Weak

Flexibility with little strength through an increased range of motion (ROM) does very little for a person and can be a set up for injury. There is little benefit to being able to place your body through a wide ROM if you have no control over it. Take for example forward folding your face and torso to your knees while standing with straight legs compared to hanging and lifting your legs towards your face in a leg raise.

Weighted mobility forces these types of athletes to control and strengthen their already wide ROM. It is a misconception that they need to “tighten up.” They just need to get stronger. Applying resistance is a perfect way to achieve this. Don’t force these athletes to lose their flexibility, teach them to own it.

Strong + Tight

This section is for those who are strong and have large muscles but can barely move. We’ve all seen these individuals. They have plenty of strength but struggle to get down on the ground. They work up more of a sweat during stretching than any other part of their workout and find navigating through a narrow space the biggest obstacle they’ve ever encountered.

These individuals have such bulky muscles and so much tension that they practically get nothing out of just reaching for their toes. They need something pulling them down, fatiguing the muscles slightly so that they can increase their ROM. This application of a resistive force leads to connective tissue adaptation.

Weak + Tight

These folks are our desk workaholics. Years of sitting and not doing any ROM exercises has pulled their shoulders forward. It has shortened their hip flexors and caused their hamstrings to become extremely tight, among other mobility issues. It should be obvious at this point what the solution for these individuals is—weighted active stretching will both strengthen and increase the ROM for your classic “workaholic.”

Weighted Stretching Has Many Benefits

There are many ways to move, increase range of motion, and strengthen muscle. The benefit of weighted stretching is that it covers a lot while doing a little. Any time we can condense our training into movements that give us more bang for the buck, I’m all for it. This helps free up time to train what is more fun or sport-specific. Try it out. See what incorporating weighted mobility into your routine can do for you.

The post Make Weighted Stretching Work for You appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Walking on your hands is great for upper body strength, balance, coordination, working out imbalances between your arms, and more. It’s also fun! This article is going to provide a step by step (pun intended) guide to walking on your hands.

You will likely hear me say this again and again, with skill and strength progressions you must completely master one skill before moving on to the next. This ensures a proper foundation that allows you to continue to progress. Most of the time when people come to me to work on hand balance or walking it is because they have neglected the need for this foundation. Instead, many athletes have been encouraged to “just try to do it.”

Step 1 – Have an Exit Strategy

Fear is the biggest problem I come across. When you’re afraid of falling over, the result is a tendency to not commit to the forward lean necessary to walk in a handstand. You may not feel like you’re afraid but your body will keep you in its comfort zone. Most commonly, this comfort zone is the way you get in and out of your handstand (i.e. the kick up and step-down).

The best exit strategy is to cartwheel out. First, determine which side you like to cartwheel on. Is it the right leg forward with right hand first or the opposite? Knowing this will determine which way you turn out of the handstand. I do a right-legged cartwheel, for example. So to rehearse my exit, I kick up to a handstand, fall towards my back and when I feel the fall past vertical initiate, I leave my right hand in place on the ground and move my left hand forward to allow my body to turn towards a cartwheel movement.

Practice this for a minimum of 10 reps per day. You must get through the vertical position (don’t turn early) and you must get very comfortable with the bailout.

Step 2 – Find Your Controlled Lean

Learn how to control how much you lean forward. This will help control your speed of walking. The harder you lean, the faster you will walk, and vice versa.

As a drill, stand about 3′ away from a wall. Kick up to a handstand and slowly and deliberately pull yourself to the wall. Avoid kicking up straight into the wall as this will defeat the purpose of the exercise. This exercise will teach you how to consistently get into the proper position for walking.

Step 3 – Controlled Walking

Take what you did in Step 2 and now add a predetermined number of steps you plan to take. So let’s say you want to take two steps on your hands. Start a little further from the wall at a distance that allows for your desired number of steps (in this case, enough room for 2 steps). Kick up to a handstand and with a controlled lean, take 2 steps, followed by a controlled lean into the wall. You determine when you walk, how many steps you take, when you stop, and when you lean into the wall. Practicing this will help you develop a lot of control in your walking and before you know it, you’ll be able to take those steps completely away from the wall.

