Matthew Mossop Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I've been trying to do this exercise but am having some problems.I've had shoulder problems for a long time... both are very prone to dislocating (coming out of the socket). When I do this exercise and get my bicep to just below parallel with the floor my left shoulder feels like it's going to pop out. If I lift my shoulder a bit off the wall it's ok, but I guess that defeats the purpose of the exercise. I kept going with my right and seem to be able to complete most of the motion though.Anyway, anyone experienced this before and/or any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Sjolin Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I've been trying to do this exercise but am having some problems.I've had shoulder problems for a long time... both are very prone to dislocating (coming out of the socket). When I do this exercise and get my bicep to just below parallel with the floor my left shoulder feels like it's going to pop out. If I lift my shoulder a bit off the wall it's ok, but I guess that defeats the purpose of the exercise. I kept going with my right and seem to be able to complete most of the motion though.Anyway, anyone experienced this before and/or any advice?Yeah, my shoulders are pretty messed up too. I'm currently trying to recover from a really bad idea that involved basically dislocating my shoulders during a handstand in an attempt to "open" them.So yeah, don't do that.I've been trying to do these too, and I think that I've started to figure it out...but I'm not sure. I'm just trying to extend as high as I can while trying to stay as far away from the "dislocating" feeling as possible. Other than that, don't really know what to tell you. :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Lol no I would never dislocate it on purpose... hope your shoulders get better.I think there may never be a solution to this other than getting surgery to shorter the stretched out shoulder tendons. I do exercises to strengthen the muscles that hold the shoulder in its socket, but it will never be as good as a solid tendon.Anyway, I'll keep trying these and see if it gets any better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 I tried these again today and yesterday and was actually able to do 3 (not fully extended though). It looks like maybe my shoulder strengthened a little bit in that position. On the 4th one though I guess it was getting fatigued and it started to feel like it was gonna pop out.So ya I'd just keep trying them feeling as comfortable as possible and it'll probably just improve over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhaek Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 my shoulder is so stiff I cant do the easier variations mentioned here - what should I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Legrow Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 It does not matter how mnany times i read coach sommers essay, i still dont fully understand it. is there a way to do these prior to sitting against the wall. I can't sit against eh wall and do them correctly yet. But i also need to know what the correct way is. My wrists come up when i sit down and do these, but it seem that i also haev bad posture, becasue when i sit agains tthe wall, my lower back never touches it, only my middle back up to my shoudlers. Is this ok? Or does that entirety of my back need to be touching the wall. please let me know. I liek doing these, but there is no point in doing them if i keep doing them worng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I don't think it's possible to have your back 100% flat against the wall... I also don't seem to be able to get my lower back on the wall no matter how much I try. Also my wrists lift of the wall as well. I can get part of my forearms down and my hands, but not my wrists.Anyway, I think that's just how it is... I don't think you can have everything 100% flat on the wall, but maybe I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Dano Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 It is possible! Your statement is a little like me saying i can't do an Iron Cross, it must not be possible. Its not for me, but with consistent intelligent training it may be one day.There is a big difference between what i as an individual can do and what has been done by other of the billions of humans that have walked the face of the earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Chubb Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Just like Mr. Brady said, it is totally possible (unless you have some sort of disfiguring injury). Try putting your back against a wall and having something near your feet that you can push against to keep your lower back press on. I use a small hallway where my feet can push me back into the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Mossop Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 It is possible! Your statement is a little like me saying i can't do an Iron Cross, it must not be possible. Its not for me, but with consistent intelligent training it may be one day.There is a big difference between what i as an individual can do and what has been done by other of the billions of humans that have walked the face of the earth.I didn't mean it's impossible just for me... I just thought it wasn't possible period, but I guess I'm wrong, lol.So you're able to get your entire back against the wall and your wrists and entire forearm?Just like Mr. Brady said, it is totally possible (unless you have some sort of disfiguring injury). Try putting your back against a wall and having something near your feet that you can push against to keep your lower back press on. I use a small hallway where my feet can push me back into the wall.Hmm yes I'll try that, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Solis Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Quick question:My LEFT shoulder is so inflexible that I can't even do wall extensions on the floor. Is it ok if I use a weight of say, 1.5 Kg. to "push" my hand to the floor and another weight of 10Kg. to keep my back flat on the floor? :shock:I