Interesting perspective. I would agree that hanging leg raise variations have the best strength carry over to both dynamic and static skills requiring a significant amount of core activation and trunk stability. However I think something that hasn't been addressed is the benefit the hollow body has in Developing motor control within the trunk, more specifically selective lumbo pelvic movement control while being able to actively control thoracic spine position. My personal opinion is there is a need to be able to develope proprioceptive awareness of selective spine and pelvis in both closed chain and open chain movements. The hanging position and ability to press down through chest in prone position can mean that by using fixing strategies you don't need to engage deep spinal extensor muscles to create stability in the thoracic spine when maintaining neutral lumbo.plevic alignment while moving limbs into position of your given exericse ( leg raise, planche, handstand). I agree that hollow body is not the most effective exercise for delivering the strength in postural stability muscles, required for maintaining trunk/spinal stability in many calesthenic and static gymnastic holds. However, I would argue that it is important in helping beginner to intermediate practitioners improve proprioceptive awareness of spinal alignment and selective movement control of the whole spine and pelvis in open chain. Often in pursuit of strength and endurance people forget about developing their proprioception.
I would say that quadruped work would tick most these boxes in a far more productive manner than the hollow body (think basic movement development in infants). Even some supine coordination work is a better application, the hollow body really doesn't have much transfer in my opinion.
@@BodyweightWarrior four point kneeling and foot and hand crawl positions are good for proprioception and bring shoulder positioning into coordination with spinal alignment . Your right they have more to offer from a dynamic and conditioning point of view. I think with regards to your other comment about not all athletes needing it, you have a strong point. However I still think it is good to have in the tool box for some lower level individuals who really struggle with reducing anterior pelvic tilt and developing internal feedback for proprioceptive awareness of midline lumbo pelvic alignment. It gives an individual a real strong physical response. The body shake and the feeling of dropping into ant tilt when losing tension in thoracic region, I find, is often more noticable to individuals than in some of the other closed chain postures we have discussed. I would agree that after you have developed the ability to hold it with various limb positions and to self correct on the full hold, it has probably served its purpose and can be discarded for more skill specific drills. Ill probably still keep it for beginners or intermediates who have developed some bad positioning habits. I think you've convinced me not to present it as a conditioning drill anymore simply a proprioceptive developmental drill.
It's so cool that everyone tells you something completely different, so you never know what really works best. One says, crunches are a waste of time, do hollow holds, next says, dont do hollow holds, it's a waste of time 🤷♂️ So just like always, you gotta start somewhere, figure out what Works best for you and your type of training goals. For me they are still a great excercise for my morning routine. They helped me development some basic strength in the core and improved my overall Fitness game 🙂
I don't understand the point of this video. You're saying there are better abs exercises, but the hollow body isn't an ab exercise. It's a way to train full body tension, muscle control, and coordination. Usually taught to beginners or used as part of a warm up before jumping into harder skills. It shouldn't really be used for strength training.
Your point is right, but hollow body can be a strong exercise itself cause it works the anti-extension pattern for the spine and pelvis. It can be very useful for front lever, as dragon flag. Dragon flag works anti-extension aswell and I am sure you know how dragon flag suits well for front lever. So they are both alignment and strengthen exercises
@@dojanglesclimb yes that's right. Let's say hollow body can be a progression for dragon flag. If my core control is weak, I should use the hollow body as strengthening exercise. That's what I meant
@@danieledimauro9561 that makes sense. Hollow body can be a starting exercise to progress from. I guess that's what Tom was saying? Or does he mean don't do it at all? Eh either way, do what works for you. We're all a little different.
Great video! Thanks, Tom. Coming from a gymnastics background, I agree with you that the hollow hold is relevant in gymnastics as we often move through this shape in dynamic skills. For body weight training (and handstands), it is probably not the best exercise however if one has built up some decent core strength already, it's worth still incorporating the hollow hold in core strength programs, in particular for dynamic exercise (e.g. hollow hold to slow bicycle crunches).
Tbh the hollow body hold has greatly helped me figue out how to properly engage the core. Making all my other ab exercises work better. Not everyone needs it to figure it out but it has served me and a couple of friends very well before ramping up to rollouts and L sits.
I think its important to have a solid hollow body - it's really useful to understand it and also the base to many other exercises involving movement. Once you have a solid hollow body I'd agree that there's no real use to regularly training a static hollow body. It is really good as a test though, I've worked with a few people who struggled to hold the lowest level of hollow body, its nice for them to go back and test after some work to find they can now start straightening their legs. I really wouldn't write it off, especially for beginners.
certainly can be good for beginners but for many, it will be covered in training (push ups for example cover a lot of the same "core" patterns or even quadruped work). Certainly, absolute beginners can be good for conditioning.
@@BodyweightWarrior personally, I struggle with keep my core engaged during pushup and my lower back start to hurt even before my arms or my chest start fatiguing. I've been working on hollow body regressions now and I hope to finally be able to bang out some proper pushups!
I see this from too many advanced people. They forget what it's like to be a beginner and need to start from super basics. If you struggle with core strength or need to learn how to tilt your pelvis it's going to be much easier to learn and practice while lying on the floor vs hanging from a bar.
I think it's great to be skeptical and can be very beneficial to question things that aren't often questioned. One thing I'm skeptical about within that however is the way to market your content on the topic: 'stop doing these'. Of course if you watch the video, you aren't saying STOP IT. But for the casual, that could be their take away. So when we discuss topics like this (Philip Chubb does same with warm ups), I think we should be careful not to demonize it in the way we market it otherwise we may end up contributing to the community taking a step back as opposed to forward. E.g. a community that looks down on any type of hollow body training as opposed to a community that considers the usefulness of hollow body position specific to their own or their clients situation.
100% I don't want to contribute to some toxic attitude or stigma to other types of training (there are after all many ways to skin this cat) but I have split feelings on this. Titles and thumbnails is what drives the discovery of videos. If you want to get information out there then there has to be an element of this but I like to think of it as being backed up by a relatively well-presented argument in the actual video. If people don't watch the video or don't seek to delve deeper then I can't help them. And on the note of hollow body, I don't think there is ever really a place for it unless your goal is to get really good at the hollow body. Whatever benefit it has, there is a better option out there or it is already covered in normal training practice but that's just my opinion. I think this drill has been perpetuated as the gold standard in bodyweight but simply only because others said so, not because it actually aids in training progress.
@@BodyweightWarrior I feel that a good compromise might be made using a good technique I've seen other youtuber's use - I guess you could call it "immediate re-contextualisation" if you wanted to be fancy. In the simplest form, you immediately undermine the clickbaity title and thumbnail at the start of a video, but in an interesting way that makes the viewer curious to see more and gain greater understanding. The more advanced version is anti-clickbait, where either the title or the thumbnail undermines the other, but in a way that raises even more tantalizing questions. The best example I can remember is by music theory youtuber Adam Neely, with a title "What is the Slowest Possible Music", and a thumbnail with the text "It's About 33BPM", which at once answers the question (negating the clickbait tension), yet raises a far more interesting one (WHY is it 33BPM?) in a way that would have been less effective if he hadn't done it that way.
