Xiaopengs

Very helpful! Thank you!

8 hours ago, Jon Douglas said:

Its not pretty , taken in one spur of the moment shot, but I think it contains the pertinent points.

Excellent!!!! Thank you!

Awesome. Good to know I've been doing them correctly. These make my shoulders feel awesome 

No worries guys.

Have you felt the difference? Has the weight changed?

1 hour ago, Jon Douglas said:

No worries guys.

Have you felt the difference? Has the weight changed?

Thanks a lot Jon. Now I am down to the pink and purple little wussy weights on this one...

maybe I will regain my man card by improving the pseudo planche pushup element.

38 minutes ago, Ryan Bailey said:

Thanks a lot Jon. Now I am down to the pink and purple little wussy weights on this one...

maybe I will regain my man card by improving the pseudo planche pushup element.

Hey at least they have a use now

Personally I don't really feel it unless it's atleast 5-8 pounds. 10 is barely too much for me to do with strict form on all sets. I'd say a solid 3 sets and shaky 4th set. These definitely held me back, but my shoulders feel great for it regardless : ). I'll bite my pride and buy light weights already so I can progress past this in the near future.

Yeah, I use 5lbs and it feels good. Squeezing/locking out the elbow with intention really stretches the bicep into my shoulder (which is always really tight for me).

7 hours ago, Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

Yeah, I use 5lbs and it feels good. Squeezing/locking out the elbow with intention really stretches the bicep into my shoulder (which is always really tight for me).

Yea. Dropping down to 5 was good for me. I always do Table bridge before these so I didn't notice biceps, but I did notice more Lat/Oblique tension on my right side fighting me. Left side is pretty smooth aside from oblique as well. Really interesting that's the case.

Hate stretching my obliques more than anything 

Going backwards it is a negative through the weakest part of the motion; of course you will be able to use more weight than going forwards  be sure not to cut the arc short going forwards-- doing so is the sign that you have gone a little too heavy

7 hours ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

Hate stretching my obliques more than anything 

What are your favorite stretches for them (obliques)? 

9 hours ago, Suzanna McGee said:

What are your favorite stretches for them (obliques)? 

Any leaning to one side or rotating the trunk suits me really well.

Deepest oblique stretch I've felt thus far is the pancake lean/twist with straight arm. With stretch strap it hurts so good. Aside from that I decided to do daily limber regardless of whether or not I workout. Just single set of all PE1 mobilities. My body, especially obliques and hips have been feeling better. I actually enjoy doing swivel hips and hip circles now lol

33 minutes ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

Deepest oblique stretch I've felt thus far is the pancake lean/twist with straight arm. With stretch strap it hurts so good. Aside from that I decided to do daily limber regardless of whether or not I workout. Just single set of all PE1 mobilities. My body, especially obliques and hips have been feeling better. I actually enjoy doing swivel hips and hip circles now lol

I was curious if you would say the pancake with side lean… it's the only oblique stretch that I really (REALLY) feel deeply. All the other ones are ok, comfortable, but don't feel like they are doing that deep job. This pancake, the longer I hold it and lower I get, is so good (I mean it's bad, but good… you know what I mean). It's almost hard to get out of the stretch how deep I get… I also do all the other ones, leans, twists, hips circles, body rotations etc, but they are just "limbering". Hanging on the bar with feet touching the ground to the side of the body creates also a nice pull-stretch of the obliques. Still nothing like the pancake side lean

Definitely lol. After doing middle split series is when I found out how much I actually really needed oblique stretching. I never recognized it, before doing that series. Side leans and twist just don't really highlight that issue because you can easily confuse it for back tightness. 

1 hour ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

Definitely lol. After doing middle split series is when I found out how much I actually really needed oblique stretching. I never recognized it, before doing that series. Side leans and twist just don't really highlight that issue because you can easily confuse it for back tightness. 

Especially if you're not mindful to keep your chest open.

7 hours ago, Daniel Taylor-Shaut said:

Especially if you're not mindful to keep your chest open.

I think, for me, the standing stretches feel less productive because it is really hard for me to relax into the stretch. Standing there, trying to keep my chest open, not let the hips move away from the stretch, not letting the body compensate away from the stretch… it's so much effort that I can't relax. The side pancake, I get "stuck" into the position, hips cannot move, nothing cannot really move away from the intensity rather than let myself relax and fall into it deeper... Maybe when I get less tight in the obliques, the standing ones will feel beneficial too, who knows  waiting for that moment to happen… 

I find a good stretch is interlacing your fingers stretching your arms straight up overhead and then leaning to one side. It's a good one for me and mimics that same movement pattern as the pancake shoulder stretches.

On 11/8/2016 at 7:00 PM, Jon Douglas said:

Right, here is a quick and dirty;

Its not pretty , taken in one spur of the moment shot, but I think it contains the pertinent points.

Angle is a little unfortunate, just stay vertical, don't arch and keep the ribs down.

 

Thank you Jon. Apart from the quick tutorial, this was the only other video instruction I've seen. I'm going to try and implement what you've said. Even though we are beginners, most of us don't want to be in our gyms doing it wrong 'but that's OK for your level', we want to be working on doing it right. Your video helps give me something to work on as it obvious I'm still trying to work out what correct 'shoulder extension' is. Thanks mate. 

Doing it with as much shoulder extension as possible is extremely hard - even without any weight. Realised I've been doing arm circles due to too much rotation in the trunk. Started working on the dislocate feeling of extension now ...and am back to 0-2lbs. 

Seems like letting the upper torso twist relative to the pelvis will minimize shoulder extension and encourage shoulder abduction along a side-plane (no idea what the technical terms would be). I wonder if it is better to keep the upper torso still as long as possible, or otherwise minimize its movement.

It's obvious that this exercise is tricky to get right and to perform as intended. Since it is described as a one arm dislocate, how come Xiaopengs are used for mobility instead of dislocates? I'm sure there is a good reason, just curious to hear the pros of this exercise compared to dislocates at this point of the program.

They cannot be completely considered as a dislocate since the dislocate has the one shoulder range of motion restricted to the other one without any possible compensation allowed. the xiaopeng permits a certain amount of compensation by upper body spine rotation.

Admittedly, I'm still working on these but this thread is starting to sound like paralysis by analysis. You lock the elbow and keep it locked; on the ascent the palm faces the sky; at the top you keep the shoulder shrugged and then you begin the descent wherein you internally rotate the arm and face the palm towards the ground/elbow is still locked (or you point the thumb towards the ground if you're a stud as some would like to say); as you internally rotate try to do so with the least amount of spinal/torso rotation that YOU can muster. Rinse and repeat. No?

Edit: Mastery is at least 5lbs. with minimal torso twisting and the arm close to straight up and down throughout the entire motion.