pain from handstand pushups

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Hello, I have recently gotten a strange pain in my left shoulder when going past 90 degrees in handstand pushups. I am a circus performer and I train several hours of handstand every day with no apparent problems. Stuff such as heavy 1 arm positions, kick ups from elbow lever, bowers and muscle ups dont give any problems, it is only the ROM of handstand pushups. It seems like it is mostly overhead push with arms at a 90 degree angle that is the problem, since when I do bowers I am slightly in front with no pain. The pains are pretty sharp in the front part of the shoulder. It does not hinder my progress much, since I have a lot of stuff to work on, but I would like to find out whats causing it as fast as possible.

My left is significantly weaker than my right, and sometimes I experience very slight discomfort in the left rotator cuff when I do 1 arm flag positions on the left arm, so I suspect it can have something to do with the rotator. I have been looking up impingement pains a little bit, but they seem much more severe than mine,

Anyone have had similar pains or know what this can be?

Thanks,

Mikael

[Joshua Naterman]

It sounds like the AC joint, where your clavicle joins to your acromion process. The most probable cause is imbalance between anterior and posterior shoulder girdle muscles, both the larger muscles and the inner muscles we refer to as the rotator cuff. It could be a strength issue as well as a flexibility issue, though for me the flexibility is more of a problem. The problem could very well be either in the scalenes or, more probably in my opinion, the pectoralis minor.For me, personally, chest expander work along with specific stretching is working miracles. I will be posting a video by the 10th at the latest and I will link it here as well. I guess I'll put it at the top of my list and try to get it on here in the next day or two.

In the meantime, the one stretch that has worked for me is to stand in front of a bar around chest height, reach back with both arms and grip it palms down, and pretend that I am reaching behind me as far as I can as I move my body forward and down. You HAVE to actively reach behind you to relax the pectoralis minor and let your shoulder drift backwards. If you don't you'll feel a sharp stretch in the front of your shoulder. Ease into this, it helps a lot. The video will be more explicit.

[Andrew Browne]

I have 3 questions for you:

1. Do you keep your elbows in or flair them out during the movement?

2. How much work do you do and how strong are you in the rear and medial deltoids?

3. How strong is your external rotator with your arm in that position? (upper arm perpendicular to body, elbow at 90 degrees)