The shoulder flexibility "acid test"

Good morning Pierini Fitness sports fans.  I’m trying to jump back on the blogging saddle.  Thanks for your patience.

I just returned home from a short vacation late Tuesday evening.  Being back in my familiar surroundings, I decided yesterday would be a training day of weighted pull-ups and chin-ups.  It had been 11 days since the last time I did a weighted workout so I naturally expected the weight would feel heavy. 

Boy was I right on that one.  Besides, after a very long travel day, the day before, returning from a short vacation, I learned the gas in my workout tank was low.  Heavy felt extra heavy and, therefore, my workout was abbreviated.  But, as the saying goes, “something is better than nothing.”

Using a 24kg kettlebell, I completed 6 sets of pull-ups and chin-ups.  Pull-ups were odd-numbered rounds and chin-ups were even-numbered rounds.  As is typical with my strength-oriented workouts, I gave myself 3 minutes of recovery between rounds.  My rep counts were 4-3-3-3-3-4 for a total of 20 reps.  Nothing spectacular but good enough for the day.

It had been a while since I’ve done wide-grip behind-the-neck pull-ups, a pull-up variety that many will say is dangerous for your shoulders.  I’ve been able to do them and have decent shoulder flexibility from my days, a dozen years ago, of playing with the Olympic lifts.  So, I concluded yesterday’s workout by completing a final set of pull-ups of the wide-grip and behind-the-neck variety.  Here’s a short video of my effort:

These pull-ups are not for everyone and I don’t recommend them but if you do have above-average shoulder flexibility, do them every now and then because they are the shoulder flexibility “acid test.”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum