omg!

[IronFist]

Look at the first picture in this article. (the upper left one)

Wow (http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode3&articleid=229).

Can normal peoples' shoulders do that?

[rubthebuddha]

doubtful. he's a kid, and he's probably been doing gymnastics since he was a tyke.

[dwid]

Well, the sternoclavicular joint is the only bony attachment of the shoulders to the rest of the body. Other than that, it's all muscle.

So, technically, developing the ability to do that to your shoulders is a simple matter of increasing the flexibility of your muscles to that point.

So, for the sake of argument, I say yes, it is possible for normal people to do that, given sufficient time and effort.

[Ford Prefect]

Gotta agree with dwid.

[Ka]

IF
Good Article,Thanks
Face it gents to be a goog personal trainer now you should get a good background in Gymnastics.I foresee modern gym slowly geting some old equipment back into them.

[rubthebuddha]

aye, dwid's right. i just don't see adults getting close to where that kid is at. the bugger probably started when he was little and in that oh-so-flexible time in life when you can fold your body in half, then half again, then half one more time, then unfold without problems.

[wooha]

There's a Capoeira move like that, and I can do it - although not quite to the freakish level of that kid. You do need very flexible shoulders, but it's nothing you can't develop with a bit of time and hard work.

Here's an old pic of one of my attempts, I'm pretty sure I can do it better now:

[FatherDog]

My shoulders can do that, but I've always had freakish flexible shoulders.

I sure as hell couldn't do pushups from the position, though. Whoosht.

[Meat Shake]

I think that my shoulder fell in love when it popped out of socket. That looks like a more than daunting invitation to have that happen again.

[Doug]

I agree that these exercises are not as difficult to do ONCE the body is conditioned to the necessary point. That said, these boys are pretty lightweight. And these pictures are rather...scary.

Doug