Tap you fool

[philmgriffin]

I consider myself to be lucky in the fact that I have loose ligaments so my natural range of flexibility is quite high.
This was tested nearly 2 weeks ago when I was pinned down in side control with my opponent working a decent ude garami on me.
I wasn't worried because it just didn't hurt and we were eventually stood up to continue the fight.

Even though my ligaments had enough give in them to withstand the forces applied pretty much every muscle between my shoulder and elbow was torn to hell and back and it's only been the last 2 days I have been able to lift any weight at all with my left arm.

The moral of this story is, whatever god given freaky flexibility you have you need to tap and you need to do it quick, because the longer they hold you there the more screwed up your arm/shoulder/elbow/ankle or knee is going to be.

[proteinshakez]

i have permanent tendonitis in both elbows (which has made punching HORRIBLY painful the last few days ugh) and have had it for several years as a result of being too fucking stupid to tap/the guy i was working with was an asshole and put entirely too much pressure on my joints the first few days of class at the time.

Tap the fuck out when you're in a submission :D

[Sang]

I'm grateful to OPs like yours because they have stopped me making the same mistake.

Is there a way to increase shoulder flexibility or are some people like yourself just born that way? I have to tap to shoulder submissions well before most people in the class.

[Permalost]

Is there a way to increase shoulder flexibility or are some people like yourself just born that way? I have to tap to shoulder submissions well before most people in the class.

This is purely anecdotal, but there's two things that I feel have increased my shoulder flexibility:
1. Indian clubs: I swing a pair of clubs regularly, usually as a warm-up and cool down for lifting weights. One set is wood and they weight a few pounds each, and symmetrical exercises open and close the shoulders and chest. The other set is a metal adjustable set more suitable for heavier Persian style club swinging.

Here's some Persian and Indian club swinging videos:

I can't quantify this, but it feels like those types of exercises make the shoulder joint more resistive to injuries grappling can inflict.


2. My girlfriend and I regularly give each other massages, and there's one thing she does where I lay flat on my stomach and she twists my arm like a hammerlock/kimura and rests the arm on her leg(s). This makes the scapula lift, and now you can massage the area almost under the scapula that normally can't be reached. As the muscle becomes more pliable and relaxed, the arm can gently be torqued more and continued. This is something that should be done very slowly and gently. My first reaction is to tense like I'm gonna fight my way out of it because its an area that doesn't get touched often and in martial arts when someone's got your arm in a position like that, you don't want to just relax and let them apply force. It took a bit of time to learn to relax for that one, and it feels great afterwards.