Fantastic as usual! I especially appreciated the self massage sequence. I use a massage ball to release the occasional tightness in my upper back, and your short stick technique seems to hit the same spots. Thank you Kit and Dave!
After a few videos i decided to make the jump to your forums... Amazing, Ive learnt so much this week, I learnt that rounding my back is cheating and I have been ''lying'' to myself about my hamstring progress... I felt sad that ive been wasting my time but in a day I went from being sad to realising touching my toes with a straight back is just a new challenge and thats OKAY!!! Ive been working on flexibility and mobility since february so im not scared of stopping because of this ''set back'' TLDR: Ive been cheating and Kits teaching me the right way and I can feel it! Fascianating!
This is really amazing, thank you. Not sure if you monitor comments, etc (and this vid is now 11 years old) but I wanted to comment to say thank you. I suspect my subscap is super tight and that this is affecting my overhead mobility, which in turn is an issue for straightening my handstands. I think I will see a physio to confirm this, but from the self-testing I have done it is all about the subscap / terres major for me, and poor external rotation. Hoping doing this exercise daily will help. And - my goodness - how many sensitive spots did I find (some actually very painful) when rolling that stick across the top half of my back. Youch (but feels so good afterwards!). Thanks a bundle, Kit. I am now duly subscribed, and have (of course) hit like for this video. Cheers.😁
Thanks for writing, simon. I do monitor all YT clips, and answer all questions (usually with a coffee, first thing in the morning!). Lats will be THE limiting factor for perfect alignment in the handstand, and the fastest way to improve that is to get strong enough to hang; see this one: ua-cam.com/video/0BX4_eGkaFs/v-deo.html&
@@KitLaughlin Hey, Kit. Thanks so much for the reply and for guiding me to the hanging video, which looks great. It is pretty late here now, but I will give this a go on my rings first thing in the morning (it's officially springtime tomorrow here, so a good way to welcome in the new season!) - it looks really good. I kind of do something similar, but not so intense, already, but I am ready to ramp that up. So, that's perfect. As for my belief that it is my overhead mobility limitation is largely subscapular-related, it is due to the fact that when I do a seated external rotation (something like this, if this copy/paste works: i0.wp.com/www.nick-e.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-31-19.21.12.jpg ) I am unable to get my forearm anywhere past vertical, whereas I believe I need at least 5-10 degrees past vertical (i.e. behind the line of my shoulders and knee) and preferably up to 45 degrees behind the vertical line for good overhead shoulder mobility. In fact, maybe this is more limiting to my thoracic bridge than my handstand? Am I making any sense at all here? I'd really appreciate your thoughts! Best wishes, Simon.
PS just signed up for the newsletter and to the forums, and started to investigate your website a bit. Wow - you have a lot of amazing material posted. Looking forward to investigating some more in the coming days. Thanks for everything you are doing for the community!
@@simonpowell6127 No. Hang. That seated external rotation 'test' has no relation to perfect form in the handstand. And once you do hang (both arms) then retract, then protract, *while* hanging; feel what happens. Then as far as your strength permits, let yourself relax completely, then push your arms away from you, directly above. Alternatively, think about shrugging your shoulders: this stretches the lats exactly as they need to, in the plane of the HS.
Yes, but personally I feel at the best possible warmup for benchpress is light bench presses. And correct technique is absolutely fundamental as well - and there are many different opinions on this. A better way to use the stick stretches, in my opinion, is to do a decent stretching session once or twice a week *after* your benchpress strength sessions, when the shoulders are fully warmed up. And here, using the method this way, we are not concerned about flexibility gains in that workout but rather what the shoulders will look and feel like in six months time. In my opinion it is essential to do some external rotator cuff strengthening exercises too, if the benchpress is a regular part of your strength routine.
Yes, start with the long stick exercises. As you become a bit more flexible, shorten (narrow) your grip a little on the stick. In time you will be able to use the short stick.
Wicked video, thanks.
I don't know why this video did not come up in my search for the past few years in my search.
Fantastic as usual! I especially appreciated the self massage sequence. I use a massage ball to release the occasional tightness in my upper back, and your short stick technique seems to hit the same spots. Thank you Kit and Dave!