Step 4 – Put It All Together

Time to put your hard work to action. Kick up to a handstand and control your lean forward (Step 2), take a predetermined number of steps (Step 3), control a lean forward (Step 3), and cartwheel bail out (Step 1). You are now walking on your hands! Now have fun with it. Set up distance goals, add obstacles to maneuver around, change up terrains, and see if you can start and stop. Let’s see your practice! Use #GymnasticStrength #ChrisLofland and I will give you feedback.

Also check out my Handstand Balance, Muscle Up, and Complete Gymnastics Strength, Mobility and Flexibility programs.

The post A Practical Guide to Walking on Your Hands appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There are many different “shapes” in gymnastics like “pike,” “straddle,” and “tuck.” But before achieving these body positions there are some important foundational shapes that take precedent in training and are utilized often in fitness and sports outside of gymnastics. Two of these essential foundational shapes are the hollow and arch positions. Each is important on its own, but it’s also essential that an athlete be able to transition from one to the other rapidly and efficiently. This carries over into generating power in skills like tumbling, kipping pull ups/muscle ups, calisthenics and other acrobatic and explosive movements.

As with anything, achieving proficiency in these positions requires first breaking things down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

The Hollow Hold

This position entails segmental flexion along your entire spine so that your torso and low back become concave and you appear “hollowed” out, like an object might be. Your arms and legs can be included in this concave hold, but keep in mind those are elements incorporated at a more advanced stage of your hollow hold.

To understand the hollow position, begin by laying on the floor with your knees bent. Tuck your hips under into posterior pelvic tilt (PPT), pressing your low back flat into the floor. Hover your arms by your side reaching your hands towards your feet until your shoulders pull slightly up off of the floor (kind of like a crunch). Holding your low back against the floor while keeping your shoulders slightly off of the ground, lift your feet off the floor and hold. This is a tucked hollow position. You can challenge your hollow position by slowly straightening your legs. Don’t go past the point where your low back starts to leave the floor and your “flexed” position breaks.

The Arch Hold

The arch hold is the opposite of a hollow hold. Where the hollow hold is full body flexion, the arch is full body extension. To get into an arch position, start by laying flat on your stomach with your legs together and straight. Straighten your arms overhead and squeeze your glutes. From this position lift your arms, chest and heels up off the floor like the superman position. A common mistake people make is arching the low back only. Concentrate on full body tension. This includes abs, glutes, quads, shoulders, etc. The result should be a tight arch and not a hyperextended arch. This is important for when an athlete moves into shape changing and ballistic exercises (e.g. kipping, tumbling, callisthenics) because prevents the low back from lighting up during training.

Move Effectively From Hollow to Arch

I’m going to cover two basic shape changing drills. The focus of these drills is to assess how well you can move from the hollow to arch position and vise versa. You should look to see if you transition smoothly from one position to the other without unnecessary movement. Examples of improper transitioning include losing glute tension, bending at the knees, having more trouble getting into one position quickly than the other, and so forth. This is all showing inefficiency.

Log Rolls

This exercise is almost exactly what it sounds like. The difference is that while you’re rolling from your stomach to your back, you will be alternating between the arch and hollow, respectively. Start by finding your hollow position. Then roll left or right, transitioning into your arch position. Once in the arch position roll back left or right transitioning back into your hollow position. The goal is to be able to snap from one position to the other.

Minimize excess movement outside of the hollow and arch as much as possible. Your legs should remain glued together and you should continuously squeeze your glutes, abs, and quads throughout the movement. This drill is something I start everyone on when learning to shape change. It is a staple at my seminars before we ever move to the bar or rings.

Hollow Arch Pulls

These are much more challenging than log rolls. An athlete must have a strong hollow and arch position before moving onto an exercise like this. Set up two benches parallel from each other, far enough apart that you can have your legs resting on one bench and your arms resting on the other.

