Xiaoping Forwards

In doing this movement, I know that the shoulder is not supposed to click, pop, snap, or make any other relative sound. How does one get to that point? I tried lowering the amount of weight for the movement: just no. I tried twisting my body in support of the arm that was swinging: still nope. I tried reaching full ROM by shrugging my shoulders: even still, a whole heap of nada. Lastly, I tried limiting the ROM for the arc which my arm was taking (think straight up-over-head in front of the body and then in the descent at maybe 45 degrees to my body): this, too, lots of nothing (in terms of progress or fluidity that was also lacking in my other adjustments).

Does anyone have any other insights into this? I posted a video about a week ago, or maybe two, my form wasn't great and on taking a few steps back I'm still perplexed as to what's holding me back exactly. I know my shoulders suck (Handstand One and the TBs have illuminated this point to me weekly), but I'm trying to figure out how best to fix it and quickly.

Thanks.

my shoulders normally made some strange sounds, normally is tissue adhesion.

Oh okay. So just keep working it with full ROM, even with the sound effects? Assumedly then, the sound effects should lessen with time? 

If you don't feel pain or discomfort I think is OK.

Seems to be ok, as long as there's no pain.

Judging from the Side to Side Squats on Middle Split Stretch, someone's got creaky knees and they seem to be doing fine. 

There is nothing inherently wrong with some sounds so don't let the put you off. As mentioned above, if there is no pain, then there is no problem.

One thought as you are doing the full rom movement, is to look for subtle changes you can make to reduce a reoccurring sound.

Cole Dano said:

One thought as you are doing the full rom movement, is to look for subtle changes you can make to reduce a reoccurring sound.

I guess that this was also what I was inquiring about? Should it matter? Should I seek that out as a final goal? How could/should I go about doing so?

Subtle just means seeing if there are little things you can do to make change the movement. Generally, things you can feel you are doing but someone watching wouldn't notice. There's no right or wrong with what you do in that manner. But often doing this can totally eliminate the odd noise.

I remember feeling such a way in my left shoulder (Crossfit minor injury), during this mobility, not as much now.  I got advice, via GB forum, to do TUT (time under tension) with the workout of HS/PE2 and in order to do that was go to back to the very beginning (block 1, week 1) in as slow a motion as you can, pushing up and down, getting full range of motion (including a brief pause during hollow back (top position)) and feeling the groove.  I'm guessing the slow motion puts the joints into a more active state.  I did that and there is much less 'feeling' of joint grinding (during the mobility) and my pushups are just as strong, I'm back on block 3.

Give it a try, it's only 2 mini cycles (or 1, if your on Block 2).  The TUT fades out after Block 2 Week 5 (4 sets of 6 reps), unless your body reacts to going faster @ Block 1 Week 3 (as I'm looking at the numbers in my notes).  Your body will automatically change from slow motion to wanting to pick up speed (normal speed) during the 6-9 rep range (personal observation) and that would be the end of the TUT.  Your shoulders will thank you.

At the same time overall, go normal speed with the mobility.

Hollow back? With xaioping forwards? I don't understand at all what you mean. TUT isnt the issue it's my ROM. Furthermore it's not a static hold so I'm not sure how TUT transfers over

Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

Hollow back? With xaioping forwards? I don't understand at all what you mean. TUT isnt the issue it's my ROM. Furthermore it's not a static hold so I'm not sure how TUT transfers over

Hey Daniel, all I'm saying is start from the beginning, block 1 of HBP/PE2, go as slow as you can (the meaning of TUT) in the full ROM.  Let your body feel the full range of motion, and within the slow "dynamic" movement, your body will have no choice but to adjust and get stronger for the workout.  And maybe not quickly, but surely, less "click / pop / snap" in your shoulders. 

With TUT, from my experience not only more muscles fibers will get hit, your joints will (directly or indirectly) feel the effect and get strong as well.  Kind of similar to some routine that you may not be familiar with, you start slowly but surely and your body will get a better understanding next time (muscle memory).

Remember this kind of routine (HBP/PE2) is back to back with hitting the shoulders, from compound movement to isolation, and over again for however amount of reps.  That was one reason I decided to humble myself and start from Block 1.  Especially after doing HBP/PE2 for soooo long, it didn't hurt to start over.  And I feel stronger than ever and less ailment (click / pop / snap / other) on my left side of my shoulder.

kingzlo said:

, from compound movement to isolation, and over again for however amount of reps.

Can you explain this one for me please?

Sure Jon.  Going through the HBP (pushups), your hitting the chest / shoulders / triceps and other muscles, including stabilizers (compound).  With the Xiaoping Forwards, the focus (isolation) is on the shoulders.

That thought was in a sense of my knowledge from when I trained with weights; hitting many body parts (compound) vs. focus on one body part at a time (isolation).  Like bench pressing combined with side lateral raises for example.

I figured out how to eliminate the clicking and popping during Xiaoping the other day (at least for my own shoulders) 

- Focus on pushing the weight as far away from the shoulder as possible for the entire range of motion. So when the DB is in front of you, protract hard, when it's above you elevate hard, when its behind you retract hard. I sort of visualise trying to stretch my arm as long as possible in every direction the whole time.

Hope that helps

Thanks, Sam. I kind of figured that that approach might be best, though my ROM is still unsatisfactory (it's sort of like 60-75 degrees to my body when my arm is behind me), so it makes it hard fully engage my shoulders in that way. I will continue to work on it, though, as I'm not yet to 5x15 with push-ups when doing them in a hollow body position. Thank you for also being succinct in your post.