The Importance Of Developing Locked Arm Strength

In a lot of the calisthenics exercises you need to use straight or locked arms. It is really really important you develop this locked arm strength as you progress or you will find it very difficult to develop it later on.

 

More Than Lifting Top Of Dip Locked Arm Strength
Locking out at the top of dips is an easy way of incorporating locked arm training into your workouts

 

When you are training things like L Sits, Leg Raises, Levers and Planche, you need to have a solid locked out arm. Static or isometric exercises especially need locked out arms. You are going to find it very difficult to do floor L Sits with bent arms, you are using your shoulders to lift up off the ground!

 

How To Develop Locked Arm Strength

 

Developing locked arm strength can be quite difficult, and the longer you put it off, the harder it becomes, so get started pretty soon bro!

 

A simple way to do this is to incorporate it into your workouts.

 

Lock out your arms at the rest end of any exercise. Dips are an easy way to do this, when you get to the top of your dip, turn your elbows forward, this rotates your shoulders out and points the ‘pit’ side of your elbow forwards – this is also a very easy way to help build up shoulder strength and wrist flexibility.

 

You will find this simple tweak will do wonders for your workout!

 

Another example of this is to completely straighten your arms when you are in a tuck lever. This is quite easy because you are hanging, so you don’t need to work your muscles as hard to lock out.

 

when you get into a tuck lever, hollow your shoulders to get your body as low under the bar as possible. It will pull in your pecs and triceps as well as working the back of your body. Doing this is going to seriously strengthen your locked arm strength and build the proper muscle tension required to do a full front lever.

 

Turning your elbows forwards is going to force your arms to lock out. You will find that your arms will always try and bend slightly to shift the load off your shoulders and back, but you want to slowly work your way out of this.

 

The Planche Lean

 

The planche lean is a great exercise to include into your workouts that will help you do dedicated training for your locked arms.

 

The do this, get into a press up position, making sure your hands are directly under your shoulders.

 

More Than Lifting Locked Arm Strength Planche Lean
Locked arm strength is necessary for the planche – the planche lean is a great way to start training it

 

Make sure your arms are locked out, with your elbow pits facing forward, a sneaky tip for this is to point your thumbs forward in the push up position, instead of your fingers. This will turn your hands out slightly, but don’t put them to 90, they should stop at about 45 degrees. This will help you keep stable on your wrists, but be warned you may flop the first few times, so do it on a soft surface or get a cushion underneath you.

 

Once you’re in place, you want to start leaning forward, putting your shoulders in front of your hands slowly, dragging your feet behind you to help support your body weight.

 

Aim to go as far forward as you can, and hold for time just at the tipping point so you don’t fall flat on your face.

 

The planche lean will help you to develop the strength to support your bodyweight on your arms alone, whilst maintaining the locked position. The problem a lot of people have with isometrics like a tuck planche is that they cannot take all of their weight on their arms whilst they are locked out. Your body naturally wants to bend them slightly to help distribute the weight, but you are specifically training to counter this so you will need to be very forceful when you first start this exercise to keep them straight and tight.

 

The Danger Of Pushing Too Hard

The one thing to be careful about when working on locked arm strength is your joints.

 

The ligaments and tendons that bind everything together are put under immense pressure, which means that there is always a risk of injury. When you are developing locked arm strength, try not to over train too much, take it one step at a time and keep it low, building slowly.

 

Damaging your ligaments and tendons is not good times, and can result in  serious problems for you later on. That being said, you aren’t likely to injure yourself provided you listen to your body, feel when you are putting too much strain on yourself and then adjust your workout accordingly.

 

I started working on my locked arm strength from day one of my calisthenics training last summer. I still struggle with it at times, especially when I was learning the levers. Tuck planches are another one that put this kind of pressure on your elbows early on.

 

I used to get achy elbows after a workout because I was really trying hard to keep my arms locked. Right at the start, it would last a few days, just like regular muscle aches you would get.

 

I still get aches in my elbows if I push back levers too much, and that’s fine. I feel it, I take notice, and I give the back levers a rest for that session.

 

More Than Lifting Locked Arm Strength L Sit Single Bar
Locked arm strength is key for calisthenics exercises

 

What Can You Do To Help Your Ligaments?

 

I have already screwed my knee from ligament damage, so naturally I am a bit nervous about damaging my arms. Having said that I am confident I would have to do something seriously stupid to hurt my arms now because I am naturally wary about it.

 

But there is something you can do to help strengthen your joints.

 

My first calisthenics training partner told me to try out hydrolysed collagen. You can get it as a powder or pills from holland and barrett or somewhere similar. Collagen is the protein that will build and strengthen your ligaments and tendons.

 

So just whack a bit of that in you and don’t overtrain. Be careful that you stretch well and rest yourself, if your joints ache let them rest and recover properly, they will take longer to repair than muscles.

 

You will need to develop locked arm strength to do things like the iron cross on the rings or a maltese cross – that’s the planche version of the iron cross – a super wide grip planche basically. LSits also require locked arms especially on the floor, so work on it, keep it in mind when you are training, and you will soon be stiff as a board from wrist to shoulder.

 

 

 

 

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