With the benches set up, position your arms and legs as stated. Once positioned, hover between the two benches in a hollow body position (PPT). From here extend your body into an arch position then pull back up into a hollow position. It is important to focus on extending into the arch position through the upper and mid-back, not the low back. Also, remember that the benefit in this exercise comes with purposeful, controlled movements.

These Drills Will Benefit You

These are two challenging and effective drills, and there are many drill variations in between that can be trained. Some examples include: static hollow and arch holds between the benches, long hollow holds, pulsing supermans, and hollow rocks. The ultimate goal of these is to get really strong, controlled, and comfortable moving from one position to the next.

As discussed in my previous articles like Why You Need A Gymnastics Foundatio, take the long slow approach to training. I emphasize proficiency in the hollow and arch positions because it helps in this approach and transfers over into more explosive movements. Often the opposite approach to training is taken and an athlete uses speed and momentum first to assist in an exercise. This can lead to plateauing and possible injury. If you take my approach however, it will lead to control and mastery. This in turn will open up many more doors in the long run and even allow a “long-run” to be possible. Arm yourself by mastering the hollow and arch positions. These two drills are fundamental shapes for control, strength, well-roundedness, and sustainability.

The post The Importance of Mastering the Arch and Hollow for Your Core appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

NutraGlow is a supplemental company that consists of two products: Super B and Super Lean. Super B is designed to promote overall balance in the body while boosting energy. Super Lean is designed to assist in healthy weight loss.

What’s In It?

Super B’s main ingredient is B12. Most individuals are B12 deficient, this can cause low energy and focus. Maintaining optimal levels of B12 boosts energy and increases focus.

Super Lean has a few main ingredients:

• L-Theanine – This is a natural de-stressor and can help relax the body. It can also improve alertness and focus.
• Green Tea Extract – This is a great source of antioxidants and provides a thermogenic effect which can help burn body fat.
• Lemon Oil – This also has a relaxation effect but can also help speed up the body’s metabolism.

NutraGlow’s Effectiveness

NutraGlow claims that it is more effective than ordinary supplements because of the process in which it is taken. You take a few drops under the tongue which is absorbed by the mucous membrane of your mouth, allowing the supplement to absorb faster, as opposed to taking the supplement orally which can filter and flush out much of the supplement through the digestion process.

From my experience, I like using the absorption approach. It’s not rough or heavy on the stomach, making it easy for me to take at any time of day. It does seem to hit my system quicker than drinking or mixing my supplements other ways. I really liked this trial of NutraGlow products and would recommend them.

The post How Do You Take Your Vitamins? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“You will always regret not training the position you got injured.”

– Dr. Andreo Spina

Some injuries are just unavoidable. I do believe a lot of wear-and-tear injuries or under-recovered injuries are avoidable, but the tripping over a weight, slipping on some ice, and stepping off of something and rolling your ankle types of injuries will happen. Now, how you bounce back from them depends on your training.

“You will always regret not training the position you got injured.”

– Dr. Andreo Spina

Some injuries are just unavoidable. I do believe a lot of wear-and-tear injuries or under-recovered injuries are avoidable, but the tripping over a weight, slipping on some ice, and stepping off of something and rolling your ankle types of injuries will happen. Now, how you bounce back from them depends on your training.

Proper dosages of “improper” alignment can help prevent injury when doing athletic movement. You are being optimistic if you believe you will prevent injury by only training “proper” form. Of course I’m not saying you shouldn’t strive for proper form but if you are truly doing athletic movements, playing, or in a sport, then you will not always have the luxury of being in the “perfect” position. Watch a tennis match and tell me the players don’t go into a valgus knee position (where the knee caves inwards). My point is, if you avoid awkward positions then you are more likely to injure yourself if you are exposed to them in normal living situations.

