Thought I'd bump this thread as I have a few questions.
Background, I'd been not lifting for probably a couple of years with sequential injuries and scheduling conflicts. I kept training BJJ consistently, 4-5 times a week. Recently a low back pain issue (flexibility issues, letting myself get too stacked, poor overall posture) caused me to have to take serious time off training. Even just basic technical reps would leave me hobbling to the car after class and for a few days after.
This back pain corresponded with a dramatic increase in volume (7x/week BJJ + restarting SS).
Cue the bodyweight training. Squats and deadlifts were out of the question. I could hardly pull 95# off the floor without reeling pain. All I could manage to do pain free were pullups and pushups, and so that's what I did.
Got bored of those and started playing with other variations, and started playing around with levers and hand balancing. Got up to a minute with the crow pose(?) as I'd read that was a good progression to a handstand, and more recently got onto a more proper handstand progression. Facing the wall for support I can maintain the hand stand for 1 minute, so my understanding now is that I should begin to practice the kick up facing out from the wall.
Front lever, I can hold the tucked front lever for 2x 30 seconds.
Back lever I cannot even really get any level of yet. I have been working on the skin the cat movement instead. I can get about 5 clean, slow reps before my grip wears out.
Working more recently on the L-sit as well. Held a tucked L-sit on some old homemade paralettes I had lying around for a minute. I was shaking like a leaf after that minute, though it was at the end of the rest of the skill work I've described.
So some troubles/questions I have;
When in the hand stand, are you meant to push away from the floor, or should you also be packing the shoulders here as well.
When looking to increase my duration on the tucked front lever, if I increase my first set to say 35 seconds, should I just hold for the remaining 25, or should I just go to failure anyway.
Which brings up the next piece about volume. How often should I be doing these holds? Can I get away with daily, or should I space them out like any other lift.
In the L-sit, I find that extending my legs I feel the most incredible intensity in my quads more than anywhere. I have terribly inflexible hamstrings, so I know I'm going to need to improve that just to get to a proper L-sit anyway. Not really a question I guess.
One funny thing. I sprained my A-C joint a loooong time ago. It hasn;'t given me any grief for a long time, but now that I am opening up my shoulders again and improving my posture, I feel that same pain, like it never actually resolved, it just got hidden in poor posture. I'm having this assessed professionally, so no need for hissy fits. I was just wondering if anyone else ever experienced set backs or old injuries reappearing when actually improving posture or flexibility.
/ramblingpost
Thanks guys. Oh yeah, I know I didn't mention anything for legs. I have been having good luck with no pain when doing front squats, so I have been doing those for my lower body work.