@Tyson Edwards Tom Merrick, like any fitness youtuber, needs views. That's why Jeff Cavalier constantly makes videos like "so and so is KILLING your gains" etc. Hollow body is one option for beginners but it's certainly isn't a necessary exercise. For anyone whose serious about progressing it has no value long term.
Just to note, this video is not completely disregarding the hollow body. There are circumstances where it may be useful but for the majority of athletes it's not needed. Many of the benefits will be attained by simply doing the skills and drills where you want to make progress (aspect of body tension etc is prolific in most bodyweight drills). Do it or not, it's worth evaluating the things that actually have benefit vs those that don't in your training :)
Tom, I feel the most important aspect of the hollow hold is that it's accessible to people new body weight workouts. It allows them to build the strength need to do the leg raises and other more advanced drills. I find that most "newbees" can't hold it longer than 30 seconds. But at least they can work on it and build strength. In terms of handstands, I agree that gravity upsets everything! I don't know how many people I have drilled with hollow holds and when they handstand can't get the pelvic tilt at all! At the very least it's a great way to illustrate the muscles used to create the pelvic tilt and to minimize the back bending. Most folks understand that they are not tilting correctly.
I have seen other people say similar but your positivity is why I like your channel over other peoples. You even say yourself the hollow body is not wrong on the video but there are better options. I always recommend you to other people with aches and pains (so pretty much everyone over thirty) and you, along with others have helped me enormously over the last couple of years. Please don't become another tough guy bell-end saying what is wrong and it's my way or the high way. Keep doing what you do best, being positive and accepting that most of us will never get to a position where we are hand standing or doing muscle ups but just want to be a bit more flexible and a lot less in pain. Keep doing what you do best.
thats actually make sense , cause every time i do my handstand after hollow hold i cant feel that position in the air , im definettly going to try the revers hold thankx for the tip .
I *JUST* watched a video of you dedicating the hollow body movement for 15 minutes lol. The cumulative amount of exercises we're "meant" to be doing 3 to 4 times a week according to the fitness world, means I'd have to buy a gym, and then live in it.
DID I MISS SOMETHING?! you just pull of a casual front lever like its nothing, I didnt know you achieved it again, especially so easily by looks of it... thumbs up mate! PS: just finished the video, I think the hollow body hold is good for beginners working their core because you really feel your core while doing it, but for some kind of handstand work the "facing down hold" seems more practical. good explanation as always on your part!
It kinda stops beeing calisthenics exercise when you add weight, and even if that isnt bad at all, after you are able to hold pure holow body hold for solid amount of time(maybe 45-60s), moving to henging... anything raise is better becose it engage upper body muscles, which are SOO important in further calisthenics
You are really underselling the hollow body hold here. While it is indeed not the greatest ab exercise, it's a very complete one that can easily be made more difficult by simply using a bit of weight (either in the hands to fire those upper abs - which you didn't even mention - or on the feet, or both.) It's great to use in supersets as well or to do dropsets. You're wrong mate. As the first video of yours that I've watched, I must say I'm unimpressed.
We use this in gymnastics as a staple but the move evolves as the athlete improves. You progress into being able to do a hollow body hold and then you’ve laid the foundation to practice the incurve and outcurve shapes that a majority of all of your skills transition through. However gymnasts once they’ve mastered the hold for at least 30s start making it much harder and more sport specific. Hollow rockers, whip rockers, straight to hollow speed shape changes, hollow holds with flutters and scissors, hollow arch log rolls, hollow rock twist, hollow rock pivots..... you get the picture. I do agree with you though just holding for time after a while becomes a bit limited. Still has it’s uses for gymnasts but less so for the average joe. We still do leg raises dragon flags and v ups. However hollow is so important to the sport that gymnast use it initially to build ab strength but in the end it becomes more of a greasing then groove thing. Were you ever into gymnastics or just a calisthenics enthusiast?
You're fitness level is amazing! I've got a lot of things wrong with my spine and my lower abs is an area of my body that I struggle to strengthen. I'm going to do the exercises in the video and check out the videos that you've linked. Huge thanks for the video and hopefully there will be something that I can do that won't make my spinal conditions worse! Oh, and if you have any advice on how to relieve the pain of calcific tendinitis then I'd really appreciate it
i think the only thing i have to say about this video is that front levers do involve your shoulders muscles such as your posterior delts, but it mainly requires strength from your back like your lats & rhomboids, then arms strength such as your tris & forearms. but, since this video is in reference of the hollow body, super informative!
I find hollow body to be very useful for things like Back Lever, it also helped me just be in PPT by default instead of anterior tilt. It's def more challenging if you add dynamics to it, I do hollow shoulder raises with weights, rock back and forth, basically a good teacher on how to move your body while still maintaining solid core tension, I still think it's useful but def shouldn't be the only thing you do for core, like you mentioned Toes to bar, I'd add Dragon flies to that too. Cheers!
I don't think you should not eliminate planking from your exercises. The function of the core is to sustain the upper body. This exercise that you provide has a tensing period and a relaxation period. So you become good at exactly that, tensing your abs to lift your legs than releasing. While doing the hollow body or any form of plank you train your muscles sustaining and keeping the position. I'm not saying it's a bad exercise, I'm saying that they target different goals. For me I found that the best results were by doing front plank, side planks, back plank and hollow body to target the core all together.
Former gymnast and gymnastics coach: it’s def the best way to teach little ones how to squeeze their cores enough to try handstands! We would teach a basic handstand program with incurve (hollow body), outcurve (superhumans), the laying drill you showed, planks, etc. In addition to doing leg lifts for bars skills, and really anything to learn body awareness and condition the body. I guess adults are lucky to have more body awareness and we can choose what movements we want to work on - I feel validated because I rarely throw hollow bodies (“incurve”) in my workouts anymore 😋
You should do it in pull ups, push ups, dips, muscle ups and almost any gymnastic/calisthenic movements. So, it's important position, but mostly for beginners.
I think GymnasticBodies demonstrates this perception... It's considered a fundamental movement in the Foundations series (Progressions 1-6 out of about 25 of the Front Lever series are focused on developing the Hollow Body Hold and Hollow Body Rock). But once you've mastered the hold, you're moving on to things like body levers and actual front lever progressions - all the while still progressing the hollow body position, but now it's simply become a fundamental component of the movements you're now doing. In short: it's one of the basics used to make sure you're using your body correctly. For me personally, I've had issues with excessive APT, gluteal amnesia and poor lower abdominal engagement for most of my life, and I'm finding the hollow body progressions very useful in isolating and targeting the glutes and lower abs, and getting them to work the way they should. However this is in conjunction with everything else I do that requires a hollow body position or engaged glutes + lower abs - including handstand work. It's not just hollow body holds on their own, that's just one little component. And the GymnasticBodies Foundations series has hanging leg lifts in the Manna stream of exercises - so you're working them in conjunction with the Front Lever progressions. So Front Lever progressions focus on a straight bodyline, Manna progressions focus on core compression and pike flexibility (to greatly simplify the goals of the exercises)
You can pick apart ANY exercise and pick a "better" option but hanging leg raises require a bar which most don't have access to all the time. It also requires grip strength which some people are limited by. Is it a perfect exercise, no, but is it never worth doing versus something else, certainly not (in my opinion).