Full Range of Motion Training

Progressive exposure to your body’s natural range of motion is fine, and is actually good for you. However, it is still crucial that this is done with correct loading and duration of recovery. Full range of motion training can expose us to “awkward positions” that are more injury-prone, hence the reason we should train them. But if overdone or trained without control in the beginning (e.g. kipping pull ups prior to hanging, swinging, and strict pull up training), then we run the risk of causing more damage than growth. So, don’t go out and load up a heavy sissy squat or jefferson curl but do expose yourself to these exercises that your body is, or once was, capable of. If you don’t move your body in as many different positions as you can as often as possible, then you will eventually lose the ability to move in those positions. As another example, if you can’t take your knee through a good range of flexion then you risk getting stuck on the ground later in life. Try getting up off of the floor naturally (don’t try an awkward “prove-you-wrong” approach) with little to no knee flexion (and back flexion).

Uncover Your Range of Motion

So let’s talk about exposure. This should be very progressive, over a long period of time and practiced regularly. You are safer going too light or less frequent in the beginning rather than the reverse. My approach is to start light and increase about every 8-12 weeks. This is because we are working a lot of connective tissue which takes much longer to fully heal than muscle. If there is pain, stop, wait, and start over with little to no weight until you get back the range of motion and strength.

Let me give you a few exercises to try for the shoulders, back, and knees—areas that tend to commonly get injured.

Shoulders : Weighted Pass-Throughs

By using the weighted pass-through we are taking the shoulders through their full range of motion. Start by gripping a dowel with your hands as wide as necessary so that your arms remain straight throughout the entire movement and so that there is no “clicking” or “catching” during the movement. Pass the dowel (or pvc, band, etc.) overhead and around to your back. Then reverse directions bringing your arms back to start all the while keeping your arms straight. This can and should be done both standing and lying prone (face down). Progressively work your hands closer and increase the weight about every 8-12 weeks by a few pounds.

Back: Jefferson Curls

For Jefferson Curls, begin by standing on a box with your legs together and straight. With your hips tucked into posterior pelvic tilt, slowly round off your back one vertebrae at a time from the top down by first dropping your chin to your chest and gradually curling over into flexion. Continue to flex the spine one vertebrae at a time until you reach the end range of your flexibility. Your first goal should be to get your wrists past your feet. Once achieved, progressively increase the weight in your hands every 8-12 weeks by about 2-5 pounds. Most people need to start with weights between 5 and 20 pounds.

Knees: Crossover Squats

From a standing position, cross your legs and roll to the outside of your feet while descending into a cross-legged seated position. Once seated at the bottom, push yourself back up to a standing position and repeat, making sure to switch the leg that is in front as you go. This will slightly load your ankles and knees laterally. A good starting point for these would be to do them with a post or rope in front of you to hang on to so that you can safely assist yourself down and back up.

Train to Play

There are many other exercises I use for injury prevention but these are a safe start. These examples can be a little more risky than your traditional press, deadlift, and squat. In addition, these exercises shouldn’t be loaded the same as those exercises (or at all in the beginning), but keep an open mind that your body shouldn’t be limited to “neutral, square, stacked, etc.” This prevents freedom to move—instead, train to play.

The post Injury Prevention and Resilience Through Improper Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Most people involved in fitness train using pulling and pushing exercises in the forward and overhead positions (e.g. rowing, push ups, bench press; pull ups, military press), but rarely train the pull and push backwards. This lack of shoulder extension strength and mobility often contributes to achy shoulders. Can you relate to this? If you can, don’t worry, I’m here to get you started on making your shoulders more well rounded and pain-free.

Shoulder Extension Stretch

Let’s start introducing some shoulder extension through some light stretching. While seated on the ground, place your hands (palms facing down) behind you, about shoulder width apart with your thumbs pointing away from each other. From this position slowly slide your hips away from your hands as far as possible and hold for about 30 seconds. As your mobility improves, your hands can be placed narrower than shoulder width, so that eventually they are touching. Check out these 3 Exercises To Improve Your Shoulder Mobility.