can do them very well with the right shoulder, and when I use the weights, I feel much more work on the right side. (remember that I'm using weights only on the left shoulder). So I was wondering, is using the weights productive or counter productive? Should I keep trying without the weights? If you guys need a video just let me know, and I'll record myself trying these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serpentide Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 There is another good exercise like this but instead of raising your arms at a 90 degree angle (in a surrender position) you can also do a similar exercise by raising your arms directly infront of you. 1. sit against the wall in exactly the same position as if to do a standard wall extention. now with as much of your back against the wall as possible bring your shoulders back and try and squeeze your shoulder blades together!2. now if you look down you be able to see your shoulder are positioned nicely and symmetrically. Now, bring your arms up in front of you as high as you can, all the while squeezing your shoulders blades back and down.What you're doing by raising your arms out in front is activating your anterior deltoids, inhibiting your posterior deltoids. People substitute scapular retraction and depression by simply externally rotating and/or extending the glenohumeral joint by using the posterior delts. This can potenially be a major problem that often leads to shoulder impairments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Solis Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 What you're doing by raising your arms out in front is activating your anterior deltoids, inhibiting your posterior deltoids. People substitute scapular retraction and depression by simply externally rotating and/or extending the glenohumeral joint by using the posterior delts. This can potenially be a major problem that often leads to shoulder impairments.Sounds awesome!! But I couldn't understand the exercise quite well... Do you think maybe you could make a video? We'd all appreciate it a LOT! (Btw, thanks for the reply... NO ONE had replied in like a month! Many thanks! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serpentide Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I'm unable to send a vid at this time but i will go into more detail about the movement in an effort to help you understand.In the last post i did say 'sit on the floor with you back pressed against the wall'. I was wrong, you should actually stand for this.The positioning of the back against the wall is exactly the same. Try and get as much of your back touching the wall as possible! (If this is hard for you at this point, then you should address your overall posture and alignment of your shoulders and your whole body.) Now, with your back against the wall, pull your shoulders back as far as you can to the wall (preferably touching the wall) squeezing the scapula an upper traps together and down. Hold your shoulders in this position whilst trying to lift your arms straight up in front of you (arms locked out - straight, like a forward raise when weight lifting) as far as you can and then back down without breaking form in the shoulders. Remember like coach says, Form is always before function!good luck with it. These 2 types of wall extensions ARE the best way to get flexibility and alignment back into your shoulders. DO NOT push past the point where you break form or you will be wasting your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 There is another good exercise like this but instead of raising your arms at a 90 degree angle (in a surrender position) you can also do a similar exercise by raising your arms directly infront of you. 1. sit against the wall in exactly the same position as if to do a standard wall extention. now with as much of your back against the wall as possible bring your shoulders back and try and squeeze your shoulder blades together!2. now if you look down you be able to see your shoulder are positioned nicely and symmetrically. Now, bring your arms up in front of you as high as you can, all the while squeezing your shoulders blades back and down.What you're doing by raising your arms out in front is activating your anterior deltoids, inhibiting your posterior deltoids. People substitute scapular retraction and depression by simply externally rotating and/or extending the glenohumeral joint by using the posterior delts. This can potenially be a major problem that often leads to shoulder impairments.This is also a great assessment for upper thoracic mobility, because loss of upper thoracic extension is one of the primary (original causes) factors in a closed shoulder angle. If the upper T-spine is unable to extend slightly past a "neutral" vertical position independently of the lumbar spine (T spine should have about 20 degrees of active extension in total, so probably 10 degrees in the upper half of the T-spine and 10 in the lower, all is important) then the scapula will not have a flat surface to travel across and can not retract properly. This then forces the secondary compensations of externally rotating the arm and upwardly rotating the scapulae in a protracted position, which then over time allows the serratus to shorten and now you have several layers to unravel.In addition to this exercise, I highly recommend performing cervical-thoracic extensions in a prone position. You can take wrist weights and make a loop, you only want to start with a couple of lbs at first. Then you do the superman (arch hold) but specifically trying to pull the back of your head into the ceiling while arching the upper back and keeping your eyes on the ground in front of you. This forces the upper thoracic spinal erectors to start working, which are shut down on most adults across the board. This will help everything, just about. This needs to be combined with actual mobility work on a foam roller or an arched back stretcher or doubled up tennis/lacrosse balls or whatever else you use to restore the thoracic extension.If you have access to it, it is worthwhile to get a licensed practitioner with an e-stim machine that can