Increasing flexibility for Americana?

Is there any healthy way to increase shoulder/arm flexibility to reduce one's susceptibility to an Americana? Once my arm is placed in the beginning position for an Americana, I'm already at the verge of tapping before any additional movement.
Since the shoulder's such an unstable joint to begin with, I'm a bit reticent to interfere with something that's not giving me any real problems at the moment.

Thanks

 

Stretch out pec's/subs capularis. However, depending on the type of shoulder joint you have, this likely wont even make a difference.

 

This is like when someone asks about last ditch sub escapes, except sillier. The correct answer is to learn to prevent being put in that position in the first place

 

Sure, but you do not think its a problem to have to tap before the position is on completely?

That sounds to me like eventually someone will fuck his shoulder up, maybe even just in drilling if they are new and dont realize how inflexible he is.

Its sillier to me if he doesnt take care of an obvious weakness in his flexibility

 

Believe me, I avoid any exposure to that sub as much as possible, and I'm not looking at this a defense per se. I'm just worried that being so susceptible to it, I'm at a greater risk of being hurt by someone who would apply the lock and proceed too quickly at the beginning when a normal person wouldn't be adversely affected.

 

Shoulder rotations with a pvc pipe or elastic band. The overhead and across torso tricep/shoulder stretch might help too.

 

Well if there's something you can do for it, I'm not aware. I have bad shoulders from getting cranked a lot as a stubborn white belt wrestling other white belts, and now I just have to deal with it.

When drilling I tell people to be careful, and when rolling, I tap if I'm caught. Joao miyao can laugh at a toe hold that bends his foot 180 degrees, I have to tap when the figure four gets locked. Life's not fair

 

We have a physical therapist who trains at our gym, and she explained to us that the best thing you can do is to practice better posture so that your shoulders are more naturally pulled back. This will increase shoulder flexibility and range of motion by default. Think about it like this. If your shoulders are slung forward and you try to put your arm over your head, it won't go as far as if your shoulders are pulled back and you try to lift your arm over your head.

That said, I agree with the poster that said avoid the position. The issue is this, if an Americana is done correctly, and by this I mean your elbow is brought into your body instead of trying to crank the arm with your arm out at 90 degrees, no amount of flexibility is really going to help.

 

Do your shoulders feel like the ligaments are about to tear? Or the surrounding muscles? Because if it's the ligaments, I'd say leave that alone. You don't want that drama.

 

Yes, keep elbows to your chest.

 

http://www.exrx.net/Stretches/Subscapularis/Broomstick.html

Conversely this would be good for kimura

http://www.exrx.net/Stretches/Infraspinatus/Broomstick.html

 

This.

Strengthening the back with facepulls/external rotations combined with foam rolling/lacrosse ball on the upper pec region should help a lot. Try it out

 

Yeah man, it isn't just good for BJJ. It is good for walking around and breathing. If you are behind the curve on your range of motion vs. the americana, like I am, then this is a struggle that will help you out with weight lifting, running, sleeping, breathing...

 

Prevention>>>>defense>>>>"resisting the submission"

Defense - rotate your hand out, so that your palm is facing your head, and fight to get it close to your head (i.e. don't let their body get between your hand and head) - better to learn to defend against it than try to get flexible and resist the submission somehow (highly unlikely to be honest).

 

Look up improving the front rack position on youtube. Everything would apply to giving you more range in an americana which is roughly the same position of flex shoulder and arm in external rotation.

 

I would worry muuuuch muuuch more about not getting into an americana for real, its a really low % sub after a while, and thats not because people is going to yoga to get improve their americana resistance.. getting flexible shoulders is not a defense for the americana...

 

He probably should have posted this in the strength and condition forum since so many people in this thread are thinking hes trying to get super flexible shoulders to not have to tap to americanas. He has to tap before the submission is even on.

I knew a blue belt that got mad at his white belt training partner for tapping "early" ("dont tap early" he replied "it was already hurting") to the same shoulder lock in question.

If when you are laying down and you cannot even put your elbow and the back of your hand on the ground (with the 90

 

Thanks for the suggestions. To be clear, I'm looking to avoid injury not "defend" against an Americana. I don't even have an actual defense against an Americana since as soon as someone gets that grip I'm out; there's no chance for me to even try a defense other than of course never getting caught.
I will try some of those stretches though and see how they do.

 

Totally possible and worthwhile to do this. It's been a project of mine for the last month or so in my own training to increase and strengthen range of motion in my shoulders to be able to buy more time in an americana and avoid injury.

I use a combination of Isometric stretching, joint mobility work (see the C.A.R.S link I put below) and some training with weights. The point is to slowly open up new ranges of motion and try to develop strength through the whole range of motion. I also make sure to train as many of the shoulder actions as possible (not just the motion of the americana) to keep my shoulders generally healthy. Please bear in mind that there are a ton of people much more qualified to discuss this stuff than me, but these links can give some idea of what I'm talking about.

https://oracle-base.com/flexibility/articles/isometric-stretches/

http://www.stretchify.com/isometric-stretching/

http://www.toddbumgardner.com/hip-and-shoulder-mobility-the-cars-solution/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=askyPISMogs