When you are trying to do an abs workout circuit or think of different ab workout exercises, it’s common to get into a rut and not think of much beyond basic crunches and planks.
Hollow holds can also be a great core exercise for bodyweight ab workouts.
Hollow holds are similar to a V-sit exercise in that it is an isometric hold performed on your back where you are contracting your abs and lifting your legs and upper body off of the ground.
This exercise is often used in CrossFit workouts but can also be beneficial for anyone looking to strengthen their abs and hip flexors.
But, you may wonder, how many hollow holds should I do? How long should I hold a hollow hold for?
In this exercise guide, we will discuss how to do hollow holds for ab workouts, the benefits of hollow holds, and ultimately answer your question, how many hollow holds should I do in my workouts?
Let’s jump in!
How Do You Do a Hollow Hold?
Before we answer your questions: how many hollow holds should I do, and how long should I hold a hollow hold for based on my fitness goals, let’s discuss how to do a hollow hold.
Here are the steps to perform this upper ab exercise:
Hollow Holds
- Lie on your back with your arms extended overhead and your legs and feet pressed together extended straight in front of you.
- Use your core muscles to simultaneously crunch your upper and lower body off the ground about 6 to 12 inches. Your lower back, butt, and pelvis should be firmly planted on the ground and tucked under your body. This involves performing a posterior pelvic tilt.
- Your body should be in a very gentle “U” shape.
- Think about sucking in your belly button towards your tailbone and smooshing your lower back into the floor.
- Keep breathing and hold for the desired length.
Tips For Doing Hollow Holds
- Make sure that your knees are straight and locked.
- Your straightened legs should be suspended about 15 to 30° from the floor. Any more or less than this will decrease the effectiveness of the exercise and/or put excessive strain on your back.
- Think about sucking your belly button into your spine.
- Keep your neck and face relaxed.
- Make sure that you are not arching your back. Your rib cage and pelvis should be squared.
- Beginners can start with their knees bent if their abs are not strong enough to support the long lever arm of straightened legs.
The primary difference between hollow holds and V-sits is that the hollow hold exercise has you hovering much closer to the ground rather than angled up in a V.
This position difference makes hollow holds great for strengthening the upper abs and it can be more beginner-friendly.
Are Hollow Holds Good for Abs Workouts?
The hollow hold position is a great exercise to add to your core workouts because it helps train your body to naturally get into the ideal position you will need for pull-ups and chin-ups, along with other exercises you might find in gymnastics-style CrossFit workouts.
The hollow hold also teaches you how to properly brace your core, which is helpful for bigger weightlifting exercises like deadlifts, squats, and overhead presses.One of the benefits of hollow holds is that you are tending multiple muscles simultaneously, so you activate all of the core and hip muscles as a unit.
This means hollow holds can be considered a functional core strength exercise because, in everyday life, the muscles of the core need to work together to stabilize your spine and brace your core.
Thus, a hollow hold benefit is that this ab exercise activates the core in a manner that should translate to other exercises and movement patterns.
Another hollow hold exercise benefit is that it is an isometric exercise.
An isometric exercise is a static movement where your muscles contract and create tension without shortening or lengthening, so no joint movement occurs.
Like hollow holds, planks are isometric exercises for the core muscles.
One of the main benefits of isometric exercises is that they help build muscular endurance.1Oranchuk, D. J., Storey, A. G., Nelson, A. R., & Cronin, J. B. (2019). Isometric training and long-term adaptations: Effects of muscle length, intensity, and intent: A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 29(4), 484–503. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13375 Muscular endurance refers to the ability of your muscles to contract and produce force for longer periods of time without fatigue.
Improving muscular endurance is helpful for any type of cardio exercise that uses repetitive movement patterns. For example, running, hiking, cycling, and incline walking requires good muscular endurance in the lower body muscles.
Muscular endurance can also be helpful for everyday activities like carrying a child or a heavy bag of groceries for a long distance and maintaining good posture when you are sitting at your desk for a long workday.