After a few videos i decided to make the jump to your forums... Amazing, Ive learnt so much this week, I learnt that rounding my back is cheating and I have been ''lying'' to myself about my hamstring progress... I felt sad that ive been wasting my time but in a day I went from being sad to realising touching my toes with a straight back is just a new challenge and thats OKAY!!! Ive been working on flexibility and mobility since february so im not scared of stopping because of this ''set back''
TLDR: Ive been cheating and Kits teaching me the right way and I can feel it! Fascianating!
Most definitely not a setback, IMHO. Your progress will be faster now, too.
Re. hamstrings - do this one: ua-cam.com/video/l9wqGEKiIwo/v-deo.html
This is really amazing, thank you. Not sure if you monitor comments, etc (and this vid is now 11 years old) but I wanted to comment to say thank you. I suspect my subscap is super tight and that this is affecting my overhead mobility, which in turn is an issue for straightening my handstands. I think I will see a physio to confirm this, but from the self-testing I have done it is all about the subscap / terres major for me, and poor external rotation. Hoping doing this exercise daily will help. And - my goodness - how many sensitive spots did I find (some actually very painful) when rolling that stick across the top half of my back. Youch (but feels so good afterwards!). Thanks a bundle, Kit. I am now duly subscribed, and have (of course) hit like for this video. Cheers.😁
Thanks for writing, simon. I do monitor all YT clips, and answer all questions (usually with a coffee, first thing in the morning!). Lats will be THE limiting factor for perfect alignment in the handstand, and the fastest way to improve that is to get strong enough to hang; see this one: ua-cam.com/video/0BX4_eGkaFs/v-deo.html&
@@KitLaughlin Hey, Kit. Thanks so much for the reply and for guiding me to the hanging video, which looks great. It is pretty late here now, but I will give this a go on my rings first thing in the morning (it's officially springtime tomorrow here, so a good way to welcome in the new season!) - it looks really good. I kind of do something similar, but not so intense, already, but I am ready to ramp that up. So, that's perfect.
As for my belief that it is my overhead mobility limitation is largely subscapular-related, it is due to the fact that when I do a seated external rotation (something like this, if this copy/paste works: i0.wp.com/www.nick-e.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-31-19.21.12.jpg ) I am unable to get my forearm anywhere past vertical, whereas I believe I need at least 5-10 degrees past vertical (i.e. behind the line of my shoulders and knee) and preferably up to 45 degrees behind the vertical line for good overhead shoulder mobility. In fact, maybe this is more limiting to my thoracic bridge than my handstand? Am I making any sense at all here? I'd really appreciate your thoughts! Best wishes, Simon.
PS just signed up for the newsletter and to the forums, and started to investigate your website a bit. Wow - you have a lot of amazing material posted. Looking forward to investigating some more in the coming days. Thanks for everything you are doing for the community!
@@simonpowell6127 A pleasure.
@@simonpowell6127 No. Hang. That seated external rotation 'test' has no relation to perfect form in the handstand. And once you do hang (both arms) then retract, then protract, *while* hanging; feel what happens. Then as far as your strength permits, let yourself relax completely, then push your arms away from you, directly above. Alternatively, think about shrugging your shoulders: this stretches the lats exactly as they need to, in the plane of the HS.
Thank you.
Good demo....
Beautiful
can i perform this stretch as warm up exercise for bench press or any kind of shoulder push exercises ?
Yes, but personally I feel at the best possible warmup for benchpress is light bench presses. And correct technique is absolutely fundamental as well - and there are many different opinions on this.
A better way to use the stick stretches, in my opinion, is to do a decent stretching session once or twice a week *after* your benchpress strength sessions, when the shoulders are fully warmed up. And here, using the method this way, we are not concerned about flexibility gains in that workout but rather what the shoulders will look and feel like in six months time. In my opinion it is essential to do some external rotator cuff strengthening exercises too, if the benchpress is a regular part of your strength routine.
Im too stiff for the short stick exercise, even with someone helping. Are there progression exercises sir?
Yes, start with the long stick exercises. As you become a bit more flexible, shorten (narrow) your grip a little on the stick. In time you will be able to use the short stick.
Kit Laughlin thank you so much!
Great video of an interesting technique