Shoulder flexion and kips

[Daniel Burnham]

Hey guys,

Im having a problem when doing kipping motions both under parallel bars and on high bar. Basically I cant seem to extend out in front of myself enough. My shoulder feels very tight when my arms go behind my head and keep me from opening up. I do have a history of injury in my shoulder. My left one subluxes foward when I try to lift things behind my head. I also have mild kyphosis.

Right now im doing several of kits stretches for opening up the chest, doing Ido's shoulder stabalization, doing the slizzardman shoulder stretches on the ground and I swing during my warmup to try and loosen them up. I do each several times a week and have been working on it for about two months now. Also wall extensions are pretty easy for me though I always feel my shoulder might sublux during the movement.

Is there something else I should do?

[Daniel Burnham]

after some exploration I believe the problem lies with my lats. I will attempt to loosen them up and see how its effects the movement.

[Joshua Naterman]

Lats can definitely be an issue.

What I have found to work for me is a combination of the following:

Rolling/SMR for lats, traps, pecs. I need to do more of this.

Upper trap work, focusing on the part of the traps that connects my collarbone to my head with my mind. For me, this makes a noticeable difference. I might be one of the few boneheads that never felt this part work until recently when I really worked to learn how to use it, but if you aren't feeling the muscles all the way from the left to the right from the back of your head to the outside of the shoulder and the outer 1/3 of the collarbone working and feeling almost like a sheet of muscle (which is what the traps are) then you aren't doing it right.

External rotation work, with unsupported upper arm and slow tempo

internal rotation work: I use a false grip on a lat pulldown bar and I do high reps of MU transitions with a fairly wide grip (elbow angle of probably 70 degrees between upper arm and forearm) from the top of the pull up to the beginning of the dip, as if it was with no forward lean. Think like Andreas Aguilar. This helps a LOT for me because of some specific issues I have developed over the years on my right side, but just in general it should help. I do feel this in the lats, but where I get tired is very specifically subscapularis, or so it feels like. Teres major is also getting quite a workout. It goes without saying that this is with a hollow body.

Standing handstand drill: Just stand and try to open the shoulders in handstand position (hollow body). For me it works well to do one at a time, with the "resting" arm close to full flexion but not all the way there. This allows me to open the shoulders more when I do both together after a bit of individual work. I have found it extremely helpful to kind of isolate the uppermost traps that go to the collarbone and have them do some extra work. To me it feels like pulling my shoulder back and up with just the spot directly behind my ears. Of course the rest of the upper traps is working, but this makes a noticeable difference. If you can maintain this AND fire the external rotators you will really be in business.

Yuri will probably have the best advice for you, but until then this is what is currently working best for me. There's some other stuff, but this is the major bit.

[Blairbob]

Used to have that after several shoulder injuries. Shoulders got tight to the point I stopped swinging on HB and underbar work on PB. Especially PB with that weird underbar grip in long hang.

Look up Josh's shoulder youtube video. Stick dislocates in over and Eagle grip are fine for the most part but those stretches are the fine tuning points, especially if you use a lacrosse ball or dig in there by hand massage. Lots of cuban presses/rotations helped clear up scar tissue for me as well, but only so much. Then ya got to get in there and do some fine point work.

I also like stall bar pike/shoulder stretch. A kip also requires good pike compression. Tight hammies no good for that V position in long hang or basket swing.