Gyms are closed and many of us have some extra time on our hands. Now is a great time to focus on some fundamentals and skills which we can practice and perfect from home. Today we’re focusing on the hollow body position.

The hollow body is a position which is fundamental to human movement and performance. We can take this shape which we practice on the floor and apply it to the pull-up bar, rings, lifting, or any athletic movement which requires neutral stability. We’re going to break it down and provide some formats in which you can practice from home.

• Begin in the “tuck” position. The lower back is pressed into the floor, ribs are down, our shoulder blades are off the ground, and our knees are tucked into our abdomen. The biggest mistake we see in the beginning is lifting the back off the ground.
• As we feel more comfortable with the tuck, we can then extend one or both legs, followed by the arms. The more limbs we extend and the longer we make ourselves, the harder the position becomes. It’s important that we don’t let our ribs open up or arch our back, if we do, go back a step to maintain a quality position.
• Once we’ve established the hold in either the tuck or hollow position, we can then practice the “rock”. Keeping our ribs down, begin to rock back and forth without opening up your ribs or arching your back. Your tuck/hollow rocks should be short movements to start, and we want to focus on remaining rigid.

Here are a couple ways to practice the holds and rocks – adjust time, reps, and position scaling depending on your ability:

3 sets:

Tuck Hold x :30
Rest :30
Hollow Hold x :15
Rest :30

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3 sets:

Tuck Rock x 10-15 Reps
Rest :30
Hollow Hold x 10-15 Reps
Rest :30

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3 sets:

Hollow/Tuck Hold x :30 Seconds
Rest :30
Hollow/Tuck Rock x 10-15 Reps
Rest :30

If you’d like help working with your hollow body position, let us know and we’ll set-up a zoom meeting to walk you through it!