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Kettlebell Paint between shoulder blades

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Marius_Lefter

Marius_Lefter

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Hello, everybody.

My name is Marius, I am from Romania, and I just created an account on this wonderful forum, which I read as often as I can. After more than 2 years of sedentary (read Lazy) lifestyle), I came back to training with kettlebells. But this time I will do it by the book.

I write this because I have some sort of problem: last summer I started to have some mild pain in my upper back, between the shoulder blades, mostly on my left side. Now, some days I have it, some days I do not. This problem is much more present now, that I practice with kettlebells. Actually, I am just in the stage of patterning the movements, all I do with the kettlebells are loaded carries (horn walks and suitcase), and some prying goblet squats. This pain is felt when I practice good posture (shoulders back and down, thoracic extension).

I went to 2 physical exams, to check the integrity of my spine and my muscle, everything is fine. What can I do to resolve this issue? Simply following my logic, I believe I should stretch my anterior chain muscles (abs, chest), and to make my posterior ones stronger. But how should I approach this problem? Did any of you encountered this situation? How did you resolve it?
 
What sort of job do you have? Do you sit in front of a computer all day?

I have similar pain between my shoulders. Some of it comes from the rounded shoulders I've developed from sitting in front of a computer all day. Before I started strength training, I had no problems, but the stresses of kettlebell swings, get-ups, and presses were a little too much. I'm working on my posture and trying to strengthen my rhomboids with scapula retraction exercises:

Scapular Retraction with the Exercise Band - Fitness.com
 
Hi.
I have a 9 to 5,sometimes even longer, corporate job. I ride a desk all these working hours,standing in front of two computer screen.
Thank you for your tip on scapular retraction exercises.
 
Can you get an SFG instructor to look at your form? Or can you post videos of your debug and TGU?
 
When there's nothing obviously wrong with you a doc will tell you you're fine. You might benefit from practicing good posture during the day, every day, for the rest of your life. I do this :)

A nice start is the Mountain Pose, yes that's yoga. A good way to learn to stand correctly is by standing with your back and heels to a wall.
-Key is to lengthen the spine and neck, but the chin has to be tucked into the chest to counter the ' chicken neck' phenomenon.
-Pulling the shoulders down and back is one thing to say, but to do is actually hard for most people, including myself. You want to actively pull with your Lats and at the same time pull the shoulder blades slightly together (little effort) and push the chest forward as you lengthen the spine and neck.
-Your elbows should be locked out and when you open your hands the thumbs should point straight forward. A neat trick to see if your shoulders are in proper position.

Correct posture should be the base before doing any kind of exercise. If you start exercising without correct posture you will most likely worsen the damage already done.
Only after you learn correct posture (the feeling) you should start doing things like 'scapular retraction.' Strengthen the posterior muscles in the shoulder, rhomboids, anything that you think needs some attention. Most of these kind of issues however aren't really in the muscle, but in the tissue under the muscles.

Then there's stress. The inability to relax muscles. Lack of sleep, poor diet, poor breathing, busy job. The best method of relaxation I know that doesn't involve drugs or drinks is breathing. Learn abdominal breathing, learn to fully expand those lunges, and to slow your breathing down. This can help your muscles relax as well.

In a nutshell:
- practice posture first
- strengthen posterior chain after learning correct posture
- change bad habits, learn to breath proper

It sounds like a lot of work but it is not. It can be an integrated part of your life once learned. I do this during the day, every day, for the past 4 years now to prevent bad posture and damage to my structure.

I wish you all the best of luck in finding a solution. Never stop searching for it.
 
Hi, Shawn. Thank you for your input, it was deep. I also believe is not a very good idea to add strength to dysfunction. I will take a step back, fix my posture, strengthen my weak spots, then go ahead. I will also pay a visit to an SFG instructor, I have found someone in Romania pretty good.
 
Marius_Lefter said:
This pain is felt when I practice good posture (shoulders back and down, thoracic extension).
Click to expand...

When I started with kettlebells, I think I tried to pack the shoulders this way, as is often cued: "shoulders back and down." Somehow I translated this into trying to keep the shoulder blades pinched together also.