As someone who struggles with the hollow body hold I disagree. If you cant activate your deep ab muscles then hollow body hold is a great way to begin. I think the exercises you provided are great to do once you've mastered the hollow body hold
So what if I have no interest in doing front lever or hand stand push up, nor have the hip and hamstring flexibility to do hanging leg raises, but just want to strength my core?
Why not just do both? You can scale the Hollow Body Hold as well. Put on ankle and wrist weights and a whole new level of difficulty is unlocked😊 still a great video! Love the critical thinking💪🏻
just starting out, I just didn't have the shoulder strength to get much out of hanging leg raises since I couldn't hang and maintain good form, so I feel hollow body holds were a valuable fallback. now I can just use the position while doing other things like at the top of ring dips, so I don't do them as a dedicated exercise as much anymore. That said, you can progress the exercise by rocking back and forth while holding the hollow body, which for me at least is much harder. Thank you for these other exercises though, I'm sure I'll start incorporating them!
Wow!! Thanks for sharing!! Been doing HB a lot to better the handstand, but it doesn`t feel the same at all, when upside down! So this is really nice to hear you say :-D Keep up the good work
I'm there with you. I used to do the hollow body as part of the Reddit Recommended Routine but stopped doing them a long time ago. Granted, I'm not that strong yet abdominally, but I feel much more activation and progress doing slow and controlled bicycles crunches, hanging leg raises, dynamic plank variations, ab wheel rollouts, etc.
I have one question for the hanging leg raise: Do you pull your scapula into Depression/retraction when performing this move? Or do you stay in the passive hang? Or do you mix both variations usually? Keep up the good work! 😊
i like all 3: hollow body, and the 2 that you give here. do all 3 and it'll rock your core! (are all these, and more goodies like this for other areas, like the rotators, periformis, adductors, etc in one of your programs? sorta a "correct the body" daily vitamin sort of thing?
3y later & I'm seeing the hollow body blow up in popularity. Bioneer just posted a video 8 months ago about how it's possibly the best core exercise you can do, fitnessFAQs & Saturno Movement post about it, as do Strength Side & countless others. Just checking in on your thoughts on this exercise - do you still think the same way about it as you do in this video? I know everyone has their favorites, but any recap? Thanks!
In the same way that leg raises could work better than hollow body if you think in the opposite way you might find useful lower back extension (or raises). It is the same concept: when for hollow body you are raising your legs, for arch body you are raising your upper body. You can even start in the floor doing "arch raisings" or "dynamic arch body " in Spain we call them "butterflies", then move to inclined lower back extension with a lower back extension machine, then move to a horizontal lower back extension with a horizontal back extension machine or with a partner holding your legs and then you can also add weights. Here, there is an alternative for the case you do not have a partner or a lower back extension machine. ua-cam.com/video/ZlY9Y_nQ2V8/v-deo.html
@@SaifulIslam-wr8vj You are very welcome! Here I send you more ideas: like straps for stall bars. (I would say to do not go too far on the top part of the exercise, when arching, in order to avoid too much compresion on your spinal disc). ua-cam.com/video/eHCwwceKvFY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/MVuruSIepi4/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/ixr4_1POpzg/v-deo.html
michal urbanik says the opposite, espacially about wich exercice helps more for front lever, and since he has world record in front lever I think I am going to trust him
I'm not an expert on Calisthenics and sports science/physiology, but I still can mention my opinion about it: While he has good points mostly IMO, it comes pretty much down to context and goals. The hollow body hold simulates the core demands in a front lever hold way better, because of gravity's direction and the position in general replicates the front lever holds positon. The only lack is as mentioned the back muscle component and the grip strength/endurance of course. Hanging leg raises (HLR) are dynamic and have therefore not the anti extension effect of hollow body hold training, assuming the carryovre is direct. I also think it's more challanging to maintain a posterior oelvic tilt (PPT) during HLR. HLR could therefore theoritically be more hip flexor dominat. Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion! I'm not an expert and open for being thaught better. Thought I'd share y opinion on this, as it's an interesting video. Anyway - great video. Edit: forgot to mention - hollow body holds are usually callanging enough to be started at the fist (tuck) progression, I guess. While hollow body holds have progression potential with resistand bands, external weight or movement, anckle weights are more limited in it's maximum scalability (I hope that word means what I think it does), and hollow body hold actually make the core work against more reistance, while HLR progression at one point only offer increases of TuT, to my knowledge at least.
one of my fav vids of yours! thanks so much for this information! love these 2 exercises for building deep core strength. minute 8:04...i 100% see the usefulness of this against the wall...but man o man it kinda made me chuckle...looks like your trying to press ur willy thru a hole in the wall :)
Legs raises with arched lower back, good job ... For sure hollow body position is not enough to progress with your core, it's not by doing reps that it will also. Your core is meant to get your body hard like a stick an handle every outside strong perturbation. Then get a position where you use your core and bring perturbations to it. Dragon flag is the perfect example, no need for reps (except reps of perturbation).
The most activated muscle in the hanging leg raise is the psoas, and that is not quite what you are hiting in the hollow body In my opinion, there is not a possible comparison bettween both because they don't work the same muscles primarily
The problem with leg raises is your arms or grip most likely exhaust prior to your abs!!! Better off doing hollow body, sliding tucks or gymnastic tucks-
Maybe it's more beneficial for us rookies? To establish that good core level strength for more complicated exercises. I guess once you're past that beginner level the hollow hold doesn't offer much.
I'm by no means an elite athlete but on your straight legs, if you want to focus on the lower abdominal region, shouldn't you relax that part at the bottom of the rep instead of leaving the bottom half of the raise in the form of an L sit that forces lordosis ?
Yeah that's an issue I have when doing toes to bar. I can only do 2-3 reps and it frustrates me because my core doesn't feel worked at all. I consider myself to have decent core strength but when I do toes to bar my legs just stop agreeing to go up way before my core has really been hit much at all. So I'm pretty sure I'm relying on the hip flexors and wanna stop doing that
I find doing floor exercises make it easier to isolate the lower abs (ta). I hold a medicine ball with my inner ankles and move my straightened legs up and down. Maybe someday I’ll do leg raises with sufficient strength.
you don't want to not use the hip flexors. With the motion of hip flexion it is done with the coordination of both lower abs and hip flexor group. Most people do not recruit the former as much :)
Isn’t the hanging leg lifts a pulling movement compared to handstand which is pushing movement? Leg lifts will help in core but hollow body improves the balance and strength needed for handstand. I came across your video before and tried doing this but they aren’t of much help. After joining Coachbachmann I realised how important are basics and hollow body and improved drastically in a month.
I agreed with you, don't waste time in hollowbody at least if you can execute it well. If you can't hollow body position maybe it's time to rethink your actual ability level
I always thought for calisthenics I need to do hollow body holds (but only did them rarely because of laziness and because they are boring^^). Now I can concentrate on more effective exercises like hanging leg raises. Dominik Sky also said that's the best exercise for core strength.
