Scapular Pressure In Front Lever

[Paul Jacquemin]

Hello,

I’m having
problems whit my advanced tuck front lever (knees perpendicular to the ground).
When I’m trying the position whit good form I seem to feel a lot of pressure in
my right shoulder blade. maybe rear deltoid?. And sometimes it just pops and
gets out of the retracted position. I don’t feel any pain only pressure. And when
I’m doing it whit bad form (little bent arms) I feel all the pressure in my
lats

Is this a lack of scapular strength? this seem to happen in my right shoulder blade, I have
a little bit of scoliosis so the left side of my high back is stronger.

If it is a lack of scapular strength could you recommend some exercises that could help to
fix it?

Do I need to go back to and easier progression? Do I need to focues on scapular strength exercice?

[Mats Trane]

Scapula pulls is a great exercise for strenghtening scapula. This helped my frontlevers alot.

Here is a video.

[Paul Jacquemin]

thanks you, i can do some front pulls also. do they help for scapular strength?

[seiyafan]

I used to do this kind of scapula movement on dip bars, except it's pressing, wonder if that does anything good. 

 

Scapula pulls is a great exercise for strenghtening scapula. This helped my frontlevers alot.
Here is a video.

[Mats Trane]

If your goal is FL Scapula pulls will definetly help. The main exercises I used to get my FL:

Hollow hold

Frontpulls (slow)

Scapula pulls

Front lever pulls

Static FL

[Nic Branson]

I am a huge fan of scap pulls or as I typicall call them hanging shrugs for mobility work even once strong. When I teach them though I do not encourage or focus on any backward lean this can teach bad habits. Really focus on down and back get your shoulers down their sockets then squeeze them together hard, your body will naturally tilt backwards slightly as you get further engagement. Leaning early defeats the purpose. Let it happen naturally as you get better at it...

[Joshua Naterman]

The scap pulls should be a stepping stone, because you should be able to pull yourself up from a dead hang into a FL no problem with straight arms.

 

It is important to make this point: You must be doing this WITHOUT LOSING A HOLLOW BODY!!!

 

Do not let your upper back arch, especially at the bottom. Same for lower back, but what I see a lot is the upper back arching, in an attempt to get some of the upper lat fibers into a position to contribute [more] force. This is a compensation pattern for weak scapular musculature.

 

From what I have seen, people screw themselves in their training by allowing a slight arch as they lower down out of their FL work. It is very, very, very important to keep the entire back straight the whole way down. It will feel COMPLETELY different if you don't do that, so please experiment with it to learn the difference. You may need a spot at first to do this correctly.

 

If you do this properly, you're doing a more difficult version of the scap pulls.

 

It's not QUITE the same, so don't think I'm discouraging the scap pulls entirely,  but when you really analyze the movement you'll see that all you're doing is pulling into an arched FL. From there, it is easy to say "Hmm, for any given shoulder angle, a straight or hollow body causes the center of mass to be higher than the arched body, thus making the exercise harder with a hollow body." This simple observation should make it clear that you need to be focusing very, very closely on not losing your hollow as you lower from FL into a hang.

 

Again, this isn't easy at first but it will show you whether or not you have a glaring weakness in this area.

 

Final point: You'll have to make sure you're pulling into a neutral shoulder position, and not allowing your body to sink down into full protraction as you reach the top position of FL. This is a key point.

[Nic Branson]

Yeap, as said to me it is mobility to make sure you can move them around properly and have some balance. Do not think of a scap pull and moving into the FL at all. Different purpose and different goal. I've had people whose ROM in a scap pull is about 1cm that's it. With that level of activation FL training is completely out until it is fixed. Scap pulls with that retraction also help balance out all the hollow work we do. Don't get blindly over specialized.

[seiyafan]

So let me get this right, during FL or scapular work, try to bring shoulder blades together. 

[Nic Branson]

The shoulder blades move together as a part of retraction, basic coaching cue

[Mats Trane]

 

It is important to make this point: You must be doing this WITHOUT LOSING A HOLLOW BODY!!!

 

Do not let your upper back arch, especially at the bottom. 

 

Interesting point. I was taught to do them with a relaxed lower back by a Russian gymnastics coach. I will definetly try them with a hollow body, it should turn out to be quit a different execise.

[seiyafan]

Scapula pulls is a great exercise for strenghtening scapula. This helped my frontlevers alot.

Here is a video.

 

At the very top of scapula pull I feel slight pain in my shoulders, is this normal?

[Guest]

Maybe I get this wrong, but wouldn't keeping the body hollow during a scap pull result in a frontpull?

[Jono]

Interesting posts.

 

I have a really, really solid scap pull with an ARCHED back. But if I try to do a (really slow) Tuck FL Pull starting from a Hollow Dead Hang with my knees tucked, I find it really difficult. It feels hard for me get the shoulder down and back into its socket, and the movement feels really weird and unnatural compared to the arched variation.

 

Is this indicative of a big weakness?

 

Thanks.

[Guest]

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