airway obstructed in trap stretch

Hello. 

During the TBS trap stretch where one rolls back onto his shoulders and his knees (ideally) come to the floor, I'm experiencing my wind pipe almost closing.  It feels like a hose with a kink.  A very similar feeling as to when I would roll in BJJ and my opponent in my guard would "stack" me, back on to my neck and shoulders.  I would lose my breath and have to tap.  

Any ideas why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?  I don't experience the "kink" if I avoid trying to achieve a good depth.  I can breath fine with  my knees rocked back a bit (feet not even close to the ground), but this also does not allow me to feel any stretch in the neck/traps.  

My only thought, embarrassing as it is, is that I have a little too much girth through the midsection (around 20% bf), which is constricting my breathing...   

Thanks.

Hi Patrick,

You may well be right about the big belly not helping  

I have come across similar issues in a quite a few individuals that have a significant degree of forward head posture. In this scenario the the muscles along the front/anterior of the neck become shortened (scalenes, longus coli and the strap muscles of the throat) and the trachea becomes more convoluted. This tends to be combined with an increase in thoracic kyphosis (though not all the time) and a generally elevated shoulder girdle, which results in what I call a short neck.

Make sure you bring your shoulders as far down away from the ears as possible at the start even before you bring the legs up as in the technical video.

Other than that, go as deep as you can before you tap yourself out and be patient 

Wesley

On July 13, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Wesley Tan said:

Hi Patrick,

You may well be right about the big belly not helping  

I have come across similar issues in a quite a few individuals that have a significant degree of forward head posture. In this scenario the the muscles along the front/anterior of the neck become shortened (scalenes, longus coli and the strap muscles of the throat) and the trachea becomes more convoluted. This tends to be combined with an increase in thoracic kyphosis (though not all the time) and a generally elevated shoulder girdle, which results in what I call a short neck.

Make sure you bring your shoulders as far down away from the ears as possible at the start even before you bring the legs up as in the technical video.

Other than that, go as deep as you can before you tap yourself out and be patient 

Wesley

Great info!

I also have this happen, but with much deeper ROM (my feet are in the ground and my knees are close to the ground). 

Depressing my shoulders per your suggestion did help! With time, will my body adapt and I'll be able to breath in a deeper ROM?

Thanks, I will try these modifications.