Why is progressing hollow body by adding weights not the best? I thought this was one of the strongest arguments in favor of the hollow body hold, but somehow this video notes it as an argument against it. If you can hold for more than, say 20 seconds, add a 5 lb plate and continue training until you can hold the 5 lb plate for over 20 seconds. Add another plate, and so on. As long as you keep the hold time consistent, you can add weight to progress exactly as you would with a squat, deadlift, or press. Naturally, you can do this with the leg raise as well, but the leg raise requires something to hang from, so the hollow hold is more accessible to more people.
8:26 and 8:31 by the look on your face during your hold it sure looks tougher on you then the HLR. I like both so think I'll stick to keeping with it personally.
Tom i appreciate your content but this time i can't agree with you totally. You're basically saying hollow body doesn't fit totally for handstand, and that's right partially because of... yes.. it is obvious! Hollow body is an exercise to improve alignment and full body tension. Plus, if i have not misunderstood, you said the hollow body doesn't fit for front lever. Well that's very very wrong cause the hollow body is an anti-extension exercise, and you wanna improve it for the front lever. Leg raise is not. Plus, rectus abdominis (all the rectus abdominis and not a portion) doesn't raise your legs, it make pelvic retroversion happens, it is different.
My point is that it’s not really good at improving any of them. If you want to get better handstand alignment then do a handstand relevant drill. To build core strength for the front lever, do a front lever. Core in 90% of people is not the weak element in the chain, just my experience coaching :)
@@BodyweightWarrior I see your point for the handstand and I agree with that as I said, but the hollow body is an anti-extension movement, as the front lever is, as the dragon flag is, and it is the anti-extension pattern one want to improve. That's what I meant say
Hello Brother😃😁 Sorry Do you have a calisthenic workout for the side shoulder, posterior or back shoulder and upper, middle, lower trapezius, thoracic and lower back forearm, wrist and rotator cuff and how to neck exercise?🤔
There are some other notable calisthenics athletes who encourage the hollow body hold to have better core to be able to do front lever and dragon flags. I don't know which is true now. But I have noticed better core strength from hollow body.
I've seen hollow body advertised as a good exercise for people trying to get their first pull up, as a way of teaching the correct posture as well as strenghtening the muscles. Do you think there's anything to say for that or would you recommend alternatives there as well?
Hanging leg raise (toes to bar) should most definitely be performed with proper form which includes head neutral, don't shoot your neck forward as well as body position aligned straight when lifting legs up. It's definitely cheating when your back is moving backwards as the legs are coming up. This is highly emphasized in gymnastics training and can be worked towards by using/hanging from a climbing ladder (back on the ladder). Hollow body should be a staple for every single athlete as it actually teaches the right mechanics on horizontal position. Same thing applies to hollow body hang. It's the same application but on a vertical position. I don't understand the point of this video when comparing a horizontal hollow body to vertical movement. They don't belong to the same category when talking about the core stability vs. movement direction. This is physics and human beings move in 360 direction x 3 (frontal/backward planes, moving to the sides and rotating 360 sideways). You must apply hollow body to all planes in order to get a very stable core foundation i.e. Log rolls, horizontal hollow body holds/rocking frontal and sides as well as hanging hollow body holds, twists and rotations. My two cents on this approach to calisthenics basics to master the core and it's foundation for energy transfer and stabilization. 🙏
Hi Tom, thanks for saying this. There is a culture of sit-ups, crunches and "press your lower back into the mat" out there that is damaging to the spine in the long term. I do Stuart McGill's Big 3 (bird dog, curl up, side plank) as part of my lower back prehab and avoid exercises flex and compress the lumbar spine. Hanging knee-ups and toes to the bar are effective and easy to progress / regress.
Perhaps a better title for the video could be “moving beyond the hollow body hold”
I like that title, definitely a reflection of the message I was trying to get across
not as controversial
Wouldnt get as many views
@@hicksylifts he would get more subs though
You're like 80% more british now with that proper 'stache
Interesting perspective.
I would agree that hanging leg raise variations have the best strength carry over to both dynamic and static skills requiring a significant amount of core activation and trunk stability.
However I think something that hasn't been addressed is the benefit the hollow body has in Developing motor control within the trunk, more specifically selective lumbo pelvic movement control while being able to actively control thoracic spine position.
My personal opinion is there is a need to be able to develope proprioceptive awareness of selective spine and pelvis in both closed chain and open chain movements. The hanging position and ability to press down through chest in prone position can mean that by using fixing strategies you don't need to engage deep spinal extensor muscles to create stability in the thoracic spine when maintaining neutral lumbo.plevic alignment while moving limbs into position of your given exericse ( leg raise, planche, handstand). I agree that hollow body is not the most effective exercise for delivering the strength in postural stability muscles, required for maintaining trunk/spinal stability in many calesthenic and static gymnastic holds. However, I would argue that it is important in helping beginner to intermediate practitioners improve proprioceptive awareness of spinal alignment and selective movement control of the whole spine and pelvis in open chain.
Often in pursuit of strength and endurance people forget about developing their proprioception.
I would say that quadruped work would tick most these boxes in a far more productive manner than the hollow body (think basic movement development in infants). Even some supine coordination work is a better application, the hollow body really doesn't have much transfer in my opinion.
@@BodyweightWarrior four point kneeling and foot and hand crawl positions are good for proprioception and bring shoulder positioning into coordination with spinal alignment . Your right they have more to offer from a dynamic and conditioning point of view.
I think with regards to your other comment about not all athletes needing it, you have a strong point. However I still think it is good to have in the tool box for some lower level individuals who really struggle with reducing anterior pelvic tilt and developing internal feedback for proprioceptive awareness of midline lumbo pelvic alignment. It gives an individual a real strong physical response. The body shake and the feeling of dropping into ant tilt when losing tension in thoracic region, I find, is often more noticable to individuals than in some of the other closed chain postures we have discussed.
I would agree that after you have developed the ability to hold it with various limb positions and to self correct on the full hold, it has probably served its purpose and can be discarded for more skill specific drills. Ill probably still keep it for beginners or intermediates who have developed some bad positioning habits. I think you've convinced me not to present it as a conditioning drill anymore simply a proprioceptive developmental drill.
Bravo to the both of you for having an actual constructive conversation, giving other viewers a chance to reflect on this issue. Thank you 🙏
It's so cool that everyone tells you something completely different, so you never know what really works best.
One says, crunches are a waste of time, do hollow holds, next says, dont do hollow holds, it's a waste of time 🤷♂️
So just like always, you gotta start somewhere, figure out what Works best for you and your type of training goals.
For me they are still a great excercise for my morning routine.
They helped me development some basic strength in the core and improved my overall Fitness game 🙂
Yeah same for me…they did helped me alot and still do them
Only core exercises i perform:
• Dragonflag
• Hanging Full Leg Raise
• Upside Down Deadlift
• Advanced Superman Plank(Arms •Fully Extended Forward)
"let's jump right into it, but before we do..."