Table Raises and Reverse Plank Holds

Now that we have started the process with some stretching, let’s load the position. I use two exercises for this. In the table raise, you will start seated on the ground with your hands behind you as in the shoulder extension stretch. From here, bend your knees and place your feet flat on the ground. Lift your hips and chest up towards the ceiling so that you resemble a table.

For the reverse plank, start seated with your legs straight and your arms placed on the floor behind you. From this position, lift your hips and chest towards the ceiling. I like to take two different approaches to these exercises:

1. Stay in each position for a longer hold to both build strength and mobility (hold for 10-60s depending on the athlete).
2. Use the 10x10s approach. This is an approach is better for a quick loosening up—you do 10 repetitions of the movement and on the last rep hold for 10 seconds.

Skin the Cat

These are a great way to start building strength in shoulder extension that will later progress towards skills like the back lever. This should be loaded progressively. Ideally, you can use a spotter to assist you through the exercises, with the spotter assisting less and less as time goes on. If you are training on your own, I’d suggest progressions that I use in our Gymnastic Strength Training Program where you start on the ground with light loads and gradually progress to working on the rings.

When not performing any of the above mentioned skills, placing your hands behind you regularly can strengthen the posterior shoulders and stretch the anterior shoulders and chest.

Piked Shoulder Extension Pulls

Here is another excellent stretch for the shoulders. Use a weight that is appropriate to your strength and skill level.

Balancing Your Shoulders Is Important

Many individuals, either sedentary or active, cause their own shoulder issues by over developing the anterior shoulders and/or under-developing the posterior shoulders. This type of situation leads to pain and chronic tension that limits a person’s ability to grow in more complex movements. It is an issue that I often run into with clients coming to me to develop their muscle up or improve their Olympic weightlifting technique, among other scenarios. A lack of shoulder extension mobility makes the transition phase of the muscle up difficult, sometimes impossible. My article demonstrating progressions for muscle ups is a good resource for some of the things you will need to know.

For my weightlifters, keeping the bar properly positioned overhead to successfully achieve a lift and reduce the risk of injury is made possible with appropriate range of motion and strength in the shoulders. These are only two examples among many that convey the merits of training shoulder extension when it comes fitness goals. Even for those individuals who don’t desire more complex movements in their training, shoulder extension is essential for overall shoulder health and injury prevention and can be very easily trained. Don’t skip your shoulders, they will thank you.

The post Balance Your Upper Body by Training Shoulder Extension appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The handstand covers a lot of aspects of athleticism: strength, mobility, balance, stability, spatial awareness, flexibility, and more. Being able to successfully do a handstand transfers over to other skills (press handstands, planche, handstand walking, pirouettes). It also is a neat trick lots of people would love to have in their inventory. But, more importantly, being able to do a handstand is just a lot of fun to play around with.

The process of getting a handstand is a rough and long road, and dedication is key. Those that want instant gratification at the cost of never truly mastering a skill or trait need read no further. Those that understand the importance of small details, long-term dedication, commitment, and striving for high-quality movement, however, are the individuals who can achieve a handstand by recognizing that it must be worked for. When I see a “good” handstand, I know that a person has spent hours, days, years committing time to honing in this skill. It is respectable, impressive, and transfers over to learning new skills inside and outside of fitness. So, what does it take to achieve one?

The Role of Your Wrists and Shoulders

In the handstand, your wrists are going to support your body, so you must dedicate time to mobilize and strengthen them. This will not only prevent injury but will also allow you to perform the skill for any length of time. Check out my article on wrist strength and mobility for exercises and stretches to keep your wrist health in check.

Your shoulders must have a sufficient range of motion and strength to achieve the proper lines for a handstand. For the flexibility/mobility aspect, I would suggest developing the bridge. The bridge, when done correctly, will start to open up your shoulders and thoracic spine to allow you to place your arms overhead while simultaneously stacking your body with straight arms. Many times, low back arching in a handstand is due to poor shoulder flexibility.

A good starting point for shoulder strength would be scapular push ups, for beginners, and handstand shrugs, for intermediate athletes.

