Why Gymnastics Skill Seekers should Skin The Cat.
As a gymnastics skill seeker, one of my initial goals was to master the back lever on rings. In Gymnastics Strength Training (GST), the back lever is one of the first static Straight Arm Scapular Strength (SASS) movements to learn. The back lever is a lot easier than the front lever.
Working towards a full back lever prepares the body for many more advanced gymnastics movements.
So, I went to work training back levers.
The back lever isn't a movement to launch into without preparation. Many gymnastics skill seekers experience elbow and shoulder pain or even injury when they fail to build the foundations of strength and flexibility required for back lever training.
I was making good progress until I injured my elbow.
If I could go back, I would've taken more time to condition the connective tissue of my elbows and shoulders to avoid injury.
After injuring my elbow, I had to stop training the back lever and rethink my approach. I had to figure out how to rehab my elbow and strengthen them to achieve the full back lever.
I asked myself, "how do you build the foundations of strength and flexibility required for back lever training?"
That's when I started to piece together the steps I'd missed.
That's what I'm about to share.
These are the steps I've used on myself and with many online students to accomplish the full back lever.
At The Sustainable Training Method, we believe it's never too late to build strength, increase flexibility, and learn sick gymnastics skills.
We've helped hundreds of gymnastics skill seekers achieve the full back lever, and each of them started the journey by completing the Skin The Cat (STC) first.
So, over the coming week, we'll release a series of blog posts sharing the tips and tricks we use to teach our students how to STC.
What is Skin The Cat?
You might wonder what skinning a cat has to do with back levers.
Don't worry, the Skin The Cat (STC) isn't what it sounds like.
The STC (also known as a 360 pull) is a colloquial term used in gymnastics for movements in and out of the German Hang. The STC is one of the best exercises for building strength and flexibility in the shoulders.
For gymnastic skill seekers who want to lean back levers, the STC enables you to build strength and flexibility in your shoulders and elbows and condition the connective tissue as you build up to the back lever and more advanced movements.
The STC is a progression towards more advanced gymnastics movements such as back levers and front levers. SASS is also an excellent tool for building upper body strength that carries over to pull-ups, push-ups, dips, rows, muscle-ups and more.
The STC can be performed on a pull-up bar or a set of gymnastics rings.
How to skin the cat?
Start by gripping a pull-up bar or a set of gymnastics rings slightly outside of shoulder width. Lift the feet off the floor and start in a dead hang.
From here, depress the shoulders and lift the leg up as if performing a hanging L-sit. Keeping the legs straight, continue lifting the legs as high as possible by closing the angle between the torso and the legs. Your pike mobility has a key role to play in this position.
As you lift the legs, push down on the rings and use your lats to lift the hip. Keep your arms straight as you push down on the rings and close the angle between your arms and your torso. Keep pushing down until you are inverted.
Continue to lift the hips up and over as you allow your arms to move behind your body and into shoulder extension.
Slowly lower the body into the German Hang with your feet off the floor and your eyes looking up at the horizon. This is the first half of the movement.
Next, reverse the movement by pulling the ring down and lifting the hips up. Focus on keeping the legs and arms straight. It's also helpful t close the angle between your thighs and your torso to maintain a tight L-sit shape.
Continue to pull down on the rings as you move back to the inverted position.
From the inverted position, slowly lower the hips down and perform an eccentric toes-to-bar as you pass back through the hanging L-sit position as you return to the dead Hang.
The STC is a cool-looking movement that a lot of people underestimate. If you've never tried STC, it's much harder than it looks.
When performing the STC we:
Create a strong isometric contraction in the biceps and triceps.
Tension in the forearms
Train the forearm muscles through both supination and pronation (huge benefit of rings training over barbell training)
Lengthen the biceps through a considerable range of motion (shoulder extension)
What are the benefits of the STC?
Increase shoulder strength and mobility - improving shoulder flexion, extension, and rotation which increases upper body strength and decreases the chance of shoulder injuries.
Strengthens the connective tissue of the shoulders and elbows.
Increase grip strength.
Increase core strength.
Building straight-arm scapular strength (SASS) carries over to bent scapular strength (BASS).
SASS builds superior shoulder strength that carries over to BASS movements.
