Active Scap and 1/2 Pull Up
Engaging the shoulder blades and strengthening the bottom ½ of the pull up helps to train the athlete to support their shoulder blade and shoulder joint with muscle rather than just relying on the structure of the joint to hold them.

C-Kip Lowering
Learning how to control the negative during a kipping motion helps the athlete develop strength and understanding how to actively control the descent of c-kip versus bottoming out hard on their shoulder joint.

C-Kip Progression
Usually when we think of a C-kip pull up, it is ‘all or nothing’. You either got your chin over the bar or you didn’t. However, not all athletes are ready for that. We can practice the skill and develop strength by intentionally stopping short.

Tightening the kip
Tightening the range of motion during the kip is frequently the solution to shoulder issues in the kipping pull up. If the kip is large and creating shoulder discomfort, cuing the athlete to actively control the range of motion and tighten it is a possible solution.

Controlling the negative of a kip
We want to build a lot of strength and stability in the bottom of the pull up. Working on strict, slow negatives without aggressively ‘bottoming out’ helps to train the strength and control through that range.

Butterfly Pull Up Regression
Rather than having athletes work through butterfly pull ups that are uncontrolled, we can shorten the cycle size of the exercise to improve control while still working on strength and timing.

Butterfly Circles
Butterfly circles help to improve strength during the circular motion of a butterfly pull up. By taking out the kipping motion, it requires that the exercise is muscularly supported, making it less stressful to the shoulder joint itself.

Lat Eccentric Stretching
Medium or close grip chin ups, when done slowly and focused on the negative, help build strength and capacity in the lats and tendon. Additionally, this acts as a stretch/lengthening drill to improve overhead mobility. Start with low reps.

Pec Stretch
Stretching the pecs can help change shoulder blade and shoulder joint positioning for better lifting mechanics. However, if the shoulder joint is sore, soft tissue work on the pec may be preferable so that the joint doesn’t have to be torqued.

Rolling out lat and teres major
The lat and teres major are two muscles around the shoulder that get stiff and limit overhead mobility. They both internally rotate the shoulder as well. They can respond well to stretching, but direct tissue work is also very effective without having to pull on the shoulder joint.

Thoracic Spine Mobilization
The thoracic spine is bottleneck area for many athletes. If stiff and immobile, it can create neck and low back issues (since those areas will make up for motion that should be happening in the upper back) and if stiff, can place the shoulder in a less than optimal lifting position.

Lat Stretching
Whenever stretching muscles around the shoulder joint, we want to predispose the muscle to be stretched without excessively loading the joint shoulder itself. Since the lat attaches into the low back, you can round your back and side bend to stretch it more.

Self Myofascial Release of Pec Major/Minor
When tight, the pecs can limit shoulder blade and shoulder joint motion, creating inefficiencies and potential irritation in the shoulder joint over time. When the shoulder joint is sensitive, stretching the pecs may be aggravating. That is a great time to use self MFR instead.