Shoulder Dislocates

[Cole Dano]

This is an excellent exercise, shouldn't this be a sticky?!

[Wangtang6911]

All Gymnastics coaches will tell you that this stretch is vital for developing shoulder flexibility!

The Chinese love this stretch so much that all the little kids are required to dislocate and inlocate while grabbing the index finger!!

I have currently started doing this stretch as well. I have a theraband on me 24/7 and make it a point to do a set of this stretch every half hour throughout the day. That's what the japanese and chinese coaches here have told me to do atleast hahaha!

[Joshua Naterman]

Nice!!! That's dedication!

[Wangtang6911]

Man, I have been at it for about a month now and my shoulders are killing me! It's time for me to take a few days break from this dislocating thing.

On the plus side, my swings have improved noticeably!

[Razz]

Doesn't seem like a bad idea to carry a band around, maybe I'll start doing that

[Wangtang6911]

Doesn't seem like a bad idea to carry a band around, maybe I'll start doing that

Eh, in retrospect, I should have done that A LOT earlier! My shoulders are really tight though. Just be warned that it will hurt really bad at times. I remember one of the guys on the Shanghai team telling me "grit your teeth and go through some pain right now, it will pay off in the end!"

Good luck with that!

[Tarun Suri]

I don't think this mobility drill is supposed to hurt. At all. Go wider and slowly over the course of week/months go narrower.

[Wangtang6911]

I don't think this mobility drill is supposed to hurt. At all. Go wider and slowly over the course of week/months go narrower.

They are definitely supposed to hurt. Stretching anything hurts to a certain degree.

[Razz]

Yeah it just depends on the kind of pain you feel - stretching pain=good and joint pain=bad, I gotta go slowly though, still not 100% recovered from a shoulder injury

[Guest xani]

Shoulder dislocates are the killer of shoulder impingement, that's what's been helping me greatly. and Yes, they may and should hurt and it's OK, as soon as it's not the kind of pain that makes you cry... I also like, when the arms are in the tightest/hardest position of dislocate exercise, to stop, hold and rock them from side to side a little bit, to maximize the stretch. Of course one should be very well warmed up first..

[Cole Dano]

Saying dislocates should hurt on a public forum with people who may not know how to do them properly is irresponsible.

Done correctly they are one of the great shoulder mobility exercises, but when forced there is a high likely hood of CAUSING shoulder impingement.

The last case of it i had flared up from an overzealous dislocate session and took about a year and a half to go away.

[Coach Sommer]

Done correctly they are one of the great shoulder mobility exercises, but when forced there is a high likely hood of CAUSING shoulder impingement.

Excellent point.

Mobility and joint prep work should NEVER be performed with the same intensity as FBE. Attempting to do so is quickest way to place yourself on the disabled list. The rate of perceived effort during mobility work should be in the moderate to medium range. Experiencing "pain" during this type of work is a guaranteed indicator that you are working with too much intensity.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Guest xani]

Saying dislocates should hurt on a public forum with people who may not know how to do them properly is irresponsible.

Done correctly they are one of the great shoulder mobility exercises, but when forced there is a high likely hood of CAUSING shoulder impingement.

The last case of it i had flared up from an overzealous dislocate session and took about a year and a half to go away.

Irresponsible? I'm not a teacher, coach or instructor SO SUE ME, but I conquered my shoulder impingement with these dislocates, YES it HURT LIKE HELL but allowed me to get back to my activities and advance so much more. If I listened to doctors or anyone who'd say no pain... NO GAIN. It still hurts to do dislocates (just not like hell anymore) as I keep walking my hands closer together each time to get more flexibility. I need excellent shoulder flexibility, and want to eventually hook my hands together and do dislocates like that, without a bar. This WILL hurt. And Yes, I had to put a sock in my mouth to bite it at first, feeling like the shoulder tissues were worked by dislocates at first--probably SCAR tissues developed due to impingement/tendinitis, well it only made it better. Same was with achilles tendons (achilles tendinitis), worked through pain to full victory over tendinitis. When your arms go behind your head in dislocates, squeeze shoulder blades together using this force to help through dislocate rather than pushing from the top. Like I said, I didn't advise to push till you cry (as in "hurts as hell"), but yes pain will be unavoidable unless shoulders are flexible already. Stretching usually hurts for me, this is how my body is designed, may be someone is so flexy it never hurts, well they're lucky then.

[Guest xani]

Done correctly they are one of the great shoulder mobility exercises, but when forced there is a high likely hood of CAUSING shoulder impingement.

Excellent point.