For scapular push ups:

• Start in a plank position with straight arms and hips tucked under (posterior pelvic tilt).
• Let your chest drop while squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Pull your chest in and pushing your shoulder blades apart.

For handstand shrugs:

• Walk your feet up the wall so that your chest is facing the wall.
• From this position, let your shoulders sink into your body creating more space between your shoulders and head.
• Push through your hands and driving your shoulders away from your body, closing the space between your shoulders and ears.

The Role of Your Core

Your core must be rock solid in a handstand. Think of it as trying to balance a straight, firm dowel on your hand or balancing a pool noodle on your hand. You will have a much easier time finding balance with the rigid object. The same goes for your handstand. The hollow body position is what we are working to achieve in the handstand.

I suggest developing your straight body hollow position holds on the floor so that you can easily hold a hollow body position for one minute. When performing the hollow position, be sure that your low back stays flat and your hips stay tucked (posterior pelvic tilt). You can find hollow body strength progressions here.

The Keys to Proper Positioning

Handstand balance means maintaining your center of gravity directly above and in line with the base formed by your hands. This takes a lot of time and practice to develop. I suggest starting out low to the ground to develop this understanding.

Frog stands are a great starting point. It not only develops a lot of strength but your center of gravity is lower to the ground making balance much easier.

• Starting in a gymnastics squat (squat all the way down so that your hamstrings sit on your calves with your weight in the balls of your feet and your heels are off of the ground), place your hands on the floor in front of you and your knees up against your triceps (just above the elbows).
• From this position, start to bend your arms letting your shoulders move forward until your weight (center of gravity) shifts over your hands enough so that your feet begin to leave the ground. You will now be in a bent-arm tucked handstand position.
• Practice holding this until you can easily perform a 30 to 60 second hold.

Hand Position: Your hands should be about shoulder width apart and your fingers splayed. You want to create as much surface area as possible with your hands. So, open up those fingers!

Head Position: Your head position should be as neutral as possible while still looking towards the floor. This can be challenging for many to figure out. A common cue I use is to have the athlete look towards their thumbs with their eyes. This will bring the athletes focus towards the floor without a large effect on their body lines. Head position is the last thing I correct when teaching a handstand to a beginner. When they become more comfortable being upside down, making small adjustments becomes easier.

No matter your approach to working on handstand balance, keep these things in mind:

• Proper strength and mobility prep are necessary for mastery. Don’t take the fast track to a mediocre outcome.
• Skill work takes repetition. By this, I don’t mean you have to do 100 reps or 2 hours of training in a session. This means the more often you train it, the faster you will get better at the skill. It is also preferred to do 10 minutes of skill training every day rather than 2 hours of skill training 1-2 days a week.
• The slowest and least consistent approach to a handstand (or any skill) is to just start throwing it. Understand the layers upon layers of work that the experts use to get to where they are, and take the same approach. Their mastery is based on time, repetition, and persistence with proper progressions and technique. If you take the same approach, you will have similar results.

To check out my step-by-step progressions to achieve a proper handstand click here for my Handstand Strength workout plan.

The post Develop Your Handstand: The Importance of Progression appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The TimTam Massager is unlike any other massager I have used as far as effectiveness within a short time frame. I believe it has to do with the high power pulsing speed that helps relieve  tension in seconds. This was by far the most popular TimTam product my athletes tried.

Additional TimTam Options: The Pulse and the Roller

The TimTam Pulse is this company’s version of a TENS unit (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation). Outside of the known benefits of using a TENS unit, this product was particularly appealing to my athletes and myself. Some features of the Pulse are:

• It is wireless and is fast to apply—no cords to get tangled.
• It is a single stick on pad making it easy to apply to yourself without the aid of someone else.
• It runs via an app on your smartphone making it convenient since most of us have our phones accessible at all times.

The Pulse app is extremely user-friendly (even for the tech-challenged people like myself).