SASS movements: back levers, front levers, planche, handstands, l-sits and more.
BASS movements don't have the same strength to carry over to SASS.
BASS movements: push-ups, dips, HSPU, rows, pull-ups, muscle-ups and more.
Learning fundamental ring strength, control and coordination skills for more advanced exercises.
What Muscles Are Used In STC?
Shoulders, Back, Chest, Abdominal, Arms
Straight Arm Scapular Strength (SASS).
The primary mover in the STC is the lats. Most people struggle to perform the STC because they can't activate their lats without bending their arms.
We often use pull-ups, pull-overs and rows to train the lats, but we fail to incorporate straight arm movements like STC and back levers, which is a real shame.
Building strength in your lats with bent arm movements won't carry over to straight arm scapular strength (SASS), but building lats strength with straight arm movements will carry over to bent arm movements.
Yes, learning to STC will help increase your pull-up numbers.
Another fun fact, SASS training will carry over to movements like deadlifts.
Chest
Yes, we use the chest muscles in STC.
The chest muscles are used to depress and protract the shoulder blades. As we move through the STC, the pecs are being stretched and strengthened.
The STC might not increase your bench press numbers, but it will improve both the strength and flexibility of your shoulders if progressed safely.
Shoulder Health
Your shoulders are the most mobile joint in your body; hence, they're also the most common injuries. No other exercise trains the shoulders through full flexion and extension the way the STC does.
This STC targets shoulder extension, one component of shoulder health most often overlooked, especially by the adult population. How often do you take your arms behind your body?
The STC stretches and strengthens the shoulders, chest, and biceps like no other exercise. We often see a lot of people with tight pecs, biceps and lats, which can lead to shoulder pain and poor posture.
As mentioned above, you don't want to dive straight into STC training without preparing the muscles and connective tissue of the upper body.
The STC also trains many smaller stabilisation muscles deep in the shoulder. This is one of the reasons why the STC is such an effective exercise for the shoulder s.
If you want to build strong and flexible shoulders, the STC is one of the best tools.
Elbow Health
A lot of bodybuilders, weightlifters, and gymnastics skill seekers suffer from elbow pain. One of the leading causes of elbow pain is muscle imbalance. We can have an imbalance between the muscles of the forearms and the upper arm, or we can have an imbalance between the long and short heads of the biceps.
You may have heard of the terms "Tennis Elbow" (lateral elbow pain) and "Golfers Elbow" (medial elbow pain). Often, these conditions are caused by an imbalance between the muscle of the forearms and the the muscle of the upper arm (biceps and triceps). We wouldn’t recommend doing the STC if you have one of these conditions, but the STC is a powerful exercise for preventing these conditions when training correctly.
The STC takes the biceps through an extended range of motion as the shoulder moves into extension, and we lower into the German Hang. A lot of people have tight biceps, and the German Hang can be pretty painful in the beginning. It's essential to avoid elbow pain when training the STC and gradually stretch out the biceps over time.
One way to work around elbow pain in the German Hang is to start with a pronated grip, palms facing up, and the shoulders internally rotated. As shoulder and biceps mobility improves, we can move to a supinated grip, palms facing down and the shoulders externally rotated.
Learning the STC:
To master the STC we must train different elements to help build strength and flexibility:
Straight Arm Scapular Strength (SASS) - think scapular pull-ups
Core Compression Strength - think L-sits and Strict Toes to Bar
Pike Mobility - think Seated Pike
Shoulder Flexion Mobility - think butcher block stretch
Shoulder Flexion Strength -
Shoulder Extension Mobility - think German Hang.
Shoulder Extension Strength -
After injuring my elbow, I took a step back and focused on building the strength and increasing the flexibility required to achieve the STC.
It took a few months.
But when I returned to back lever training, I quickly progressed to a full back lever without any pain or discomfort. My back lever strength and form have never been as good as it is now. All thanks to the STC training program I followed.
If you want to know about this program, you can register your interest below. In doing so, you’ll be the first to know when the program is released, and you’ll receive a discount code.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, including the strength and flexibility to achieve your first Skin The Cat on rings.
Skin-The-Cat Program
Unlock the skin-the-cat on gymnastics rings