Mobility and joint prep work should NEVER be performed with the same intensity as FBE. Attempting to do so is quickest way to place yourself on the disabled list. The rate of perceived effort during mobility work should be in the moderate to medium range. Experiencing "pain" during this type of work is a guaranteed indicator that you are working with too much intensity.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Yes, when I was a teenager this is how it was, could increase flexibility without pain. But sorry getting close to 40 and being naturally medium-flexibility, not a complete stiff, but not bendy either--the only choice I have is tolerate some pain or not stretch. Cause stretching ALWAYS hurts me, unless it's so mild that it doesnt' really get me anywhere in terms of flexibility gain. Of course on a website or coach in person they'll say not to get pain... cause of fear of some legal issues may be? But in reality you know how your body takes stretching... some of our bodies feel pain with most stretching

Also, things involving shoulder flexibility like "meat hook" move--this HURT AS HELL AND WORSE like if shoulder was ripped out of my body when I started doing it--well I got the move and can do it, body adapted, didn't cause any problems even though I had pre existing shoulder issues. There was no way around--if you try meat hook and not flexible--it will hurt until you're flexible and strong enough, they only way is try and go for it.... my point it no pain--no move. What's good though is to give body long recovery time after painful advance--for tendons to adapt and strengthen.

[Ian Legrow]

I conquered my shoulder impingement with these dislocates, YES it HURT LIKE HELL but allowed me to get back to my activities and advance so much more. If I listened to doctors or anyone who'd say no pain... NO GAIN.

I don't know if this is entirely true. I believe no pain no gain is great in terms of building muscle strength becasue if it hurts, your muscle is tearing and will be stronger when it is healed. I do not believe anyone was yelling at you are calling you stupid, but the fact it if you go to hard or are to over zealous with joint prep, it hurts more then helps, i.e wrist push ups. If i just started in a push up position and did not do the prerequisites, i would have gotten wrist tendonitis at least if not something worse. From everything I have heard on the web site, forcing and pushing hard is good, but only on muscles and only if it's the "natural hurt". Any weird sharp pain or things of that nature are not condoned. And especially with joints, if you are physically pushing through excruciating pain, then you connective tissue, tendons, and ligaments will not have the strength necessary to withstand that kind of treatment and will react as such, causing injury most of the time. I have shoulder impingment on my right shoulder, and at one point i did think it was okay to push through the pain. I felt my tendons moving and lots of popping and it HURT, and i would smile at my wife when i was done. Then my shoulder keeps getting worse. Then i read this essay thoroughly, had my wife record me doing it, and realized, "Okay well even if i have to grip the full length of the belt that's okay because my hands will get closer to one another in time, i just need to get my shoulders used to the flexibility.

As for the irresponsible comment, i believe that was said simply because Noobies might take that advice and seriously hurt them selves, not once but possibly multiple times until someone tells them they are doing it wrong, all because of something they read. I don't believe he was calling you a bad person or a jerk so there is no need to take it personally. I believe we all just need to be careful of EXACTLY what we say, especially when it comes to how to do a warm up or workout because if we are careless with our information, there could be a lot of people who might have to pay the price from someone's faulty information

-Ian

[Joshua Naterman]

Saying dislocates should hurt on a public forum with people who may not know how to do them properly is irresponsible.

Done correctly they are one of the great shoulder mobility exercises, but when forced there is a high likely hood of CAUSING shoulder impingement.

The last case of it i had flared up from an overzealous dislocate session and took about a year and a half to go away.

Irresponsible? I'm not a teacher, coach or instructor SO SUE ME, but I conquered my shoulder impingement with these dislocates, YES it HURT LIKE HELL but allowed me to get back to my activities and advance so much more. If I listened to doctors or anyone who'd say no pain... NO GAIN. It still hurts to do dislocates (just not like hell anymore) as I keep walking my hands closer together each time to get more flexibility. I need excellent shoulder flexibility, and want to eventually hook my hands together and do dislocates like that, without a bar. This WILL hurt. And Yes, I had to put a sock in my mouth to bite it at first, feeling like the shoulder tissues were worked by dislocates at first--probably SCAR tissues developed due to impingement/tendinitis, well it only made it better. Same was with achilles tendons (achilles tendinitis), worked through pain to full victory over tendinitis. When your arms go behind your head in dislocates, squeeze shoulder blades together using this force to help through dislocate rather than pushing from the top. Like I said, I didn't advise to push till you cry (as in "hurts as hell"), but yes pain will be unavoidable unless shoulders are flexible already. Stretching usually hurts for me, this is how my body is designed, may be someone is so flexy it never hurts, well they're lucky then.

You are behaving like a child. You clearly know you are not an instructor or a coach or a therapist or a doctor (or a student of these latter two professions), and yet you tell someone who is an experienced yoga instructor as well as a fairly knowledgeable guy who has helped quite a number of people successfully resolve shoulder issues to "SUE YOU" because you aren't a coach or something? Grow up or be silent until you can make public statements with more respect to who you are addressing and whomever may be reading your message. The bit about using your traps to position shoulder blades correctly was very nice, but doesn't excuse the overall tone.