I don't understand the point of this video. You're saying there are better abs exercises, but the hollow body isn't an ab exercise. It's a way to train full body tension, muscle control, and coordination. Usually taught to beginners or used as part of a warm up before jumping into harder skills. It shouldn't really be used for strength training.
Your point is right, but hollow body can be a strong exercise itself cause it works the anti-extension pattern for the spine and pelvis. It can be very useful for front lever, as dragon flag. Dragon flag works anti-extension aswell and I am sure you know how dragon flag suits well for front lever. So they are both alignment and strengthen exercises
@@danieledimauro9561 I suppose. Dragon flag is certainly much more difficult and abdominal intensive.
@@dojanglesclimb yes that's right. Let's say hollow body can be a progression for dragon flag. If my core control is weak, I should use the hollow body as strengthening exercise. That's what I meant
@@danieledimauro9561 that makes sense. Hollow body can be a starting exercise to progress from. I guess that's what Tom was saying? Or does he mean don't do it at all? Eh either way, do what works for you. We're all a little different.
@Arsenal Coffee Co. good point. Do what works for you. Making the hollow body more dynamic is a great way to add difficulty and progress strength.
Great video! Thanks, Tom. Coming from a gymnastics background, I agree with you that the hollow hold is relevant in gymnastics as we often move through this shape in dynamic skills. For body weight training (and handstands), it is probably not the best exercise however if one has built up some decent core strength already, it's worth still incorporating the hollow hold in core strength programs, in particular for dynamic exercise (e.g. hollow hold to slow bicycle crunches).
Tbh the hollow body hold has greatly helped me figue out how to properly engage the core. Making all my other ab exercises work better.
Not everyone needs it to figure it out but it has served me and a couple of friends very well before ramping up to rollouts and L sits.
I think its important to have a solid hollow body - it's really useful to understand it and also the base to many other exercises involving movement. Once you have a solid hollow body I'd agree that there's no real use to regularly training a static hollow body.
It is really good as a test though, I've worked with a few people who struggled to hold the lowest level of hollow body, its nice for them to go back and test after some work to find they can now start straightening their legs. I really wouldn't write it off, especially for beginners.
certainly can be good for beginners but for many, it will be covered in training (push ups for example cover a lot of the same "core" patterns or even quadruped work). Certainly, absolute beginners can be good for conditioning.
@@BodyweightWarrior personally, I struggle with keep my core engaged during pushup and my lower back start to hurt even before my arms or my chest start fatiguing. I've been working on hollow body regressions now and I hope to finally be able to bang out some proper pushups!
I see this from too many advanced people. They forget what it's like to be a beginner and need to start from super basics. If you struggle with core strength or need to learn how to tilt your pelvis it's going to be much easier to learn and practice while lying on the floor vs hanging from a bar.
Doing hollow bodies helped me get the planche lean form down.
I think it's great to be skeptical and can be very beneficial to question things that aren't often questioned. One thing I'm skeptical about within that however is the way to market your content on the topic: 'stop doing these'. Of course if you watch the video, you aren't saying STOP IT. But for the casual, that could be their take away. So when we discuss topics like this (Philip Chubb does same with warm ups), I think we should be careful not to demonize it in the way we market it otherwise we may end up contributing to the community taking a step back as opposed to forward. E.g. a community that looks down on any type of hollow body training as opposed to a community that considers the usefulness of hollow body position specific to their own or their clients situation.
If you are making drastic changes to your training based on video titles without watching the video that’s on the individual not the content creator
100% I don't want to contribute to some toxic attitude or stigma to other types of training (there are after all many ways to skin this cat) but I have split feelings on this. Titles and thumbnails is what drives the discovery of videos. If you want to get information out there then there has to be an element of this but I like to think of it as being backed up by a relatively well-presented argument in the actual video. If people don't watch the video or don't seek to delve deeper then I can't help them. And on the note of hollow body, I don't think there is ever really a place for it unless your goal is to get really good at the hollow body. Whatever benefit it has, there is a better option out there or it is already covered in normal training practice but that's just my opinion. I think this drill has been perpetuated as the gold standard in bodyweight but simply only because others said so, not because it actually aids in training progress.
@@BodyweightWarrior I feel that a good compromise might be made using a good technique I've seen other youtuber's use - I guess you could call it "immediate re-contextualisation" if you wanted to be fancy. In the simplest form, you immediately undermine the clickbaity title and thumbnail at the start of a video, but in an interesting way that makes the viewer curious to see more and gain greater understanding. The more advanced version is anti-clickbait, where either the title or the thumbnail undermines the other, but in a way that raises even more tantalizing questions. The best example I can remember is by music theory youtuber Adam Neely, with a title "What is the Slowest Possible Music", and a thumbnail with the text "It's About 33BPM", which at once answers the question (negating the clickbait tension), yet raises a far more interesting one (WHY is it 33BPM?) in a way that would have been less effective if he hadn't done it that way.
@Tyson Edwards Tom Merrick, like any fitness youtuber, needs views. That's why Jeff Cavalier constantly makes videos like "so and so is KILLING your gains" etc.
Hollow body is one option for beginners but it's certainly isn't a necessary exercise. For anyone whose serious about progressing it has no value long term.
Very informative. When in rehab for elbows/shoulders, I've found the hollow body a good exercise that minimises loads/stress in those areas.
Just to note, this video is not completely disregarding the hollow body. There are circumstances where it may be useful but for the majority of athletes it's not needed. Many of the benefits will be attained by simply doing the skills and drills where you want to make progress (aspect of body tension etc is prolific in most bodyweight drills). Do it or not, it's worth evaluating the things that actually have benefit vs those that don't in your training :)
You should change this excercise in the Bodyweight Warrior eBook!
Do you mean “in the majority of athletes it’s NOT needed”?
@@cameronmiller6240 yes my bad
Tom, I feel the most important aspect of the hollow hold is that it's accessible to people new body weight workouts. It allows them to build the strength need to do the leg raises and other more advanced drills. I find that most "newbees" can't hold it longer than 30 seconds. But at least they can work on it and build strength.
In terms of handstands, I agree that gravity upsets everything! I don't know how many people I have drilled with hollow holds and when they handstand can't get the pelvic tilt at all!
At the very least it's a great way to illustrate the muscles used to create the pelvic tilt and to minimize the back bending. Most folks understand that they are not tilting correctly.
I've never seen beginner who could hold hollow body position. If you think it's good exercise for someone new meaby you do this wrong
Piotrek Lesiński
Maybe.
I'm pretty bad at core... 30sec is strong for me in that position ahah how many seconds can you hold in this position?
That’s your opinion.
I have seen other people say similar but your positivity is why I like your channel over other peoples. You even say yourself the hollow body is not wrong on the video but there are better options.
I always recommend you to other people with aches and pains (so pretty much everyone over thirty) and you, along with others have helped me enormously over the last couple of years.
Please don't become another tough guy bell-end saying what is wrong and it's my way or the high way. Keep doing what you do best, being positive and accepting that most of us will never get to a position where we are hand standing or doing muscle ups but just want to be a bit more flexible and a lot less in pain.