Once synced up, you choose between six different pulse types, which muscle groups you want to treat, and intensity level options (1-10). Then all you do is set an in-app timer, sit back, and let it do the work. I find myself using this TENS much more than other units I have used in the past mainly because it is easy and fast to set up, and I can do it all on my own.

The TimTam Vibrating Foam Roller is exactly what it sounds like. It is a foam roller with four different vibration settings. My athletes primarily used this on their lower body prior to training and found that it provides a combination of tissue work while warming up the muscles through the vibrations of the roller. They also reported that it felt more effective than the average foam roller due to the increased blood flow caused by the vibrations.

Product Ratings

My ratings were generated by the average score based on feedback from 25-35 athletes that used the products for 30-45 days (1 = poor, 10 = excellent).

TimTam Massager ($399)

• Popularity/Usage – 10
• Effectiveness – 8.5
• Ease of Use – 9

Pulse (TENS) ($199)

• Popularity/Usage – 8
• Effectiveness – 8
• Ease of Use – 8

Vibrating Roller ($149)

• Popularity/Usage – 6
• Effectiveness – 6
• Ease of Use – 9

The post Massage Your Way to Better Mobility and Recovery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Pull Up

For a muscle up, you obviously need to be able to pull up (and pull up high enough) to eventually transition into a dip. The proper progressions toward your pull up is where many struggle. You must first have a foundation of rowing exercises before pulling from overhead. This builds the strength needed to pull your elbows behind your body during the transition phase of a muscle up.

• My prerequisite for muscle ups is five strict chest-to-bar pull ups.

The Dip

Next is the dip. Again, you’ll need to be able to press yourself up out of the bent arm support position after the transition. It’s important to also ensure you are training your dips with a full range of motion. You shouldn’t have a distance “standard” to your dips. What I mean by that is, you should go as low as you can in your dip. This is because when you perform a muscle up, you will transition into the lowest dip that your mobility will allow, and you will need to be prepared for this.

• My prerequisite for muscle ups is five ring dips with a pause at the bottom position.

The Grip

You must develop the proper grip necessary to transition from pulling to pushing. Setting the proper hand position to facilitate this transition can make-or-break a muscle up. The false grip is what you need to strive for. In this grip, you will have your wrists set on top of the rings supporting yourself with your forearms and the inside bends of your wrists. This position prevents you from being blocked by the range of motion in your wrists.

• My prerequisite for muscle ups is five false grip chest-to-ring pull ups.

The Transition

This is where many have a disconnect in the muscle up. It is not just a pull or a push, it is a combination of both. You must understand how to maintain downward pressure on the rings during the entire movement. If there is a break between the two, then you lose all momentum and won’t be able to execute the transition properly, or at all.

When you get to the point of working transitions you will understand why we shoot for such a large range of motion in the pull ups and dips, along with the necessity for the false grip. For transition work, start at the bottom of a dip with your feet in front of your body either on the ground or on a box (to make it more challenging). From this position slowly lower yourself backwards into the top of a ring row position without letting the rings separate from your chest. Then pull yourself back into the bottom of the dip.

• My prerequisite for muscle ups is five feet-elevated transitions.

Putting It Together

You have developed the pull, push, grip, and transition—now it’s time to string them together. Start by performing the muscle up backwards. Can you begin from a support position (top of the dip) and slowly lower yourself through the dip, transition, and false grip down into a hanging position? If you can do this consistently for five reps, lowering yourself for 10 seconds on each rep, then you have met all of my requirements to attempt a muscle up. Now, go get it.

This will take time, but I promise you that if you take the time to develop each area of the skill, you will get a muscle up and will maintain it for as long as you train it. The great thing about building a skill like the muscle up and other more complex strength exercises, is that your proficiency will trickle down to less complex exercises. You won’t have to dedicate a bunch of time to dips and pull ups if you can do a muscle up. You have now cut your work in half. The more complex you get, the less time you have to commit to strength training, giving yourself more time to learn new skills.

The post Dissecting Muscle Up Mastery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Evaluate Your Mobility

Let’s first test out some positions to see if you have the strength and mobility to attempt a pistol squat.

