Balancing Shoulders to prevent shoulder pain

Hey folks,

first post by me, great forum though!

my question to you:

Im basically doing strength workouts 4 times a week (back/biceps, legs, shoulders, chest/triceps, slightly more pulling than pushing) and want to implement some more functional bodyweight exercises.

what ive done recently is chest-to-wall handstand holds, L-Sits, "straight-arm pullup-shrugs"/lat-activation pulls as called by goldmedalbodies

and some Ido Portal- inspired things: Scapula Archer Straight Arm Pulls, swedish bar front holds, swedish bar back holds;

furthermore im doing shoulder mobility stuff like dislocates and rotator cuff and a little bit of lower traps exercises.

Now most of my described bodyweight exercises are obviously pressing exercises ( bu pressing down !)

i learned you need to do balance out pushing and pulling movements...

but those exercises are also STRAIGHT ARM SCAPULA STRENGTH exercises, so im somehow adressing my shoulder stabilizers and hence shoulder health, right?

what do you think? do i haveto do more pulling exercises ir anything to balance my current beginner "gymnastic" stuff out?

I think the general formula is to do as much overhead pressing as you do horizontal pressing, and as much horizontal pulling as both.

Bipocni said:

I think the general formula is to do as much overhead pressing as you do horizontal pressing, and as much horizontal pulling as both.

But how do you serozsly wanna do this when you seriously want do practice handstands? You cant do that much pullups

While some do indeed insist on such a ratio, GB does not.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

JonasTrainWill said:

But how do you seriously wanna do this when you seriously want do practice handstands? You cant do that much pullups

If you're talking about freestanding handstands, I wouldn't worry about it.  Unless you're very advanced, your balance will be the limiting factor, rather than muscle exhaustion.

Really it's a simple matter of using your shoulders in every direction you can.  Too many weight trained people are stuck in this horrible bench press / lat pulldown cycle that will destroy their shoulders in the long run.

If you're doing handstands, limbering ect by default you're probably going to avoid any serious imbalances in the shoulders. 

You even mentioned above that you're training more pulling than pushing, so again, you're probably going to be okay.

There's some more complicated stuff to do with acromia, rotator cuffs, overhead pressing and impingement, but I'm not even going to pretend to understand it.

Coach Sommer said:

While some do indeed insist on such a ratio, GB does not.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Ive been eagerly reading through this topic, but had wished for a more clear answer on this legitimate question.

So, Coach- or anybody else- why is it that GB isn't providing this ratio or doesn't think its necessary at all?

Since many physiotherapist's or strength trainers out there claimed the importance of this ratio ( or even to pull more than push! ), you can't ignore it. 

My first guess would be that there is probably just much more complexity of the gleno-humeral joint, so this over-simplification wouldn't do justice to its whole complexity, since the shoulder has obviously more ROM than just pushing or pulling horizontally.

This really interests me: How would you ensure other than that full functionality of the shoulder, maybe also if you're doing other sports BESIDE gymnastic bodies F1 for example, which seems to protect the shoulder inside of the program very well, it probably will be hard to injure yourself there. ( If that would be your respond ).

If you could explain a bit more around it or just give me some references that covers this up, i would be very thankful.

Have a nice day!

If the planche, front lever, handstand, and manna are being trained (probably the side lever too) with mobility/shoulder prehab elements, with correct form, and without ridiculous focus on 1. You shouldn't have to worry about any shoulder issues

My guess would be be cause "push" and "pull" do not strictly apple so some movements. Back lever for example. Particularly the multi plainer movements as well.