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Kettlebell KB Ballistics & Shoulder Impingement

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Sean Mulcahy

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Certified Instructor
I've been experiencing some shoulder impingement recently, likely due to long term posture issues, but escalated by lots of snatching in the last few months.

Current thought is to stick to 2H swings-only for a while, and strictly limit any overhead work. Also bring in regular get-ups, bar hangs, and arm bars to expedite healing.

Anyone have experience with working through and resolving impingement?
 
Hi Sean,
That is a common issue that many people have, and I think is currently exacerbated by more time being sedentary due to the pandemic. Clearing that up is often a multifactorial process and it is really helpful to get proper guidance from a trained professional. Do you have access to a trusted physical therapist or chiropractor who can help you out? In the meantime, good call on taking a break from snatches, you don't want to do anything that will further aggravate it. Often 1HS will be a nice addition there too, which are a reasonable mid-point between 2HS and snatches.
 
I'm also dealing with a shoulder impingement.

This shoulder scoop is helping me:


Also shoulder CAR :


My main shoulder pain is triggered during straight armed arcs so I'm not doing 1H swings. 2H swings are pain free so I'm doing these instead.

TGU gives me some pain but I think it's 'good' pain as the pain is less and less in each session.

I haven't tried, but maybe overhead presses may be pain free as there is no straight arm arc due to bent elbow?
 
Steve maxwell has this great mobility drill I saw once.

you basically stand in one place and pump your arms like your running, but a very exaggerated arm swing. Full motion forward and back. You get a nice rhythm going.

you’re “stretching” the end range of each arm at opposite ranges at the same time.

fixed an impingement I had within a week or two.

fwiw
 
Steve maxwell has this great mobility drill I saw once.
you basically stand in one place and pump your arms like your running, but a very exaggerated arm swing. Full motion forward and back. You get a nice rhythm going.
.....

fwiw

This helped me a lot, I did it while rucking and seems to keep both shoulders ok....and always kept doing TGU for sure.
 
Steve maxwell has this great mobility drill I saw once.

you basically stand in one place and pump your arms like your running, but a very exaggerated arm swing. Full motion forward and back. You get a nice rhythm going.

you’re “stretching” the end range of each arm at opposite ranges at the same time.

fixed an impingement I had within a week or two.
Any idea where I could find this? Did a quick search but nothing coming up.
 
I’ve dealt with impingement in both shoulders. All of which, I believe, was coming from too much overhead pressing and dips. I was doing lots of thrusters and trying to get better at ring dips, but I wasn’t doing enough to balance out my shoulder strength.
My left shoulder was bad enough that I decided to have a PRP treatment. I suffered with my left shoulder for about 1.5yrs. It took a couple weeks after the treatment to start feeling the effects, but accelerated quickly and the recovery was amazing compared to how long I had the problem. My right shoulder was getting bad and I was considering a PRP treatment. But instead, probably less than a year ago, I started practicing TGU’s and that started me down the road to pain free shoulders. The more I practiced TGU’s, the better my shoulder felt and I started doing KB and BB overhead pressing again. It all seemed to come together really fast when I started practicing double cleans and single arm snatches. This seemed to fill out and strengthen up the back of my shoulders in a hurry. Now I have no more impingement pain, no aching shoulders at night waking me up constantly.
I think the PRP treatment was great to heal the damage I had done. Then I think I fixed the strength imbalance that causes the problem. Hopefully no more impingement problems for me.
 
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I've been experiencing some shoulder impingement recently, likely due to long term posture issues, but escalated by lots of snatching in the last few months.

Current thought is to stick to 2H swings-only for a while, and strictly limit any overhead work. Also bring in regular get-ups, bar hangs, and arm bars to expedite healing.

Anyone have experience with working through and resolving impingement?
Yes! And it was a real impingement diagnosed with an MRI by an MSU sports orthopedic surgeon. I strictly followed all PT instructions and treatment to the letter, and saw marginal improvement, by the time my insurance coverage ran out. (Don't get me started on the useless U.S. medical 'system') Then... I started prepping for a 100k gravel race... I rode hundreds and hundreds of kilometers over frozen snow-covered washboard gravel roads in the dead of winter in Michigan, and 'all of a sudden' I was pain free and had my mobility back.
 
Dead hangs from pull up bar. I've been doing total of 2 minutes/day for a long time now. Keeps me out of trouble so long as I don't load up heavy overhead. I have enough arthritis in one shoulder that I think only surgery would really fix it and I'm not going there. Dr Kirsch's book has some add ons but the money shot is the dead hang.



And hey, Dan John approves!


I only use pronated grip, palms pointed towards front. The others either don't help or have negative effect for me. YMMV
 
Sean
I have to add:
Have you had your shoulder checked (I know...very challenging at this time) by a healthcare provider?

There are many things that can contribute to a shoulder impingement situation:
Neck, T-spine, Breathing, Pattern overload and just plain overload (aka...doing to much)

Brett
 
Dead hangs from pull up bar. I've been doing total of 2 minutes/day for a long time now. Keeps me out of trouble so long as I don't load up heavy overhead. I have enough arthritis in one shoulder that I think only surgery would really fix it and I'm not going there. Dr Kirsch's book has some add ons but the money shot is the dead hang.



And hey, Dan John approves!


I only use pronated grip, palms pointed towards front. The others either don't help or have negative effect for me. YMMV


Thank you. I'll give the dead hang a try.
 
There are many movement patterns in various soft styles of martial arts that incorporate one arm forward, one arm back. There is also the Egyptian stretch, basically the same thing but side to side.

-S-
 
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