Help! I’m Falling and I Can’t Stay Up!

A couple of weeks ago, a young gentleman – let’s call him Gavin in honor of my recent trip to Ireland – wrote to ask about grip, and what I call “noodling out” or “bottoming out”. You know when you’re trying to wrap your feet in a foot knot or for splits and suddenly you’re on the ground with Popeye forearms and no foot wraps? Well, there’s an app – er, a fix for that.

Check Your Form

The #1 cause of noodling out is a “half mast” arm position – neither fully bent, nor fully straight. Think about it – ever tried to do a pull-up and just hold the halfway position? IT’S F$*KING HARD. You have two choices for stronger arm positions:

Beginners should generally start with an engaged straight arm position – shoulders in half-shrug with a scap wrap, arms overhead.
As soon as you can hold yourself in a bent-armed position on the floor, you can begin wrapping this way in the air. Remember how Superman would grab his shirt and rip it off to show his delicious rippling muscle-y chest? You’re going for a similar movement pattern: separate the fabrics just between your bubbies, and move your hands to the front of your shoulders. Glue your elbows to your waist, and lift the bubbies a bit as you bring them through (like I always say: when in doubt, bubbies out!).