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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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!
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 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).
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.
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 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)
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!
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💪🏻
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.
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
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. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZlY9Y_nQ2V8.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). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eHCwwceKvFY.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MVuruSIepi4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ixr4_1POpzg.html
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.
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
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
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
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.
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?🤔
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.
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 :)
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!
Do you by chance have a tight Iliopsoas? If you’re using your hip flexors too much it will pull on your low back (because of the illiacus). I foam roll mine, use a lacrosse ball even. Then stretch.
I want to be super flexible and I had a fucked back since senior year high school thanks man you the best! One more concern that I have is when I am stretching and use cannabis edibles I sometimes push myself too much and I dont know if it a bad thing. I want to get a solid rock hard core as well without gym equipment. You and anabolic aliens are da best.
@Thor Odinson STRONG core for a strong back and only morons do cannabis really bruh? Maybe smoke it but yours truly its eats it so jokes on you. WE ARE THE ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM DONT EVER FORGET IT! My brain already developed big boy im 24 been on cannabis since 21. Besides if you a worried about it hurting kids then just educate people on using CBD alongside. I am already immune to the psychotropic effects of bud what since I eat the honey and drink the tonics and edibles mmmmmmmm so delicious all that THC. Dont worry bud they will legalize it nationwide sooner or later. As for it causing cognitive decline shit all I can say is eat well balanced meals, hit the gym, and take them vitamins to have a top notch endocannabinoid system and still avoid the side effects of marijuana mainly being bad short term memory.
@@BodyweightWarrior will do the running stretch is wonderful and the hip swivle i can completely touch my knees to floor now. Ty to you man you amazin what a guy. Jeeeez my role model
You should really get your facts straight before publishing tutorial videos. Hollow body hold is not lower abdominals exercise. It works inner core muscles, transverse abdominis and pelvic floor. If done properly, with proper breathing, it will strengthen the core in a way that whole body will feel connected and light to bear. Most important exercise for body weight athlete!!
The extra length of your legs being extended when you raise them makes it more intense than just pulling the knees in. (think tuck planche vs full planche for example. Full is way harder because the legs are further away from you, same for leg raises vs knee raises)
Got to stop clicking on on these clickbait titles... for once I may not entirely agree with Tom. The hollow body is a transitioning position shape training this shape is important to prevent injuries. I believe there are many inaccurate comments mentioned by Tom on this video but i will leave it to the experts in the community to comment.
KenSarzi like what? I would like to see any evidence that this is important for reducing injury risk. Pontillio et al 2019 was published recently with no significant difference in static or dynamic core control on athletes with or without shoulder injuries. It’s just a myth thats been passed on
@@BodyweightWarrior firstly big fan of your mobility and flexibility training videos. Thanks for responding I checked the paper yes indeed it is not exactly useful for rehabilitation of upper body injuries. However I can argue that it is vital to prevent lower body injuries. From the studies you simply can't isolate dynamic postural control, core muscle strength and core muscle endurance hence it is difficult to gauge exactly how important it is for athletes to train static hollow body holds theoretically. However it can also be argued that because the hollow body hold is a transitioning shape, by training this position athletes will gain muscle memory. Just my 2 cents. But maybe you could create a less controversial video like how to use hollow body and arch hold effectively to increase volume. Cheers.
KenSarzi appreciate that idea and that’s why I mentioned it in the context of gymnastics. But I still think there are simple better options (like quadruped work etc) for most people
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.
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 :)
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 🙂
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
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).
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 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!
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!