Keep doing what you do best.
thats actually make sense , cause every time i do my handstand after hollow hold i cant feel that position in the air , im definettly going to try the revers hold thankx for the tip .
I find the hollow body as a great help as an accessory exercise for planche, handstands, and dragon flag.
I *JUST* watched a video of you dedicating the hollow body movement for 15 minutes lol.
The cumulative amount of exercises we're "meant" to be doing 3 to 4 times a week according to the fitness world, means I'd have to buy a gym, and then live in it.
Have you talked to Daniel about this, Fitness FAQs always seem to be loving on the hollow body?
He's gotta make videos I guess
Opinions differ but i love the hollow body hold as well so i disagree with Tom
I used the hollow body or rather the dynamic form where you raise and lower your legs as a first step towards the dragonflag.
Very interesting perspective, I like the way your opinion is backed by rational thinking that makes sense :) thank you
DID I MISS SOMETHING?! you just pull of a casual front lever like its nothing, I didnt know you achieved it again, especially so easily by looks of it... thumbs up mate!
PS: just finished the video, I think the hollow body hold is good for beginners working their core because you really feel your core while doing it, but for some kind of handstand work the "facing down hold" seems more practical. good explanation as always on your part!
It's always been there or there abouts ;) Think we're on the same page there
I totally agree but its the best alternative if you don't have access to a hanging bar
I'm confused: you blew off adding weight to the hollow body by simply saying "I don't think it's the best". Why isn't adding weight a viable option?
It kinda stops beeing calisthenics exercise when you add weight, and even if that isnt bad at all, after you are able to hold pure holow body hold for solid amount of time(maybe 45-60s), moving to henging... anything raise is better becose it engage upper body muscles, which are SOO important in further calisthenics
You are really underselling the hollow body hold here. While it is indeed not the greatest ab exercise, it's a very complete one that can easily be made more difficult by simply using a bit of weight (either in the hands to fire those upper abs - which you didn't even mention - or on the feet, or both.) It's great to use in supersets as well or to do dropsets. You're wrong mate. As the first video of yours that I've watched, I must say I'm unimpressed.
We use this in gymnastics as a staple but the move evolves as the athlete improves. You progress into being able to do a hollow body hold and then you’ve laid the foundation to practice the incurve and outcurve shapes that a majority of all of your skills transition through.
However gymnasts once they’ve mastered the hold for at least 30s start making it much harder and more sport specific. Hollow rockers, whip rockers, straight to hollow speed shape changes, hollow holds with flutters and scissors, hollow arch log rolls, hollow rock twist, hollow rock pivots..... you get the picture. I do agree with you though just holding for time after a while becomes a bit limited. Still has it’s uses for gymnasts but less so for the average joe.
We still do leg raises dragon flags and v ups. However hollow is so important to the sport that gymnast use it initially to build ab strength but in the end it becomes more of a greasing then groove thing.
Were you ever into gymnastics or just a calisthenics enthusiast?
This is an interesting opinion. I hope FitnessFAQs gives his input, since I respect you both in the field of Calisthenics.
Daniel is amazing.
His, older, posture video literally fixed an L5 slipped disc.
You're fitness level is amazing! I've got a lot of things wrong with my spine and my lower abs is an area of my body that I struggle to strengthen. I'm going to do the exercises in the video and check out the videos that you've linked. Huge thanks for the video and hopefully there will be something that I can do that won't make my spinal conditions worse! Oh, and if you have any advice on how to relieve the pain of calcific tendinitis then I'd really appreciate it
i think the only thing i have to say about this video is that front levers do involve your shoulders muscles such as your posterior delts, but it mainly requires strength from your back like your lats & rhomboids, then arms strength such as your tris & forearms. but, since this video is in reference of the hollow body, super informative!
100%, it's mostly back / shoulder complex not core
@@BodyweightWarrior I mean, no ones ever held a front lever without a strong core. :T
I find hollow body to be very useful for things like Back Lever, it also helped me just be in PPT by default instead of anterior tilt. It's def more challenging if you add dynamics to it, I do hollow shoulder raises with weights, rock back and forth, basically a good teacher on how to move your body while still maintaining solid core tension, I still think it's useful but def shouldn't be the only thing you do for core, like you mentioned Toes to bar, I'd add Dragon flies to that too. Cheers!
I don't think you should not eliminate planking from your exercises. The function of the core is to sustain the upper body. This exercise that you provide has a tensing period and a relaxation period. So you become good at exactly that, tensing your abs to lift your legs than releasing. While doing the hollow body or any form of plank you train your muscles sustaining and keeping the position. I'm not saying it's a bad exercise, I'm saying that they target different goals. For me I found that the best results were by doing front plank, side planks, back plank and hollow body to target the core all together.
Great stache Tom looking to apply for the imperial navy perhaps?
Now jokes aside thanks for the content.
yes captain
Idk my man hollow body has helped me progress a ton in a very short timeframe but I’ll also incorporate these into my core training (:
Same
Former gymnast and gymnastics coach: it’s def the best way to teach little ones how to squeeze their cores enough to try handstands! We would teach a basic handstand program with incurve (hollow body), outcurve (superhumans), the laying drill you showed, planks, etc. In addition to doing leg lifts for bars skills, and really anything to learn body awareness and condition the body. I guess adults are lucky to have more body awareness and we can choose what movements we want to work on - I feel validated because I rarely throw hollow bodies (“incurve”) in my workouts anymore 😋
I feel like every ab exercise is bad... "stop doing crunches", "hollow body destroys your spine",... what the fuck??
You should do it in pull ups, push ups, dips, muscle ups and almost any gymnastic/calisthenic movements. So, it's important position, but mostly for beginners.
I think GymnasticBodies demonstrates this perception... It's considered a fundamental movement in the Foundations series (Progressions 1-6 out of about 25 of the Front Lever series are focused on developing the Hollow Body Hold and Hollow Body Rock). But once you've mastered the hold, you're moving on to things like body levers and actual front lever progressions - all the while still progressing the hollow body position, but now it's simply become a fundamental component of the movements you're now doing. In short: it's one of the basics used to make sure you're using your body correctly.
For me personally, I've had issues with excessive APT, gluteal amnesia and poor lower abdominal engagement for most of my life, and I'm finding the hollow body progressions very useful in isolating and targeting the glutes and lower abs, and getting them to work the way they should. However this is in conjunction with everything else I do that requires a hollow body position or engaged glutes + lower abs - including handstand work. It's not just hollow body holds on their own, that's just one little component. And the GymnasticBodies Foundations series has hanging leg lifts in the Manna stream of exercises - so you're working them in conjunction with the Front Lever progressions. So Front Lever progressions focus on a straight bodyline, Manna progressions focus on core compression and pike flexibility (to greatly simplify the goals of the exercises)
You can pick apart ANY exercise and pick a "better" option but hanging leg raises require a bar which most don't have access to all the time. It also requires grip strength which some people are limited by. Is it a perfect exercise, no, but is it never worth doing versus something else, certainly not (in my opinion).
