Strange shoulder issue with L-pullups

Hello everyone.

I am currently playing with new exercises and testing maximums prior to my next steady state training cycle.

This evening I tried L-pullups for the first time, not expecting too much of a challenge as I am reasonably strong at pullups.

What I found was a bizarre shoulder weakness at a single point in the exercise.

As I started the pull, there was a point just above the dead hang position where both of my shoulders seemed to "pop" and lose all strength. It almost felt as if I needed to 'catch' the movement in order to continue the exercise, which proceeded with no problem. The same feeling also occured on the way down, but less pronounced and more controllable.

Does anybody know what this is, and has anybody else experienced it? Is there a way to stop/overcome this, or should I probably stick to another variation? (no other pulling exercise seems to do this).

Many thanks,

Mike

Just load on that shoulder. Wide Arm L pullups make my biceps scream and my shoulder ache. Well, done in a bit of volume.

MikeT said:

Hello everyone.

I am currently playing with new exercises and testing maximums prior to my next steady state training cycle.

This evening I tried L-pullups for the first time, not expecting too much of a challenge as I am reasonably strong at pullups.

What I found was a bizarre shoulder weakness at a single point in the exercise.

As I started the pull, there was a point just above the dead hang position where both of my shoulders seemed to "pop" and lose all strength. It almost felt as if I needed to 'catch' the movement in order to continue the exercise, which proceeded with no problem. The same feeling also occured on the way down, but less pronounced and more controllable.

Does anybody know what this is, and has anybody else experienced it? Is there a way to stop/overcome this, or should I probably stick to another variation? (no other pulling exercise seems to do this).

Many thanks,

Mike

That is EXACTLY what happens with my L-Pull ups as well! I posted a thread on Basic Strength, asking for advice and also if anybody knows why this happens for some individuals. I wonder if the Coach has had athletes with similar issues and how did they get through it.

I'm curious...can you do wall extensions while standing up? what about reach both arms behind your back and clasp hands, and then try to raise them? I suck at both. We've theorized it is a tight pec minor issue. too much bench pressing maybe

xx

Some food for thought.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Hi, Xi Xia,

I have just tried both of those moves. Wall extensions are not too bad, but my shoulders tighten WAY up when I try to lift them up with hands clasped behind. Seems as if there is a flexibility issue there!

Reading your thread in Basic Strength has been very informative. I will be doing L pullups a bit later today, so will try the version that Blairbob suggests and see how I get on with it,

regards,

Mike

i have the same issues occur when i do l-pullups. i haven't done them in a while though because i've had a bunch of shoulder issues come up. i'm currently in physical therapy for them.

straight arm bridges are very tough for me as well as clasping my hands behind my back and raising them up. touching my hands behind my back with one arm over the head and one around the back is not possible for me at this time.

i'm still playing around trying to figure out what fixes this, but because of my shoulder rehab, i have not been pushing it much recently.

Has anyone tried the L-Chin ups (palms facing you)? If you cant quite get decent L-pull ups, try the L-chin ups for a while and then check back on the L-pull ups in a few weeks. If its just a flexibility issue then keep working on your flexibility

Grissim, proceed to work the straight arm bridges with the feet elevated as high as necessary.

An interesting stretch I found was to stand next to a pole or pillar, reach behind and grab a stick and move up and down like a wall slide.

I've been trying to work one arm hangs on bar or rings and twisting around the arm to loosen things up. Ideally I could do 1/2 turns with these by turning just on the arm but they are still troublesome.

Blairbob said:

Grissim, proceed to work the straight arm bridges with the feet elevated as high as necessary.

An interesting stretch I found was to stand next to a pole or pillar, reach behind and grab a stick and move up and down like a wall slide.

