Extreme Shoulder Inflexiblity

[sw1rmd85]

A friend of mine has just started training. The problem is he can't squat -- low bar or high bar -- due to shoulder flexibility problems. If it was simply a low bar problem, i would have had him do high-bar until flexibility allowed for low-bar. When trying to get the bar on his back, his arms are practically straight with the barbell, and therefore, the bar rests up his delts and basically floats above his traps. As far as i know, there is basically no way that he can squat.

I was thinking shoulder dislocations as an stretch for now, but I'm not sure if that's the best method ( http://stronglifts.com/shoulders-dislocations/ ). Any suggestions?

[Mark Rippetoe]

See if he can front squat. He can do that until he becomes more normal. But there is no better stretch than trying to assume the back squat position, so use this as a stretch instead of the dislocates, which I promise you he won't be able to do anyway.

[sw1rmd85]

Yeah, he can't do dislocations, but i figured it would be something he could do when he's not near a squat rack/barbell. I thought ATTEMPTING to do these would help somewhat.

I'm almost positive he doesn't have the wrist flexibility to do fronts either. I was showing him the rack position and he was struggling. That was without weight though which may force him into a decent position.

Therefore, if he worked on flexibility for both fronts and backs until he can do one of them, would upping deadlifts to 2 or 3 times per week a good move, considering he's untrained and brand new to lifting? So increased deadlift frequency, and then when he can do fronts, use them as the main squat movement with deads back to once per week, and then finally back squats when he can?

Thanks.

[AllAboutThe-U]

I had no idea that these shoulder problems when squatting were this big of a deal. But I've seen numerous threads and questions asked to Mark about this.

Why don't some of you read through old pages before asking him the same questions over and over again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If he can't squat, he has to do something. Deadlifts are prolly your default position.