I learned from Master SFG Phil Scarito that a better way is shoulders pulled down towards hips. This is a better anti-shrug emphasis that we actually want for shoulder packing. He told me, "As for pinching the blades together you never want to think that, even lifting bells or bars. Always think instead to pull them towards the hips, down and away. "

Try this and see if it feels better?
 
Hi. Thank you, Anna, for your input. Pulling my shoulders towards my hips is what I always do, pinching them seemed un-natural to me. The thing is I developed this pain way before started training again, and I do believe my job, my posture, the hours spent siting and some other related factors are to blame. Starting from yesterday I started a program for fixing the posture, based on what Shawn exposed above and on the video posted by Juri (actually, I follow Athlean-X youtube channel with pen and paper, is filled with insightful knowledge).

Refering to the more experienced member of this forum: Do you think I should stop altogether with kettlebell training for a while and focus on posture, or I can have a schedule based on fluctuating days (On Day - patterning kettlebell movements, Off Day - Fixing Posture Program), with corrective stretching & mobility done in both days?
 
I would very much like to do an FMS screen, and maybe and SFMA screen as well. But I do not know how to come across this type of specialists in Romania. What is the rule of thumb for this, what should I look for? Physical therapists? Chiropractors? How can I find out if someone is able to do this type of screening?
 
Marius_Lefter said:
Hi. Thank you, Anna, for your input. Pulling my shoulders towards my hips is what I always do, pinching them seemed un-natural to me. The thing is I developed this pain way before started training again, and I do believe my job, my posture, the hours spent siting and some other related factors are to blame. Starting from yesterday I started a program for fixing the posture, based on what Shawn exposed above and on the video posted by Juri (actually, I follow Athlean-X youtube channel with pen and paper, is filled with insightful knowledge).

Refering to the more experienced member of this forum: Do you think I should stop altogether with kettlebell training for a while and focus on posture, or I can have a schedule based on fluctuating days (On Day - patterning kettlebell movements, Off Day - Fixing Posture Program), with corrective stretching & mobility done in both days?
Click to expand...

That sounds good. I think you should continue the training on alternate days as you said, unless it seems to be further aggravated.

Marius_Lefter said:
all I do with the kettlebells are loaded carries (horn walks and suitcase), and some prying goblet squats.
Click to expand...

What else would you like to do with the kettlebells? Are you interested in doing Simple and Sinister, or another program? And what are horn walks?
 
Anna, for the moment my program is focused on learning 3 skills: the swing, the goblet squat and the get-up. Once I am confident enough in these 3, I will engage either in Simple&Sinister, either in HKC System (developed by Dan John around the same 3 movements to which he added beautiful twists, like the push-up, vertical bird dog and loaded carries). I will probably engage in Simple&Sinister, keeping HKC for later. Horn walks are basically loaded walks (you walk front&back, side&side, or stepping diagonally with a fairly heavy kettlebell that is being held by the horn, upside down, crush grip, however you like). I actually like calling them Goblet Walks :))) because you basically have the same posture like in the goblet squat, but instead of doing a squat, you start walking for time or distance. Horn Walk is great for keeping balance, stabilization, engage core and weird areas of your back while doing what we are meant to do - walk. The weight simply wants to make you fall on your nose and you fight against it.
 
Loaded carries are great, for beginners and advanced, for different reasons. A beginner has the chance to train with kettlebells without having form & technique for classic drills. A more advanced user will also find them great finishers for a great practice sesison. Take a look at this drill that I found, named Cook drill, which combines into one The OH Walk, The Rack Walk, and The Suitcase Carry:
  1. Pick a kettlebell that you can do a bottom-up with on both sides.
  2. Start with the right-hand overhead carry. As soon as you lose integrity in the overhead carry, move to the rack position.
  3. When you lose integrity in the rack position, move to the suitcase position.
  4. At the point you lose alignment in the suitcase position, switch the kettlebell to the other hand and take it overhead.
  5. When alignment drops to 80% of optimal, move to the next lower position.
This drill can be cooked even more, so to say, by adding 10-15 swings before switching the position of the kettlebell. Overhead walk - directly to 15 swings - directly into rack walk - again 15 swings - directly into suitcase carry - again 15 swings - switch hand and repeat.
 
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