I've been trying to work one arm hangs on bar or rings and twisting around the arm to loosen things up. Ideally I could do 1/2 turns with these by turning just on the arm but they are still troublesome.

that pole idea sounds really good. i've wanted a way to mimic bridges but with a pull instead of a push with the arms.

i've been doing some single arm hangs recently for grip work, and when i first accidentally rotated around i got scared for my shoulder but then found it subsequently relaxing. i should probably try these more as well.

I think i had a big realization yesterday while working out: i think my biceps are too tight.

i haven't benched in about a year. i normally don't do curls at all. the only thing close would be the inverted hang curls and maybe yewkis.

i started playing around and i think i noticed that whenever my elbows straighten out, my shoulder seem to really stretch out into improper positions. I began trying to test my biceps more by doing many exercises in supinated positions. when my hands were kept in this state, a few results would occur. if it was a pressing motion, my normal tendency was to role my weight onto the point on the heel of the hand below the pinky/away from the thumb. this would allow me to extend my arms, but my shoulders would feel like crap and i could tell i was aggravating them. if i concentrated hard and tried to keep my weight on the meaty part of the hand beneath the thumb, my shoulders felt a ton better, yet my wrists felt a huge stretch, and my elbows could not extend very far past 90 degrees.

in pulling motions such as a supinated pull up, these versions are dramatically harder for me than pronated ones. if i try to do a full dead hang with a supinated grip, i feel a very uncomfortable tug at the tendons in the back of my forearm and wrist below the pinky area.

the only thing i have been doing excessively for the past while is grappling as well as handstands. i used to feel intense squeezing in my biceps during planche work. i had a lot of progress in planches relatively quickly, but then when the bicep feeling went away, my shoulders started killing and it hurts to do planches now.

i focus a lot on straight arm work, but now i believe that i may have neglected bent arm work. it would seem that the straight arm work would promote bicep flexibility, but i guess my arms weren't ready for this much. maybe my shoulders began to carry the burden.

i've been trying to stretch my biceps out today for a while. i noticed that i have to supinate my biceps hard and start the stretch with the elbows at 90 degrees. i then use a wall to try to extend them outwards. if i feel my arm extend too easily, generally my shoulder moves and it enters a position that aggravates the shoulder again.

i'm trying to think of what may have caused such intense bicep tightness, but it makes sense when i compare straight arm work to stiff legged deadlift work. the crazy burn you feel in your hamstring there should probably be mimicked in straight arm work.

correct me if i'm off base with any of this reasoning.

should i try to do all supinated work for a while?

Yes, it is very important to have the correct balance between straight arm and bent arm work. Generally an athlete will find that they are more proficient at one than the other and will tend to over emphasize their favorite - often resulting in muscle imbalances.

Given your situation, you may find German hangs (BtGB, pg 12) to be an excellent biceps stretch. My recommendation would be to initially lower your Xtreme Rings so that your feet are on the ground during the German hang and then gradually progress onward to a full German hang over time. 3 sets of 15 seconds should be adequate for now.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Lowering the rings and performing german hangs while still standing on the ground helped a lot. I continued further and basically did a big stretching session with the rings. i moved through a lot of ranges very slowly, keeping my shoulders actively engaged. they started feeling great as a lot of blood began flowing through them. i alternated between a lot of supinated, false, and pronated grips to open up my shoulders and biceps in a multitude of positions. i moved through wide muscle ups very slowly and my shoulder felt very relieved. i think i'm gonna start implementing a sort of ring based stretching program on my off days or PWO.

i finished the session with a good deal of wall extensions because most of the rings based stretching stresses the internal rotators.

Thanks for the advice Coach

i've finally figured out how to avoid the shoulder pain. i talked about it on this forum

http://www.performancemenu.com/forum/sh ... #post66450

Grissim Connery said:

i've finally figured out how to avoid the shoulder pain. i talked about it on this forum ... http://www.performancemenu.com/forum/sh ... #post66450

Very good point. Shoulders behind the bar during the ascent is also how my athletes perform these as well. My apologies, it is so automatic for us that it never occurred to me to mention it specifically.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer