bulgarian dip shoulder pain + form critique

Hi everyone, 

I've started training two months ago, trying to read as much as possible on this great forum. In two months I reached a two second straddle back lever, 10 sec handstand, 20 sec half tuck front lever, first ever 20 consecutive pullups (I weigh 93 kg, and it was a truly amazing feeling to acheive this) and more... I really feel the best I did in my life! 

I started doing bulgarian dips this week, and my shoulder hurts a bit when holding the shoulder at a position similar to the bottom position of the bulgarian dip. 

Here are two angles of my dip, am I doing something wrong? 

Thanks a lot! 

Front angle: 

http://youtu.be/TpULf1gcZAs

Side angle: 

http://youtu.be/KQj3N8hi13Q

any advice will be appreciated! 

Thanks, 

Jonathan.

1. Keep your shoulders back so that your torso is completely upright.

2. Your elbows need to stay in the same line as your torso. Your elbows drift backward.

3. Consider hanging your rings from two separate over head beams instead of on the same beam.

Previous thread: Bulgarian Dips Read and pay attention to posts #1 and #4 on page 1 and also post #55 on page 3.

Previous thread: RTO Dips Vs Bulgarian Dips Read and pay attention to post #11(Especially the quoted section) on page 1 and post #25 on page 2.

Regarding the pain in your shoulder from doing Bulgarian dips, you are putting too much stress on your shoulder muscles that aren't ready to deal with the stress involved.

Two months for this result is a very little time, especially if you are new to this training you need to be careful on progression. Fl, bl and bulg dips are not something for very beginner athlete. The fact you are suffering from shoulders pain is a sign of low lever if joint preparation. Take off amateur and low level approach and look to foundations to save time and joints.

GoldenEagle : 

Thanks a lot. Very specific and valuable advice man! did you have the same dilemma? 

I did the test described in post #11, I am certainly not flexible enough for them yet... I'm going back to regular dips for a while.. Might try again in a cycle or two... 

What is the advantage of two seperate overhead beams? 

alex: 

Thanks for the concern man! 

I'm  really monitoring volume, I didn't change any parameter for two months in order for my joints to adapt. I'm getting good sleep and I'm not pushing it too hard. 

I'll definitely stick with exercises that don't demand such advanced joint mobility while under stress...

- Jonathan.

it's not only about mobility and use the same exercise for long period, it's about PROGRESSIVELY prepare the joints for skills with high stress on joints. as i said on other post, the less is the preparation, the less will be the ability of your connective tissue to heal. normal people probably 1 week and half, maybe 2 before fully recover, a prepared guy maybe 1-2 days.

progressive preparation is achieved before by bent arms progression  and joints stabilization and after with progressive and specific leverage increase on straight arms skills.

With 2 months of training is simply impossible to cover all the preparations over shoulder, elbows, wrist, upper back  both joints and muscles. what i cited could take about 1.5-2 years.

pain is a sign that you are damaging more then what you are healing.

Jonathan Somer said:

GoldenEagle : 

 

Thanks a lot. Very specific and valuable advice man! did you have the same dilemma? 

 

I did the test described in post #11, I am certainly not flexible enough for them yet... I'm going back to regular dips for a while.. Might try again in a cycle or two... 

 

What is the advantage of two separate overhead beams? 

 

I have yet to start doing Bulgarian ring dips.  I recently have had to go back to Russian dips from standard ring dips, because of tendonitis in my left shoulder. The tendonitis developed from doing weighted shoulder dislocates with grip spacing my body wasn't quite ready for at the moment.

Two separate overhead beams will allow your rings to hang parallel to each rather than next to each other.

Golden Eagle: cool, I didn't think of that (parrallel thing). 

good luck with your shoulder man.. injuries suck.. 

alex87:

looks very elaborate but I'm afraid I don't have the means to buy programs and stuff. I'm just sticking with going slow, and reading the stuff available online. I hope I'll be ok. 

I'm really low on volume and intensity on the straight arm work.

The results from these two months were from 7 sets of 4 second holds. 

That's 28 seconds of time under tension per exercise per workout, and only two exercises - FL and BL

The rest was bent arm work, and handstands. 

If you're interested, this is my  current  routine: