Body lever work

[pemo]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here; I am pretty ignorant when it comes to body weight training so bear with me.

I started doing body levers a little while back, and was able to progress to holding the body at a 45 degree angle and moving back into a candlestick. The thing is, I noticed a few problems. First, I feel most of the work coming from my shoulders which seems to defeat the purpose of the excercise. Second, I'm pretty sure at this point i should be able to do a full negative, which I cannot.

Is the problem shoulder flexibility, core strength, incorrect form, or some combination of both?

[Blairbob]

Straight arm body lever is signficantly more difficult than bent arm body levers. When the arms are bent, I engage my biceps/triceps to help with the pull. When they are straight it's more delt and lat and there is a longer lever at work. As well, I notice they sometimes can constrict with breathing as to muscles tightening and being engaged.

I have yet to try them like the video where the gymnast lays on that pommel horse trainer versus just laying on floor. Probably harder than floor.

Sometimes, depending on how I grip the post, it can be a bit uncomfortable on my shoulders.

thanks, Matthew as that was supposed to be in my log.

[matthew.percussion]

Blairbob, I think you posted that in the wrong place. Haha.