The Hollow-hold is personally one of my favorite abdominal and posterior chain training exercises. Still to this day many trainers and athletes have not heard or experienced this exercise. Are you familiar with the Hollow-hold?
Adding the Hollow-hold into your program will do more than just improve your gymnastics skills. The Hollow-hold will transfer into any activity as it improves midline stability and therefore core to extremity motor skills will improve dramatically , allowing for increased force production and the ability to move large loads long distances quickly.
Here is how it is done:
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Lay on your back (I wanted to write lay supine to make myself sound smarter).
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Focus on engaging the abdominal wall and approximate the ribcage and the pelvis, the spine will naturally but not excessively flex.
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At this point the lumbar spine should be flush against the ground with the neck and Thoracic spine elevated.
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Raise the arms and legs keeping the lumbar spine flat.
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Your biceps should be next to your ears with your elbows in full extension
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Wrists should be fully flexed as if your were holding a false grip position.
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The Gluteus should be engaged & assisting in the posterior pelvic tilt required to maintain a flat back position.
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Point & flex the toes while aggressively extending the knees & plantar flexing the ankle.
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Hold that fucker.
Fitting this into your program is simple. For general health and fitness, or increased sports performance I recommend adding this in 2 x week. Working up to 3 sets for 60 second holds and then adding in Hollow Rocks would yield the best results.
When adding this in be sure to perform equal amounts of superman’s to Hollow-holds. I will do a follow up post for the superman exercise as it pertains to complementing the Hollow Body exercises.
This exercise may be contraindicated for some people, especially those with lumbar disc pathologies. If you are not sure this exercise is best for your or you would like some assistance in learning it please reach out to us and we will give you a free 20-30 minute session and show you how to evaluate and applicate.
Namaste Peter