This is a good point. I would still argue that the lower ab raise would be a better option in this instance, it can be made very challenging
As someone who struggles with the hollow body hold I disagree. If you cant activate your deep ab muscles then hollow body hold is a great way to begin. I think the exercises you provided are great to do once you've mastered the hollow body hold
So what if I have no interest in doing front lever or hand stand push up, nor have the hip and hamstring flexibility to do hanging leg raises, but just want to strength my core?
Why not just do both? You can scale the Hollow Body Hold as well. Put on ankle and wrist weights and a whole new level of difficulty is unlocked😊 still a great video! Love the critical thinking💪🏻
just starting out, I just didn't have the shoulder strength to get much out of hanging leg raises since I couldn't hang and maintain good form, so I feel hollow body holds were a valuable fallback. now I can just use the position while doing other things like at the top of ring dips, so I don't do them as a dedicated exercise as much anymore. That said, you can progress the exercise by rocking back and forth while holding the hollow body, which for me at least is much harder. Thank you for these other exercises though, I'm sure I'll start incorporating them!
Great points. I've been doing hollow body for years but I don't think it's done much for me - as you say, there are much better alternatives.
He is not a dude. You're a dude. This... this is a man. A handsome, muscular man.
AVENGERS!!!!
And you're gay.
Agent Killer Is that an insult
Robin4137 yes, yes it is
Wow!! Thanks for sharing!! Been doing HB a lot to better the handstand, but it doesn`t feel the same at all, when upside down! So this is really nice to hear you say :-D Keep up the good work
I'm there with you. I used to do the hollow body as part of the Reddit Recommended Routine but stopped doing them a long time ago. Granted, I'm not that strong yet abdominally, but I feel much more activation and progress doing slow and controlled bicycles crunches, hanging leg raises, dynamic plank variations, ab wheel rollouts, etc.
seems like it's a drill everyone does because they're told it's good vs actually getting benefit from it
I have one question for the hanging leg raise:
Do you pull your scapula into Depression/retraction when performing this move? Or do you stay in the passive hang? Or do you mix both variations usually?
Keep up the good work! 😊
Retraction bc you are pulling. Always when you pull you do retract and when you push you do protract or depression
i like all 3: hollow body, and the 2 that you give here. do all 3 and it'll rock your core! (are all these, and more goodies like this for other areas, like the rotators, periformis, adductors, etc in one of your programs? sorta a "correct the body" daily vitamin sort of thing?
3y later & I'm seeing the hollow body blow up in popularity. Bioneer just posted a video 8 months ago about how it's possibly the best core exercise you can do, fitnessFAQs & Saturno Movement post about it, as do Strength Side & countless others. Just checking in on your thoughts on this exercise - do you still think the same way about it as you do in this video? I know everyone has their favorites, but any recap? Thanks!
Make a video on ARCH BODY HOLD and better alternatives please 😁😁
In the same way that leg raises could work better than hollow body if you think in the opposite way you might find useful lower back extension (or raises). It is the same concept: when for hollow body you are raising your legs, for arch body you are raising your upper body. You can even start in the floor doing "arch raisings" or "dynamic arch body " in Spain we call them "butterflies", then move to inclined lower back extension with a lower back extension machine, then move to a horizontal lower back extension with a horizontal back extension machine or with a partner holding your legs and then you can also add weights. Here, there is an alternative for the case you do not have a partner or a lower back extension machine. ua-cam.com/video/ZlY9Y_nQ2V8/v-deo.html
@@Siulsete thank you very much 😀😀
@@SaifulIslam-wr8vj You are very welcome! Here I send you more ideas: like straps for stall bars. (I would say to do not go too far on the top part of the exercise, when arching, in order to avoid too much compresion on your spinal disc).
ua-cam.com/video/eHCwwceKvFY/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/MVuruSIepi4/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/ixr4_1POpzg/v-deo.html
michal urbanik says the opposite, espacially about wich exercice helps more for front lever, and since he has world record in front lever I think I am going to trust him
For a beginners I would recommend these exercises in alternative of hollow hold; knee tuck hold, elbow hollow plank, and leg raise hold.
I do hollow body holds because I don't have a bar to hang from. That's the whole point of them, IMO
I'm not an expert on Calisthenics and sports science/physiology, but I still can mention my opinion about it:
While he has good points mostly IMO, it comes pretty much down to context and goals. The hollow body hold simulates the core demands in a front lever hold way better, because of gravity's direction and the position in general replicates the front lever holds positon. The only lack is as mentioned the back muscle component and the grip strength/endurance of course. Hanging leg raises (HLR) are dynamic and have therefore not the anti extension effect of hollow body hold training, assuming the carryovre is direct. I also think it's more challanging to maintain a posterior oelvic tilt (PPT) during HLR. HLR could therefore theoritically be more hip flexor dominat.
Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion! I'm not an expert and open for being thaught better. Thought I'd share y opinion on this, as it's an interesting video. Anyway - great video.
Edit: forgot to mention - hollow body holds are usually callanging enough to be started at the fist (tuck) progression, I guess. While hollow body holds have progression potential with resistand bands, external weight or movement, anckle weights are more limited in it's maximum scalability (I hope that word means what I think it does), and hollow body hold actually make the core work against more reistance, while HLR progression at one point only offer increases of TuT, to my knowledge at least.
I disagree. Hollow body holds have greatly helped me in getting more PPT endurance for long handstand holds, when balance isn't an issue anymore.
Thank you for your thoughts. Much appreciated & I'm go to try it out if I'm up to it. Your looking smashing bro. ✌🏾😊🤙🏾🔥🔥🌟🌟
one of my fav vids of yours! thanks so much for this information! love these 2 exercises for building deep core strength.
minute 8:04...i 100% see the usefulness of this against the wall...but man o man it kinda made me chuckle...looks like your trying to press ur willy thru a hole in the wall :)
Legs raises with arched lower back, good job ...
For sure hollow body position is not enough to progress with your core, it's not by doing reps that it will also.
Your core is meant to get your body hard like a stick an handle every outside strong perturbation. Then get a position where you use your core and bring perturbations to it. Dragon flag is the perfect example, no need for reps (except reps of perturbation).
The most activated muscle in the hanging leg raise is the psoas, and that is not quite what you are hiting in the hollow body
In my opinion, there is not a possible comparison bettween both because they don't work the same muscles primarily
Summary
1. Hanging leg raise is better because of progressive overload
2. Front body drill to improve handstand
Blanket slides (plank to pike with a blanket, towel or furniture slider under your feet) got me to be able to do straight leg toes to bar.
The best calisthenics channel, as usual, great job man =)
The problem with leg raises is your arms or grip most likely exhaust prior to your abs!!! Better off doing hollow body, sliding tucks or gymnastic tucks-
Maybe it's more beneficial for us rookies? To establish that good core level strength for more complicated exercises. I guess once you're past that beginner level the hollow hold doesn't offer much.
I'm by no means an elite athlete but on your straight legs, if you want to focus on the lower abdominal region, shouldn't you relax that part at the bottom of the rep instead of leaving the bottom half of the raise in the form of an L sit that forces lordosis ?
