Mastering V-Ups from the Hollow Position: Tips and Benefits

This week, I’m sharing some of my favorite coaching tips for training V-ups from the hollow position!

This movement is one of my favorites to include in strength and skill sessions, and it can also be a great modification in CrossFit WODs, replacing movements like GHD sit ups, toes to bar, knees to elbows, and more depending on the intended stimulus.

The V-up, along with its variations, may seem simple, but it’s incredibly effective for developing core and trunk control, strength, body awareness, balance, coordination, timing, and full body tension.

Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or looking to fine-tune your technique, incorporating V-ups and their progressions into your training can help you build a stronger foundation for both everyday movement and athletic performance.

And just like so many of the movements I teach:

Quality comes before difficulty.

Before worrying about adding weight or performing more reps, learn to own the position first.

Who Is the V-Up For?

The V-up is a versatile exercise that can be scaled for a variety of fitness levels.

Whether you’re a beginner working to improve core strength or an experienced athlete looking to sharpen your skills, this movement can offer significant benefits.

It’s particularly useful for those who:

• Want to strengthen their core and trunk

• Want to improve trunk stability and control

• Are working on body awareness, coordination, and balance

• Need a scalable exercise that can fit into bodyweight or weighted training

• Participate in CrossFit or functional fitness and need an alternative to movements like GHD sit ups, toes to bar, knees to elbows, and more

• Want to build a stronger foundation for gymnastics and other athletic movements

No matter where you are in your fitness journey, V-up progressions can be a simple yet powerful addition to your training.

The key is choosing the variation that allows you to maintain beautiful form and control.

V-Up Coaching Tips

The V-up begins and ends in a strong hollow body position.

As you move through each repetition:

• Keep your lumbar spine pressed firmly into the floor in the bottom position

• Tuck your tailbone

• Squeeze your glutes

• Engage and straighten your legs

• Point your toes

• Keep your heels above the floor

• Aim to keep your upper back as high off the floor as possible

• Compress your ribs toward your hips

• Pull your belly button toward your spine

• Lift your upper and lower body simultaneously

• Balance briefly at the top

• Reach your hands upward toward your feet

• Return with control to your hollow position between each repetition

Only add weight if the bodyweight V-up is no longer challenging and you can maintain beautiful form throughout the entire movement.

Remember:

The goal is not simply to get your hands to your feet.

The goal is to maintain control and positioning throughout the entire repetition.

Check out this video tutorial:

Start With the Hollow Position

Before you work on V-ups, you should first be able to create and maintain a strong hollow body position.

Your hollow position gives you the foundation for the movement.

If you lose your trunk position as soon as your arms and legs extend, work on your hollow body strength and control before progressing to full V-ups.

You can also scale the V-up by:

• Keeping your knees bent

• Performing tuck-ups

• Alternating single-leg V-ups

• Reducing your range of motion

• Practicing controlled hollow holds

• Performing fewer high-quality repetitions

As you become stronger and more controlled, gradually progress toward the full movement.

Earn the progression rather than rushing it.

How Can You Benefit from V-Ups?

The benefits of training the V-up go beyond abdominal strength.

The movement requires your upper and lower body to work together while your trunk maintains control, making it useful for developing several components of fitness at once.

Core + Trunk Strength

V-ups challenge the muscles of your trunk as you resist excessive extension and control your body through the movement.

Improved Body Awareness

As you perform each repetition, you learn to recognize where your body is in space and how your upper and lower body are moving together.

That awareness can carry over into other exercises, gymnastics movements, and sports.

Full Body Coordination

Your upper and lower body must rise together with proper timing.

That makes the V-up more than a traditional abdominal exercise, it requires coordination throughout the entire movement.

Balance + Control

At the top of the V-up, you briefly balance while maintaining tension and control.

Learning to find and control that position challenges both balance and body awareness.

Hamstring Mobility

Straight leg V-ups also require adequate hamstring mobility to reach the top position while keeping the legs extended.

If mobility limits your position, modify the movement rather than forcing additional range.

Why Incorporate V-Ups Into Your Routine?

A strong trunk supports nearly everything you do in training.

Whether your focus is functional fitness, gymnastics, strength training, athletic performance, or simply building a stronger and more capable body, learning how to control your trunk while your arms and legs move is incredibly valuable.

Consistently practicing properly scaled V-ups can help you:

• Build core and trunk strength

• Develop muscular endurance

• Improve body awareness

• Improve balance and coordination

• Develop better full body tension

• Strengthen the connection between your upper and lower body

• Build a foundation for more advanced gymnastics movements

• Improve your ability to maintain trunk control during other exercises

And because the movement is so easy to scale, you don’t have to perform a perfect full V-up on day one to benefit from it.

Quality Over Quantity

One thing I always emphasize with movements like this:

More reps are not necessarily better reps.

If your lower back begins lifting excessively from the floor, your knees bend when they shouldn’t, you start using momentum instead of control, or your positioning changes significantly as you fatigue, that is feedback.

Reduce the difficulty, shorten the set, or return to a progression you can perform well.

Five beautiful, controlled repetitions can be far more valuable than 20 rushed repetitions performed with poor positioning.

Train the movement you can control today and build from there.

From Hollow Position to V-Up

The V-up is a great example of why I place so much emphasis on mastering foundational positions.

The hollow body position teaches you to create tension and control.

The V-up asks you to maintain that control while moving.

That progression, from creating a position, to owning it, to maintaining it dynamically, is something that carries into so many areas of training.

Before adding complexity:

Build the foundation.

Before adding load:

Own the movement.

Before adding volume:

Maintain the quality.

Conclusion: Build Strength Through Control

The V-up may look like a simple core exercise, but when performed intentionally, it challenges much more than your abs.

It requires strength, trunk control, coordination, body awareness, balance, timing, and full body tension to work together through every repetition.

Whether you’re using V-ups as part of your strength training, developing your gymnastics skills, modifying a CrossFit workout, or simply working toward a stronger and more capable body, start with the variation you can perform well.

Then build from there.

Because progress isn’t about rushing toward the hardest version of an exercise.

It’s about mastering the movement you’re doing today so you’re prepared for what comes next.

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