HS PE2 iM form check

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've been on it.  I usually do it with wider grip, but I wanted to know your thoughts about that and, maybe, get some cues?  Thanks in advanced

@Étienne Lajeunesse

Nice progress to this point.

I notice that you still are leaning forward as you extend your arms. As a result, you tend to elevate your shoulders as you extend your arms behind you.

Instead, try setting your shoulders by depressing them. From there, reach your arms away from your body so that they eventually raise to parallel.

This slight adjustment can make huge changes to how this stretch feels.

2 minutes ago, Mikey Cunanan said:

@Étienne Lajeunesse

Nice progress to this point.

I notice that you still are leaning forward as you extend your arms. As a result, you tend to elevate your shoulders as you extend your arms behind you.

Instead, try setting your shoulders by depressing them. From there, reach your arms away from your body so that they eventually raise to parallel.

This slight adjustment can make huge changes to how this stretch fees.

Thanks Mikey!

But, to be honest, I don't feel any stretch.  I just tried your cues and don't feel much.  Am I doing it wrong? It just feels hard to not compensate..

A video would sure help.

It often takes a little playing around with to get the right motion. Also you may need to add weight to that bar. 5lbs is mastery standard.

@Mikey Cunanan

Ok, so, where I stop in the video, I only feel my traps engaged (a lot) no stretch.

@Étienne Lajeunesse As you raise your arms behind you, your shoulders will need to internally rotate slightly as you raise your arms into extension. That will keep your shoulders depressed (preventing you from using your traps to lift your arms)

This is an interesting thread. I too struggle with finding a stretch with this one. I feel like it's more of a back/tricep muscle work to engage and lift some days, and others I feel like I'm stretching biceps/elbows like the shoulder extension of the TB program, along with working the muscles.

Hey @Mikey Cunanan,

Can you show me? Because anything I do, I feel my upper traps burning...

a simple test is to do it while your toes and nose touch a wall. it's a brutal spot but it's a great one to teach disassociating the extension of your shoulders from simply "lifting your arms to parallel."

 that'll show you just how much lean you incorporate into the extension while doing the exercise.
 

What I do is depressing and retracting before initiating the movement. But it s easier using a wider grip. I don t feel any strecht unless I use a very wide grip. If I use shoulder widht grip then is just my muscles fighting to be in a range of motion they are not prepared for. 

1 hour ago, Keilani Gutierrez said:

a simple test is to do it while your toes and nose touch a wall. it's a brutal spot but it's a great one to teach disassociating the extension of your shoulders from simply "lifting your arms to parallel."

 that'll show you just how much lean you incorporate into the extension while doing the exercise.
 

Thanks Keilani, I already know where I start to bend forward.  My question was more about traps firing instead of shoulder stretching.  If my traps are working, but don't feel any stretch, is due to lack of strength or mobility?

In this way, @Antonio Alías Montoya, taking a wider grip get me to feel a stretch.  So, how do we want the movement to be?  By working on strengthening the traps, or my stretching with a wider grip?

well, the weighted shoulder extension is a mobility exercise. mobility is the use of muscular contractions to move a joint through it's range of motion. this will mean you are both strengthening and stretching tissue because you are engaging it along the entirety of its capacity for movement.

as a rule of thumb, you should be mostly stretching areas you need to open up for proper joint function and then target with mobility exercises to then be able to layer strength on top of the mobile joint for feats of awesome.

does this answer your question?

you can use it as a stretch, especially if you can use muscular contractions to stretch, but if you're fighting for activation on a certain position, then it's important to know in which case to do what. in the case of activation, flex with all your might! in the case of stretching, work on the tightest line and bring those hands together. passively, we should be ideally able to hold our hands together in a 90-degree shoulder extension. with weight, it's not unreasonable to ask for a shoulder width grip and minimal lean, at first.

7 hours ago, Keilani Gutierrez said:

well, the weighted shoulder extension is a mobility exercise. mobility is the use of muscular contractions to move a joint through it's range of motion. this will mean you are both strengthening and stretching tissue because you are engaging it along the entirety of its capacity for movement.

as a rule of thumb, you should be mostly stretching areas you need to open up for proper joint function and then target with mobility exercises to then be able to layer strength on top of the mobile joint for feats of awesome.

does this answer your question?

you can use it as a stretch, especially if you can use muscular contractions to stretch, but if you're fighting for activation on a certain position, then it's important to know in which case to do what. in the case of activation, flex with all your might! in the case of stretching, work on the tightest line and bring those hands together. passively, we should be ideally able to hold our hands together in a 90-degree shoulder extension. with weight, it's not unreasonable to ask for a shoulder width grip and minimal lean, at first.

I think I'll need a biomechanics 101 course for this one!

I understand what you're saying, but I still don't understand on what to focus on.  By that I mean, in passive stretch, a retracted-depressed full 90 degree shoulder extension is possible for me, and I still feel a stretch in my shoulders in this one.

In the active extension, I only feel my traps working.  Does it mean that I just still don't have the strength to overcome it?  Is there something that can help me with that?

What about wider grip?  I feel it a lot in my arms and chest, but why doing wider grip if, passively, I can do shoulder width?  In this case, strengthening in the right shoulders angle would be a better solution, wouldn't be?

Sorry for all this messaging , but I really want to understand.

16 hours ago, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

What about wider grip?  I feel it a lot in my arms and chest, but why doing wider grip if, passively, I can do shoulder width?  In this case, strengthening in the right shoulders angle would be a better solution, wouldn't be?.

@Étienne Lajeunesse If you  are feeling it in the chest and arms with a wider grip, then that will be your solution.

Start with your arms wide and up weight slowly while keeping your shoulders depressed. Then narrow your grip and lower the weight gradually over time.

6 hours ago, Mikey Cunanan said:

 

Start with your arms wide and up weight slowly while keeping your shoulders depressed. Then narrow your grip and lower the weight gradually over time.

Hi Mikey!

I started doing since a while now.  It's a really slow progress, any suggestions to help improve the extension?

What do you mean by increasing in decreasing weight?

On 2/11/2018 at 5:11 AM, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

Hi Mikey!

I started doing since a while now.  It's a really slow progress, any suggestions to help improve the extension?

What do you mean by increasing in decreasing weight?

@Étienne Lajeunesse

Start with a wider grip and work up to 5 lbs. Over time decrease your hand width. You may need to lower the weight to do so. Over time build up to shoulder width grip with 5lbs.

Shoulder extension for some comes slowly. I recommend incorporating some seated shoulder extension daily to help loosen up your shoulders. Remember to depress those shoulders.

It really comes down to putting time in shoulder extension.  You’ll have no other choice but to improve

Thanks @Mikey Cunanan!  Now we're talking about! Already did my first training with your approach! Cool video btw