Hey everyone, pretty basic question. I'm trying to work on my front lever progressions with things like knees-to-elbows and skin-the-cats/german hangs.
How should I be orienting my shoulders during the ball-up phase? For example, if you put your palms down on a table in front of you and try to press downwards (so sort of like what you're doing to the bar, except it's overhead), you can rotate your elbows a bit by fiddling with your shoulders, so that your biceps face upwards or sideways.
I find that I'm significantly stronger if I "corkscrew" my shoulders so that my biceps point up (perpendicular to the table). I can do several skin-the-cats if I activate my shoulders like that at the bottom of the dead-hang (so I guess I'm not really dead-hanging), but I've got absolutely no strength whatsoever with a more neutral shoulder orientation.
Sorry about the lack of physiological detail - I'm new to this. Is this just a shoulder-girdle strength issue? I feel like my abs are okay, I can hold l-sits on rings etc. for 20+ seconds.
)