TBs/SE3 confession

From all the stretches of TB, SE3 is the one that has a cathartic “I’m going to hell…” effect – but not in my shoulders!

Yes, I know the focus points and purpose, as well as how to back off from it, etc., yet I cannot feel any stretch in my shoulders. Mostly just signs of discomfort in my elbows. In my case, not a chance I have tight or fatigued biceps/brachialis since I haven’t done any serious pull work for 8-12 months. 

Unfortunately, in that position (Supine Shoulder Extension) my elbows will naturally hyperextend, hence I feel the stretch deep in the structures of my cubital fossa and that becomes the focus. To avoid that, I’ve been experimenting by tweaking my body position in various ways. 

It seems like during this stretch, micro-softening my elbows intentionally (only very slightly) in order to take the stress away from my elbows is my best choice. This way, I can feel a little the stretch in my shoulders and it still looks like I have my arms straight-ish to a third person. If I try to go deeper and lower, I only keep targeting my elbow structures instead of my shoulders! Maybe others with hyper-extended elbows can relate here. 

Is this stretch not sufficient for my mobile shoulders (?) A year ago, I was doing German Hangs https://youtu.be/3VEObSWqSdU and that didn’t seem to stress my elbows, but it felt great in my shoulders. Should I be doing a suspended stretch to open my shoulders?

I appreciate your thoughts.

If your elbows are the weak link than giving them precedence should be a priority.  If this results in your shoulders not feeling stretched, then it is what it is.

The german hang in the video did not stress your elbows due to an incorrect grip.

Personal call here.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Got it. I should look at SE3 as my elbows being the "bottleneck." 

I was concerned that I might be overstitching something internally in my elbows, which tend to hyper-extend. If I'm not inflicting any harm to my elbows, even if I see smoke coming out them, i will stay there. I'm glad I asked. Thank you.
 

For those of us with weak/sensitive elbows, are the various versions of the straight arm floor/wall pec stretches an acceptable alternative?

This is the best example I could find on Youtube quickly: 

listen to Coach on this one. I, too, feel a bit of focus of the stretch in my elbows instead of higher up in the shoulder. having the arms in extension vs having them out to the side abducted to stretch the pec targets a diff line. this line should be treated as separate from stretching the bicep in extension(the pec muscle will insert into the humerus, we want to focus on biceps here and focus on pecs with a different type of stretch to get all the lines equally mobilized). 

what I do is keep a small contraction(enough to keep me "up") in my bicep, let it go slowly, adjust my butt, shoulder position and/or angle in my elbow. when you are in extension and "pull" as if you were forcing your arms through the ground you have to take caution with the elbow joint. if you are not strong enough, it will cause discomfort. if you take it easy with a bit of an elbow bend(imagine you're arms are behind you, instead of straight arms, bend in the elbow as if you were doing a dip) and then re-adjust to having the elbow straight. i maintain enough contraction to keep me "up" and then relax until my elbow says when. doing this since the TB series came out actually brought out hyper extended elbows in me, something i found fascinating since i didn't think it was a developed quality. when you look at some gymnasts on the rings, you do notice that some who hold very malteses have a gentle curve in the elbow. probably a quality developed through Straight Arm Strength.

Keilani, I'm with you! I've been doing almost identical contractions and common sense "wiggles" as you're describing. Thank you for sharing.

Not sure why my 2nd post is not visible yet and later ones are.

As you improve in the straight arm strength this issue should clear up. sPL is perfect for the elbows.

You are more mobile than strong, so you need to wait until the connective tissue builds.

6 hours ago, Mark Collins said:

You are more mobile than strong, so you need to wait until the connective tissue builds.

Nicely stated.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer