Mats Trane Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Lately I´ve been working on opening my stiff shoulders.Here is a vid of the exercises I´m using to get more flexible/stronger shoulders for handstand and press handstand.Any tips and criticism are welcome!rqTouyqOa4I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Looking good, just make sure that you keep a hollow position when opening up the shoulders (tuck the tailbone under and don't lift the chest). This makes a world of difference. It's harder but translates directly to the HS position you're looking for.There are some great back and front body line drills that work the active flexibility you need. Oh, and you may also want to explore your shoulder flexibility by lifting and depressing your scapulae while stretching your arms overhead, you may find some tight spots that are otherwise difficult to locate and work on (my personal experience, I hope more experienced members chime in).Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Trane Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 Looking good, just make sure that you keep a hollow position when opening up the shoulders (tuck the tailbone under and don't lift the chest). This makes a world of difference. It's harder but translates directly to the HS position you're looking for.Makes sence. Thanks!There are some great back and front body line drills that work the active flexibility you need. Oh, and you may also want to explore your shoulder flexibility by lifting and depressing your scapulae while stretching your arms overhead, you may find some tight spots that are otherwise difficult to locate and work on (my personal experience, I hope more experienced members chime in).Good luck!Interesting, i´m going to review my seminar notes again for those line drills. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Dano Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Bio and i are essentially saying the same thing if that help Mats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Trane Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Thanks again Mr Brady, thats what I thought. I´ll be working on that and post a new vid in a few weeks. How could forget? Beeing hollow is one of the most important things, I guess I´ve been focusing on opening my shoulders to much and forgotten about the rest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 What exactly does open shoulders mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 It means that you are able to stretch your arms overhead (like in a handstand) and that, looking from the side, your arms are in line with the rest of your body (i.e. there is no angle/'closure' between your arm and your upper body). Anybody can do this if the distance between the hands is sufficiently large but it's surprisingly difficult to do with 1) the hands at shoulder width (or less) apart and 2) the body in a hollow position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Opening the shoulders actually means having good flexibility in the pecs (minor and major), serratus anterior (my current problem), lats (secondary for me) and everything that goes to the coracoid process.30 minutes a day should give excellent results, I have been reading ahead for neuromuscular physiology and it turns out that just 30 minutes a day of mobility work for a given joint completely prevents shortening from the other 23.5 hours of the day that the joint is immobilized. In other words, 30 minutes of slowly moving through the ROM for a joint is what it takes to completely protect it from complete lack of movement. 30 minutes a day will also undo the damage from the shortening over time, so use that as a guideline until you get your ROM where you want it, and then you should be able to maintain that fairly easily between daily mobility work and actual HS practice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Hmm cool thanks for the replies guys.To keep all the joints you want at maximum flexibility, the 30 minutes a day per joint would add up to quite a bit no?And also, why are open shoulders so important during handstands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Open shoulders are important because they allow you to 'stack' all parts of your body on top of each other in the strongest, most stable and most efficient way. If your shoulder angle is broken you will most likely compensate for it by arching your lower back (in order to keep your centre of mass above your hands). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Well, that's with total immobilization the other 23.5 hours. If you simply move through your range of motion once or twice throughout the day you should have no trouble doing a 30-45 minute routine a few times a week that maintains joint motion in all joints, but to GAIN motion it can take a lot more. That's where picking a target joint and moving through it's current ROM for 30 minutes a day can make a huge difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Dano Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Gaining motion can definitely take more. The upper back and shoulders are especially difficult. I used to work maybe 45 minutes a day on various back-bending movements, and that was after at least two hours of the 'everyday' work.Since i 'retired' from that kind of practice the ROM has gone down (as have some aches and pains) but as long as i do a little every week the base flexibility is still there.The one thing that is extremely important for the older athlete is to not force. You really have to listen to your body and move within its limits. Shoulders are easy to overdo, and once you get problems, it's hard to get rid of them.I think this is something both Slizz and i have too much experience with, and coming form opposite ends of the spectrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Picó García Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 A good exercise for this is (you need another person), lay stomach on floor, extend arms overhead, and bend elbows and get with hands the opposite elbows but behind the head. At this position, the other person sit on your scapulas and catch the elbows and pull them up, while sitting down with the butt on the scapulas/shoulders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Nice, that is a good stretch. Perfect for PNF. Just make sure your partner moves slow hahaha!I do this myself with some chairs or a table. Not as good as a partner, but it works! I have also found that, at least for me, one arm at a time is superior to both arms at the same time, especially for the first half of a stretching session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Sundelin Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 When you open the shoulder, should you internally rotate the arms and retract the scapula? I dont know how to explain, not just raising the hands upward and backward but also rotate the arms and shoulder internally and back so to speak? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Burnham Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 When you open the shoulder, should you externally rotate the arms and retract the scapula?Elevate scapula while keeping them retracted. Also think external rotation in the shoulder but keep the hand position the same. This will help the push upward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Sundelin Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Ok, if you look at HS-PE5-iM, at 20s you can see his armpits turn outward, just before he dislocate and internaly rotate his arms, I wonder if it is the same thinking? I said externally first but I meant Internaly, in the post you answered Daniel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Kristiansen Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Disclocates are great, but for many specific handstand stretches, keep protraction and a slight amount of external rotation. Same goes when you stretch for HS. Protraction does mean closing the shoulder angle. This means that to be capable of 180 degrees flexion in handstand, with chest pulled in and no arch, you need more than 180 degrees active flexion. However, dont over think this, and what you need to focus on is pulling your chest in(which moves your scapulae away from your spine) when you do your stretches. This will in most cases make the stretch harder and more active beacuse you need to force yourself to keep the chest in. Also, you dont really need to think about the external rotation, that takes care of itself as long as you dont actively flare your elbows out. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Sundelin Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Ok, I understand now, thank you Handbalancer:) Love this forum, so much knowledge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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