Isometric exercises are also used in rehab because they may help you strengthen your muscles without causing movement, which can prevent pain from getting worse.2Rio, E., van Ark, M., Docking, S., Moseley, G. L., Kidgell, D., Gaida, J. E., van den Akker-Scheek, I., Zwerver, J., & Cook, J. (2017). Isometric Contractions Are More Analgesic Than Isotonic Contractions for Patellar Tendon Pain: An In-Season Randomized Clinical Trial. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine : Official Journal of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, 27(3), 253–259. https://doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000000364
Studies have also found that isometric exercises can improve circulation and may lower blood pressure.3Edwards, J., Jalaludeen, N., Beqiri, A., Wiles, J., Sharma, R., & O’Driscoll, J. (2023). The effect of isometric exercise training on arterial stiffness: a randomised crossover controlled study. Physiological Reports, 11(10), e15690. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.15690
In a recent study, isometric exercises (like wall sits and planks) were the most effective type of exercise for lowering blood pressure.4Edwards, J. J., Deenmamode, A. H. P., Griffiths, M., Arnold, O., Cooper, N. J., Wiles, J. D., & O’Driscoll, J. M. (2023). Exercise training and resting blood pressure: a large-scale pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. British Journal of Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106503
Finally, another benefit of hollow holds is that this isometric ab exercise can increase core stiffness more than dynamic core exercises, according to research.5Lee, B. C. Y., & McGill, S. M. (2015). Effect of Long-term Isometric Training on Core/Torso Stiffness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(6), 1515–1526. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000000740
The benefit of increasing core “stiffness” is that a stiffer core can help support the spine and improve the ability of the core to properly brace the spine for load-bearing activities.
For example, studies have found that isometric exercises for the core muscles can help reduce the severity of lower back pain.6Rhyu, H.-S., Park, H.-K., Park, J.-S., & Park, H.-S. (2015). The effects of isometric exercise types on pain and muscle activity in patients with low back pain. Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, 11(4), 211–214. https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.150224
How Many Hollow Holds Should I Do Based On My Fitness Goals?
Like planks, it is generally best to do hollow holds for time rather than reps.
This isn’t to say that you can’t do multiple hollow holds in a workout, but quantifying how many hollow holds you should do is best done by timing your hollow holds reps.
So, how long is a good hollow hold time?
Deciding how long to hollow hold in a workout depends on several factors.
Starting with just 5 to 10 seconds is ideal for beginners.
Beginners often push themselves to do planks and hollow holds for 30 seconds or more, but it is better to do shorter holds and make sure you are doing the exercise correctly and actually using your abs than to press through longer hollow holds.
It takes time to learn how to properly engage your deep core muscles when performing a hollow hold with exercise.
Practicing drawing in your belly7Lee, S., & Lee, S. (2022). The Effect of Abdominal Drawing-in Maneuver with Pressure Biofeedback Unit in Various Postures on Abdominal Muscle Contraction. Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science, 11(2), 136–144. https://doi.org/10.14474/ptrs.2022.11.2.136 and building the mind-body connection with your deep core muscles can be helpful along with building core strength and muscular endurance.8Selkow, N. M., Eck, M. R., & Rivas, S. (2017). TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS ACTIVATION AND TIMING IMPROVES FOLLOWING CORE STABILITY TRAINING: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 12(7), 1048–1056. https://doi.org/10.26603/ijspt20171048
When you try to hold a hollow hold for a long time and you’re not actually strong enough in the core muscles for a long hold, your abdominal muscles, low back muscles, pelvic floor muscles, and other muscles worked by hollow hold exercises will disengage after they fatigue.
This means the deep core muscles (namely the transversus abdominis, pelvic floor muscles, and deep multifidus) will stop properly bracing the core, putting excessive pressure on the lumbar spine and strain on the hip flexors.9Lynders, C. (2019). The Critical Role of Development of the Transversus Abdominis in the Prevention and Treatment of Low Back Pain. HSS Journal ®, 15(3), 214–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-019-09717-8
The general recommendation by fitness professionals is that there is no need to ever do a hollow hold longer than one minute, and if you are doing so, you are either doing it wrong or you should break up the hollow hold into different sets.
Holding your hollow hold exercise for 30 seconds or 60 seconds at most is ideal.
In fact, Dr. McGill, a well-respected spine expert and creator of the McGill Big 3 Exercises says that you should only do an isometric ab exercise like the plank (or hollow hold) for 10 seconds at a time and then take a five-second break and then keep repeating this pattern for a set of hollow holds rather than holding a continuous hollow hold.10Lee, B. C. Y., & McGill, S. M. (2015). Effect of Long-term Isometric Training on Core/Torso Stiffness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(6), 1515–1526. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000000740
Therefore, for building core muscular endurance, rather than increasing how long you hold your hollow holds, work up to 6-8 sets of 10-30 seconds with 10 seconds of rest in between each hollow hold.
Overall, particularly for CrossFit athletes, mastering the hollow hold will help you get a sense of how to flex and extend your entire body as a unit so that you can eventually progress to muscle-ups on the rings or kipping pull-ups.
If you want to try another isometric ab exercise, consider trying our 30-day plank challenge here.
