 Hello everybody, Lance Quakey here. And today we're discussing, I have teased this about a week ago, the number one most common mistake that people make in pull-ups. And that is letting your shoulders come forward at the bottom of the movement. So the bottom of the movement or I guess the top of the pull-up is the hardest part because your muscles are the most disadvantaged and you have to use the muscles that we most commonly neglect. We most commonly do not use, okay? That's being your upper back muscles, the trapezius, the rhomboids, right? I need to get my shoulder blades back so that I can get that last little oomph and get my hands or get the bar all the way to my chest. Commonly, we've talked about the second most common thing, you're sticking your chest out to meet the bar. The other thing that people will do is they'll round their shoulders forward, use their pecs more to get that last little bit instead of using the upper back muscles and that will get you a fake full range of motion. Why don't I like this? So the shoulder joint, the shoulder blades, hopefully you can see this with the shadows, shoulder blades are not flat like this pointed forward or they're not supposed to be at least, they're slightly tilted forward, okay? And that points the shoulder joint slightly ever so slightly forward. What happens is we tilt them even more forward and it creates this stiffness in the back of the shoulder and this looseness in the front of the shoulder. So if you've ever had pain, maybe that you feel in your bicep, maybe that you feel in the front of your shoulder, a really tender area, if you've ever had a slap tear or slap lesion in the socket of your shoulder joint in even if you've ever had AC problems on the top of your shoulder, all of those things are related to this position and that's what we find, right? That's why I'm so particular about how I teach rows because I need you to be able to move your shoulder blade in a way that doesn't require too much movement of the shoulder joint because that's how I get those tears and those aches and pains, okay? So we're just trying to fix movement, right? We're just trying to make it as least likely as possible to hurt yourself. I want you to be able to lift for a really long period of time because the racer who can race an extra day is going to end up further than the other people. That's kind of one of the mantras. So I want you to lift in a way that'll make you feel better rather than worse, right? And this is one of those scenarios. So if you find yourself with a really stiff neck after you do your pull-ups, look into this. Look for this cue. See if your shoulder is pointing forward, pointing forward out of the joint. See if your neck is getting cranked when you do that at the top of your pull-up and then maybe try to just cue your shoulder blades back. Now, I'm gonna caution you. We talk about this in everything but sometimes you need to take the weight down. You need to check the ego, right? You need to grab something that's a little bit easier so that you can be consciously particular about the execution of the movement, right? Even people who can do pull-ups will still mess up other pull-ups because they're just doing it the way that they know how to do it but maybe the way that they are familiar with is not the way that their body or their joints specifically really want to be doing it. I hope that makes sense for you. So, remember, don't be afraid to take the weight down and make sure you're trying to get those shoulder blades back. If you can't get it on the pull-up, then maybe just try a horizontal row. See if you can do that. If you can't do the horizontal row, it's gonna be a lot harder for you to get it on the pull-up because you're not gonna be able to feel it as much. It's not in the same direction of the pull. So, make sure, watch some of my other videos. I like the three-point dumbbell row where you're supporting with your hand on the bench. That one's really good for teaching this. Give yourself even a slight chance to rotate and that'll really help you feel what you got going on up there. Take that. Good luck. Hopefully this doesn't happen to you forever and if you do fix it, please leave a comment below.