do russian stim or regular e-stim (either will work, russian feels stronger and is a bit less prickly-feeling but both seem to be fairly equally effective in the literature I am familiar with) to run "lower back" strips from c4-c7 and from t2 to t6 or so with the medial edge of the back strips about .75 inches from the spinous processes. This effectively stimulates the top set of paraspinal muscles both in the neck and in the upper back, as well as the traps and rhomboids. Be prepared, it is one hell of a strong contraction but when you use this appropriately you can quickly regain conscious activation of the muscles. You have to intentionally extend the cervical vertebrae and the upper t-spine as the muscles are being stimulated to really reconnect the CNS with the muscles. Don't try and keep the scaps protracted, e-stim is powerful and more than capable of producing enough muscular force to cause injury if you are stupid enough to try and prevent the muscles from shortening with maximal intensity stimulation. Any good practitioner should be able to tell you as much.Physical therapists, some athletic trainers, and most chiropractors and osteopaths should all be able to do this for you. I do not know what they will charge. You may even ask them to prescribe a machine for you so you can buy one and use it at home. Once they show you how to use it you will be fine and able to do so safely, and as each treatment will probably be 50 bucks it is TOTALLY worth buying a 150 dollar machine, because a full e-stim training cycle is 20 sessions long. That's 1000 dollars at 50 bucks per session.Under no circumstances should e-stim be allowed to cross the spine, each side of the spine should have its own separate channel. Always start off with a moderate level of stim and up the intensity to the highest that you can handle over the course of the first 3-4 stimulated contractions.Both of these techniques help re-activate "dormant" muscles and are the first step in restoring the natural posture of the spine that will then allow natural activation patterns to be re-established. Pretty neat stuff. The e-stim speeds up the process but is by no means necessary. Anyhow, once these muscles are re-activated and you can actually use them, you will find that your wall extension progress speeds up immensely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serpentide Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Hi SlizzardmanAt present, i have a shoulder problem which i am addressing quite successfully due to these forums and youtube haha. I am also getting professional help with a physio who is doing ART on my shoulder and it is fantastic! I am unable to press on my right shoulder at the moment due to scar tissue build up from an old judo injury. 2 years later with no proper rehab work and too much pressing, I am now paying for it! the muscles and tendons are weak, unbalanced and up until i found these exercises, very unflexible!!I stumbled across your youtube vid "fix your shoulder pain prt 1" ....It was very interesting and it's very effective in my shoulder rehab. One of the things i had to address was my posture!! I became very round shouldered and when doing pressing movements and rotator cuff work i had an impingement.Please could you post part 2 A.S.A.P!!?? Many of us including me are looking forward to your seeing your video about 'Scapular retraction and depression strength and activation work and programming ideas' Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Hendrickson Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Where is the challenge in this exercise? What is it supposed to do anyway? The other comments say that it is for flexibility. If that is so, then I guess I am just too flexible to feel anything from doing this exercise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Branson Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Mobility movement. Make sure you're not arching. It's not meant to be hard unless you have a problem. Ideally it is not difficult at all. Not all movements are about challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Griffin Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Where is the challenge in this exercise? What is it supposed to do anyway? The other comments say that it is for flexibility. If that is so, then I guess I am just too flexible to feel anything from doing this exercise... Keep your back flat against the wall and press down at the bottom - your back will want to arch and pull off the wall. Don't allow it to do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Weaver Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I am new to GB and just as new to Gymnastics. I have read and reread this post and i still don't think I am doing it correctly? Any videos? any other help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Rackemann Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Marc, there should be a video in the original post from Coach, but since it's missing you should also be able to find it on the GB youtube channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Dano Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Video link has been repaired, it now shows in the OP. I still have to find the images to repair them, but the video is more than adequateedit -Cory has repaired the photo links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jl5555 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Cole, for those with shoulder flexibility issues (almost everyone, I know), do you see any benefit from just static hanging? I do a combo of Yuri's band for shoulder and then just bar hanging and I believe it has helped my flexibility. It also feels good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Dano Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Static hanging is excellent, I highly recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Köhntopp Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 first time i did this mobility exercise - crap, i m so tight in my shoulders, could do 6 reps, no more, haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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