Thanks! I was worried I'd have to add ANOTHER exercise in
On the hanging leg raise. How do you effectively avoid recruiting the hip flexors?
Thomas Hemming Larsen good question.
Yeah that's an issue I have when doing toes to bar. I can only do 2-3 reps and it frustrates me because my core doesn't feel worked at all. I consider myself to have decent core strength but when I do toes to bar my legs just stop agreeing to go up way before my core has really been hit much at all. So I'm pretty sure I'm relying on the hip flexors and wanna stop doing that
@@omnistellar5647 I feel pretty much the same. I know that some say to squeeze the legs together, I just don't find it every effective.
I find doing floor exercises make it easier to isolate the lower abs (ta). I hold a medicine ball with my inner ankles and move my straightened legs up and down. Maybe someday I’ll do leg raises with sufficient strength.
you don't want to not use the hip flexors. With the motion of hip flexion it is done with the coordination of both lower abs and hip flexor group. Most people do not recruit the former as much :)
Isn’t the hanging leg lifts a pulling movement compared to handstand which is pushing movement? Leg lifts will help in core but hollow body improves the balance and strength needed for handstand. I came across your video before and tried doing this but they aren’t of much help. After joining Coachbachmann I realised how important are basics and hollow body and improved drastically in a month.
Keeping your philtrum warm this winter. Top lad.
I agreed with you, don't waste time in hollowbody at least if you can execute it well. If you can't hollow body position maybe it's time to rethink your actual ability level
Very informative 🙏🏾🙏🏾✊🏿
Mind blown.
I always thought for calisthenics I need to do hollow body holds (but only did them rarely because of laziness and because they are boring^^). Now I can concentrate on more effective exercises like hanging leg raises. Dominik Sky also said that's the best exercise for core strength.
the man knows his stuff
Why is progressing hollow body by adding weights not the best? I thought this was one of the strongest arguments in favor of the hollow body hold, but somehow this video notes it as an argument against it. If you can hold for more than, say 20 seconds, add a 5 lb plate and continue training until you can hold the 5 lb plate for over 20 seconds. Add another plate, and so on. As long as you keep the hold time consistent, you can add weight to progress exactly as you would with a squat, deadlift, or press. Naturally, you can do this with the leg raise as well, but the leg raise requires something to hang from, so the hollow hold is more accessible to more people.
No mention of the transverse abdominals, no wonder you think the hollow body is useless.
8:26 and 8:31 by the look on your face during your hold it sure looks tougher on you then the HLR. I like both so think I'll stick to keeping with it personally.
Tom i appreciate your content but this time i can't agree with you totally. You're basically saying hollow body doesn't fit totally for handstand, and that's right partially because of... yes.. it is obvious! Hollow body is an exercise to improve alignment and full body tension. Plus, if i have not misunderstood, you said the hollow body doesn't fit for front lever. Well that's very very wrong cause the hollow body is an anti-extension exercise, and you wanna improve it for the front lever. Leg raise is not. Plus, rectus abdominis (all the rectus abdominis and not a portion) doesn't raise your legs, it make pelvic retroversion happens, it is different.
My point is that it’s not really good at improving any of them. If you want to get better handstand alignment then do a handstand relevant drill. To build core strength for the front lever, do a front lever. Core in 90% of people is not the weak element in the chain, just my experience coaching :)
@@BodyweightWarrior I see your point for the handstand and I agree with that as I said, but the hollow body is an anti-extension movement, as the front lever is, as the dragon flag is, and it is the anti-extension pattern one want to improve. That's what I meant say
Shave it on the first please. I donated, please shave it 😂
'It is movember but that's coincidence, im actually starting a Sparks tribute band'
The hollow body is what taught me to stabilize my core enough to balance a handstand
Hello Brother😃😁 Sorry Do you have a calisthenic workout for the side shoulder, posterior or back shoulder and upper, middle, lower trapezius, thoracic and lower back forearm, wrist and rotator cuff and how to neck exercise?🤔
HANDSTANDS!
@Arsenal Coffee Co. Yes😅
@@BodyweightWarrior Yes Thank you Brother😄😅
@Nonchalanto Thank you🙏😄
Where do I donate to support everyone keeping their moustaches 😂
There are some other notable calisthenics athletes who encourage the hollow body hold to have better core to be able to do front lever and dragon flags. I don't know which is true now. But I have noticed better core strength from hollow body.
This is very helpful!
Tom officially looks like a Tom!
of Finland
Hi tom. Do you think it would be ok to start this on dip bars just raising the knees or is the hanging part neccessary from the start?
Thankyou
W00lyBully definitely, it’s a great option
I've seen hollow body advertised as a good exercise for people trying to get their first pull up, as a way of teaching the correct posture as well as strenghtening the muscles. Do you think there's anything to say for that or would you recommend alternatives there as well?
Baradina Falath no transfer that I can see. Adaptation is specific so pull up negatives, rows etc are going to be better time spent
Hanging leg raise (toes to bar) should most definitely be performed with proper form which includes head neutral, don't shoot your neck forward as well as body position aligned straight when lifting legs up. It's definitely cheating when your back is moving backwards as the legs are coming up. This is highly emphasized in gymnastics training and can be worked towards by using/hanging from a climbing ladder (back on the ladder). Hollow body should be a staple for every single athlete as it actually teaches the right mechanics on horizontal position. Same thing applies to hollow body hang. It's the same application but on a vertical position. I don't understand the point of this video when comparing a horizontal hollow body to vertical movement. They don't belong to the same category when talking about the core stability vs. movement direction. This is physics and human beings move in 360 direction x 3 (frontal/backward planes, moving to the sides and rotating 360 sideways). You must apply hollow body to all planes in order to get a very stable core foundation i.e. Log rolls, horizontal hollow body holds/rocking frontal and sides as well as hanging hollow body holds, twists and rotations. My two cents on this approach to calisthenics basics to master the core and it's foundation for energy transfer and stabilization. 🙏
Hi Tom, thanks for saying this. There is a culture of sit-ups, crunches and "press your lower back into the mat" out there that is damaging to the spine in the long term. I do Stuart McGill's Big 3 (bird dog, curl up, side plank) as part of my lower back prehab and avoid exercises flex and compress the lumbar spine. Hanging knee-ups and toes to the bar are effective and easy to progress / regress.
Hollow body is not damaging any disc/vertebrae or spine.
How to add weight to it I mean should we put weight on lower body or the upper body plz tell 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Can't get the full range of motion to benefit from leg raises
I reckon hollow body is to train to activate your core rather than being totally useless for the handstand.
isnt his form wrong on the hanging leg raises? his back looks kind of arched
Just saw video saying no to do sit ups and do hollow body holds!
I don't agree here with you Tom. I think that the Hollow Body Hold has given me great core strength and endurance gains
incredibl video, but try not to repeat yourself :) thanks!
How about the hollow body crunch??
Will doing these exercises allow me to quit doing hollow body hold all together and are they gonna help my handstand\planche
Gonna have to start calling you Tom Selleck soon with that thing!
Why not both?