Failure to Adhere to your Shoulder Mobility Will Come with a Risk of Death

Failure to Adhere to your Level of Mobility Will Come with a Higher Risk of Death

Posted May 9, 2018

Failure to Adhere to your Level of Mobility Will Come with a Higher Risk of Death

OK, maybe the title is a little dramatic, possibly exaggerated, but hopefully it got your attention!

Time and time again, I see athletes begging to do things like kipping pull-ups, butterfly pull-ups, snatches for time or handstand push-ups, who can’t even put their hands over their head without pain.

In short, if you can’t pass a simply shoulder flexion test, you have no business kipping your pull-ups, and probably shouldn’t even be getting upside down.

Here’s the simple shoulder flexion test:

Set yourself up with your back against the wall and feet shoulder width apart

Bend your knees a bit until you can get your tailbone, lower back and shoulder blades against the wall. Keep your head neutral.

From there, with a STRAIGHT arm, raise one hand over your head. Make sure you keep your butt, lower ba, k and shoulder blades against the wall the whole time.

How far can you get your arm? This determines your readiness for overhead movements like snatches and kipping pull-ups.

Scoring:

RED LIGHT (Meaning STOP, you’re not yet ready): You cannot touch the wall while maintaining the three points of contact on the wall (tailbone, low back, shoulder blades).

YELLOW LIGHT (Proceed with caution): You can get your thumb to the wall while maintaining all points of contact.

GREEN LIGHT (Go ahead and kip away, my little one): You can get the back of your hand and the back or your wrist to touch the wall.

Here are some pictures, so you can see what I mean:

If you fail the test, before you get all discouraged because you now know you shouldn’t be doing kipping pull-ups, rest assured you can work to improve this range of motion.

Yes, it takes hard work, but nothing worthwhile comes for free.

Talk to your coach about getting you on the right track: Putting in the time and reaching that yellow or green light will be incredibly rewarding, and your body will thank you for taking the time to gain the mobility so you can stay injury-free.