The appropriate response, especially when you know that you don't have a background that gives you the experience to preach to a very diverse group of people with unknown histories about injury recovery, would have started with something along the lines of this:

"Well, doing things the way I described did help me but maybe I got lucky and maybe this approach won't work for everyone."

If you're going to make recommendations you'd better be prepared for feedback, and when you recommend biting a sock to deal with the pain you are out of line. I am well aware you did not say "I RECOMMEND BITING SOCKS TO DEAL WITH PAIN WHILE STRETCHING" but that is the message implied by your comments. There are people here who, right or wrong, will read something like that and hurt themselves doing something that your body might be able to handle but theirs can not. If you choose to post here I would appreciate you trying to keep that in mind. Sharing experiences is great, we can all learn from each other, but making recommendations that are out of line and then lashing out or trying to justify your response when someone far more experienced POLITELY points out where you have misspoken will not be in your best interest on this forum.

I am sure you did not intend to express yourself like this, but I am not in the habit of turning a blind eye to this style of expression. Please either keep suggestions to yourself or (in this particular case as an example) make sure you are able to explain an appropriate method of subjective pain measurement using a 1-10 scale (in this case, a therapist will typically tell you that if you think it's more than a 5 it is not something you should be feeling, meaning the person would be stretching or exercising too aggressively and needs to ease up a little bit. A therapist would say that this level of stretching or exercise should continue until the pain drops to a 0-1 on the scale, at which point a slight bit more stretch or load should be used and so on) so that people can keep themselves healthy. You should also make a disclaimer that you are no authority on the subject and that this is simply an account of what you have done, not a recommendation to others. That's for your personal liability as well as the protection of the forum at large. Note I said "a therapist will typically tell you..." and not "This is how you do it." That part isn't required as far as I am concerned, but it is smart and courteous.

[Ian Legrow]

Xani,

Let's try and be respectful here. Slizz has offered a lot of good advice to a lot of people, and Yoga is not wuss, there are a lot of people here who do it and enjoy it. Slizz was simply stating that you came off rude and you should watch what you say as it might cause someone else harm. If you are almost 40, i don't believe there is a reason for you to be acting the way you are.

[Ian Legrow]

hHey there!

Just a quick question. I can do shoulder dislocates on a yard stick fairly easily in the pull up grip. But when doing the dorsal grip, i need a longer belt. Why is this?

[Edward Smith]

Because it's a different stretch in reality. The difference in orientation of the hands (between normal and dorsal grip) rotates the shoulders and places more emphasis on the posterior deltiod in dorsal grip.

A discrepancy between the two grips is to be expected.

[PeterC]

I have uneven shoulders (my left shoulder is higher than my right) and when doing shoulder dislocates, my left shoulder tends to raise higher than my right when I look in the mirror even though it feels even. Any tips on keeping the shoulders level? Any other tips for fixing my unlevel shoulders?

Thanks!

[u3er]

Coach suggests that advanced athletes should use a weighted bar for this exercise, but is there any recommendation between using a belt or a dowel for the rest of us? I can go about 1.5x shoulder width with a belt but only 2x width with a dowel, due to difficulty with grip (since I can't rotate my hands at all with a dowel, I tend to get a much more intense stretch through the wrist/forearm this way). So which is recommended? Or does it even matter? Thanks for your input everyone, this is such a great exercise!

[Coach Sommer]

I prefer that you use a dowel for the specific reason that you mentioned.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[u3er]

Thanks Coach!

[u3er]

Hey guys, I've been doing lots of shoulder dislocates over the last few months in effort to rehab my one shoulder. I've made good improvements on the dorsal grip and find that I can go quite narrow now with no pain in either shoulder, however the regular grip is still very difficult and cause pain in the one injured shoulder. Any idea why this might be? Are they entirely different stretches depending on the grip used? Would it be best to stick with just dorsal grip dislocates or should I continue with both?

[Joshua Naterman]

Hey guys, I've been doing lots of shoulder dislocates over the last few months in effort to rehab my one shoulder. I've made good improvements on the dorsal grip and find that I can go quite narrow now with no pain in either shoulder, however the regular grip is still very difficult and cause pain in the one injured shoulder. Any idea why this might be? Are they entirely different stretches depending on the grip used? Would it be best to stick with just dorsal grip dislocates or should I continue with both?

Best bet is inhibited subscapularis activation, but it could be a number of muscular issues in that area. Take your time with the more difficult grip and make very small incremental progress. Mark your dowel and make increases of 1mm at a time.

Yes, that is small. That's the point. When dealing with a problem joint, I would not make more than 2mm increase per week. That is probably safe. You will eventually get where you want to go.