When gymnasts perform handstands, they shrug their shoulders maximally—so-called “active shoulders.” They have their own performance and aesthetics reasons for this—and these reasons do not apply to the lifting sports and general strength training.
Some coaches teach “active shoulders” when locking out barbell and kettlebell overhead lifts: snatches, jerks, presses. For the sake of your health and strength, please do not do that.
In terms of performance, you get no extra points for elevating the weight a few extra inches. Both Soviet Olympic weightlifting and kettlebell lifting schools were emphatic about keeping the shoulders down in quick lifts.
Quick lifts are a game of height and speed: the less you have to elevate the weight—and still be able to quickly get under it—the more weight you will put up, period.
You might ask: why not do it in training, to make it harder, like deficit deadlifts?
Because you are likely to mess up your technique and for safety reasons, as explained below.
When the movements of your scapulae and your upper arms are not correctly synchronized, the tendons of the rotator cuff muscles could get smashed between the tip of the shoulder (the acromion) and the top of the upper arm (the humerus). This is called “impingement,” and it brings pain and weakness.
A typical impingement scenario plays out when an amateur presses a heavy weight overhead. The shoulder shrugs up first—and then the upper arm has to grind its way up through a small space.
When the overhead press was a part of the Olympic weightlifting competition, Prof. Arkady Vorobyev and other Soviet greats coached “pushing oneself away from the weight,” which is what we do at StrongFirst with both barbells and kettlebells.
Following is one of the drills we use for teaching proper scapular and shoulder mechanics at StrongFirst instructor certifications.
A student is imitating a single kettlebell military press empty handed. The instructor pushes the ridge of his hand down into the part of the upper trap closest to the shoulder. He keeps applying this pressure as the student makes the press.
(For a reader with a background in anatomy: we are cueing upward scapular rotation but not elevation.)
