Muscle Mobility Imbalance, Shoulder Pain

Hi Guys,

Could any of you advice me please?

 

First question.

I´ve been doing the hanstand course for about 6 month and currently averaging between 20-40sec holds however I am getting some pain around the teres minor - major area and also I have noticed because of that combined with slight shoulder pain I lean slightly to one side. Also there seem to be some visible muscle imbalance (blue arrow vs red arrow). Any Idea how can I fix that or is it something that will improve with the handstand practice.

 

Second question.

My right shoulder seem to give up a lot earlier than my left especially on my end set where I am holding a chest to wall handstand for duration. I am experiencing pain in the shoulder area between the front and side deltoid especially when kicking up, training planche or dips (I am doing the Foundation course along side with this one). I ´ve done some diagnostics and seem to be lacking (compared to the other side) Internal rotation, plus the external rotation can be somewhat painful at the end range.....again any suggestion on ways to address that issue would be welcome. 

 

Thank you and may your handstand dreams become a reality

 

 

Maybe you could try getting advice from a doctor or physiotherapist. I don't know anything, but things you could look into maybe foam rolling or ball rollinng on the muscles. Some of this is called trigger point therapy.

Also,if you have the opportunity to take an adult gymnastics class or get advice from a gymnastics coach they might have things you could do to correct it. Look on the internet for other resources or strectching and gymnastics anatomy and physiotherapy.

What I notice in the picture is your head seems to be closer to your right shoulder, but it might just be the angle of your camera making it look that way, or is your slight lean causing your head to lean too?

If your right shoulder is giving out maybe you have a habit of leaning too much on that side maybe the lean is also causing the imbalance.

Also , is your core/ rib cage twisting to one side? I think a twisted body would cause one shoulder to carry weight internally rotated and the other shoulders externally rotated, a centered rib cage would let the shoulders be neutral.

How is your shoulder flexion? are both shoulders equally flxible? Try handstand against wall on floor bars see if you still have the muscle imbalance and see if your shoulder still hurts.

I hope you can solve these things.

Thanks for your kind advice,

I'll check the side view on my next practice and try to stick the spikey ball into that region more often. Perhaps adding some rotator cuff exercises at the end of my practice might be a good way to assess the imbalance...... at least I am somewhat wiser as to what avenues I can pursue.

Wall Handstands are PE7 and you're only 6 months in.  This tells me you are flying through the program -- skipping elements or only training them for a single microcycle.  Even if you correctly tested for mastery and demonstrated the correct mobility (you did actually test them, right?), I would go back to the beginning and retrain those Preparatory movements paying close attention to being symmetrical.  PE4 & 5 and IMs 3-6 seem like they would target this area.  You can work on (slowly) adding weight to these as well.

From the picture it looks like you have some issues with the upper thoracic spine and a flat spot in the mid thoracic spine. It is hard to tell from the photo. The shoulder pain could be from the shoulder, thoracic spine or cervical spine. It could simply be that you need to slow your progress down and wait for the connective tissue to adapt. Try going back to the first mini cycle. Getting a Physio to assess you will also help.