Test 1 – Seated Leg Raise: Take a seat on the floor in a pike position (legs together and straight out in front of you). From here, place your fingertips on the ground just past your knees and attempt to lift your feet up off the ground. If you are unable to do this, then you will struggle to keep your non-squatting leg up while performing the pistol squat.

Test 2 – Static Pistol: Lower yourself to the bottom of a squat on both legs, feet flat on the ground, and shift your weight completely to one leg. From here, extend your other leg straight out in front of you so that you are in the bottom position of the pistol squat. If you fall over, you are lacking the mobility and/or the stability necessary for the pistol squat.

Test 3 – Pistol Negative: Stand on one leg with your other leg extended out in front of your body. Slowly lower down to the bottom position of the pistol. You should be able to lower yourself for a 10 second count without accelerating (falling) at any point. If you are unable to control the entire descent then you are lacking the strength to perform the pistol squat.

Were you able to perform all of those skills? If so give a pistol a try. If not, here are some tips to start working towards developing your pistol squat.

Progression 1: Shrimp Squats

Let’s start with a different variation of single leg squatting, the shrimp squat. In the shrimp squat, you will start by standing on one leg with your non-supporting leg bent back (heel towards your butt). From this position, you will slowly lower yourself towards the floor until your non-supporting leg’s knee makes light contact with the floor. Once it does, stand back up. Your squatting foot should remain flat on the floor the entire time, maintaining three points of contact: heel, big toe, and small toe.

Progression 2: Pistol Holds and Leg Raises

A pistol hold plus leg raise works on both the stability and mobility of the bottom position of the pistol, as well as the flexing strength at the hip needed for you to hold a leg up high enough to perform a pistol on the ground.

Start by standing on a box about 24-30 inches high and hang one foot off the side of the box. From this position, descend into the squat, letting the other leg hang straight. If you are unable to get into the bottom position (hamstring resting on calf) then use a counterbalance (hold a 5-15 pound weight in front of your body) to assist. Once in the bottom position, perform 10 leg raises with the leg that is hanging off off the box. Your leg should stay straight and progressively lift above the height of the box.

Progression 3: Pistol Negatives

Time to build strength through the full range of motion. Begin by standing on one foot with your other leg extended straight out in front of your body. Slowly lower yourself to the bottom position of the pistol squat. You should be able to take 10 seconds to lower yourself to the bottom, spreading that time out over the entire movement. Don’t go down ¼ of the way for 8 seconds and the remaining ¾ of the way in 2 seconds.

Also, be aware of the “dropping point.” This is the point where you feel yourself drop, as opposed to lowering with control. The place in your pistol squat that you feel this dropping begin to happen is the point at which you should fight the hardest to resist falling and really focus on maintaining a controlled deceleration of your squat. When you can easily perform 3-5 repetitions on each leg with a solid 10 second descent, then it is time to move on.

Progression 4: Rolling Pistols

Lastly, rolling pistols allows you some momentum to help you out of the bottom of a pistol squat while still taking yourself through the full range of motion. In this exercise, you will squat down with both feet, roll back onto your upper back, and then aggressively change directions rocking forwards back onto your feet. As you approach your feet, extend one leg straight out in front of you and bend the other leg back towards your glutes so that you end up rolling onto one foot (the position at this point is the bottom of the pistol squat). As your weight shifts onto that foot, drive through it to stand up out of the squat. This will start helping you out of the bottom position and take your knee and ankle through the full range of motion of a pistol. As you get stronger, attempt to rock less (less forward momentum) so that you have to work harder to stand up out of the bottom position.

Still Need Help Gaining Control and Strength

The pistol should be a goal for anyone looking to gain control and strength over their body. It is a great foundation for other skills and heavier loaded squats later on. A more in-depth breakdown of the pistol squat can be found in my Gymnastics Foundation Program along with upper body and core strength, mobility, and flexibility training. Go check it out!

The post The Pistol Squat: Develop Foundational Lower Body Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.