Trapezius pain while doing handstands

[bsk1694]

I have been training for handstands for about 4 months now. My progress has been very good. However I've noticed that I have started developing a burning pain in the traps whenever I'm doing any sort of overhead press.

My training for the past 1.5 year has been focused on building strength for the back lever and handstands, planche etc.

Any sort of of 45 degrees to overhead pushing has been painful. A burning sensation just on my right side. It kinda feels like it's underneath the trapezius.

Any tips on how to get rid of it or what is causing it. I think it might be worth mentioning that I've been doing a lot of push ups lately.

Thanks.

[Nic Branson]

Get a lacrosse ball, put your arm in various position and roll the muscles. Betting you will find some trigger points.

This is assuming you have no weakness or sharp acute pain. If either of those get it looked at.

[bsk1694]

Thank you! Will work on my trigger points.

But If I had any weakness, how could I correct it? and I've noticed that my pain in increased when I elevate* and protract my scapula while in the handstand? Could the pain be because of the scapular positioning?

*Elevated - Is is the thing where you push your palms into the ground thereby pushing your shoulders much closer to your ear level. right?

[Nic Branson]

Yes you are essentially shrugging your shoulders to elevate them. The pain could be from triggers in the tissue of the musculature. Don't aggravate it.

If there is weakness you have a more serious problem that needs a hands on evaluation.

[bsk1694]

I don't seem to have any trigger points. Could the pain arise because of my scapula positioning?

It may be worth mentioning that a similar trapezius "burn" is felt when I'm doing causal activities like sitting at a computer or riding a bike, However the one I have doing handstand is severe. :?

I feel I need to get this sorted soon as a handstand is the basis of almost all gymnastic movements. :cry:

[Nic Branson]

That is worth mentioning, the issue could be neck related. Without a hands on I cannot really help too much. Do try one thing. Stand back to the wall, heel, butt, shoulder, head against the wall. You head should be straight back and not looking up. Now put your arms palms forward straight out to your sides. Elbows and knuckles against the wall. Without...and I mean without (try and stay semi hollow feeling here) arching, slowly move your arms overhead. You'll be making a semi-circle. Then back to step one, do this a few times nice and slow. Keeping your elbow and knuckles to the wall with no arch and head not looking up or down but neutral and back.

[bsk1694]

I will most definitely do that!

I will lay off handstands for a while and focus on getting my scapular retraction,depression and protraction right. and I think I'll also work on my upper back posture for a while before getting into handstands! Thanks again!

[sn0wdude]

I just had the same thing happen to me. I have been working hs for two months, then one day i shifted my weight to catch my balance and I felt the left side of my trap and neck freak out, and now two weeks later, I'm still feeling pain. I have very poor posture due to doing only bench presses and front shoulder exercises in high school. So now I'm concentrating on fixing my posture before returning to hs training. I'm also thinking about stopping my planche and L-sit training because it seems to make my posture even worse, I feel like my shoulders are rotated way to forward and it seems to pull on my back even worse. So until my back is in good health and strong again I'm thinking of stopping HS, Planche, and L-sit training. Any thoughts on this? bsk1694, how is it going for you?

[Nic Branson]

Planche, L-sit, chin ups, pull ups to an extent will all trigger a degree of anterior musculature. Look for trigger points in your neck, stretch your lats, careful loaded trap stretching. Start to work on remedial scap retraction, with a ton of focus on your lower traps. Take 2 weeks and focus on the above before bringing in any other movement. Do not mess with the neck pain, if you tweak it bad enough you will be fighting it for years. After the two weeks, come back and let us know how you feel.

With prolonged pain you should see a Dr. I am not giving any of this advice to treat pain.

[Cole Dano]

I've been taking trampoline lessons, which for a beginner like myself can be quite demanding on the neck.

One method of self treatment I've had great success with is to lightly grab just the skin around the uncomfortable area and tug it in various directions looking for the direction's that feel best. I also roll just the skin. The neck and traps seem to respond well to this, though the skin over the traps can be quite tight, the neck skin is generally loose and easy to manipulate.

[sn0wdude]

Thanks for advice! Here is a list of what I have been doing for the last week, Arm Circles, Dislocates, Ido's Shoulder mobility, Slizzardman's shoulders stretch, Wall slides, External Rotator cuff rotations, Reverse Dumbbell flys, and face pulls. In between each exercise I'm constantly stretching my traps, chest, and front shoulders. And at night I have been using a tennis ball to do some soft tissue work in my chest, shoulders and neck. Im going to add Scapular PU, and Cbl Rows to the list for my next workout. I have done this routine twice so far this week and already the pain in my neck has gotten much better, I still really tight though. But after 4 years of high school doing mainly pushing lifts, I don't expect this routine to be a quick fix. Any advice of how long I should wait till I start Planche, L-sit, chin ups, pull ups again?

[Joshua Naterman]

Depends. That's somewhat subjective, but I certainly wouldn't mess with them for 3-4 weeks. Put your time in 3x per week with those movements you're doing and try 2-3 sets to failure, not using explosive movements.I will recommend that a maximum speed of 3 seconds up, 3 seconds down be established. If you want to work slower, great but don't go faster than that for any of the movements for at least 2 of those 3 workouts. You are doing a lot of the right things, especially with incorporating the rows.

I would consider doing each workout with a different row. At least once a week, do foot-supported body rows.

Note: Food is critical here. I'm not trying to be funny Seriously, I would consider getting 3-400 calories before the workout (maybe 30-45 minutes before) and at least the same afterwards, and then keeping up with what you need and not getting behind for at least the next 6-8 hours. You will notice a radically improved rate of muscle growth and strength gain. You can't make progress without food.

[sn0wdude]

Thanks! I will do that! One last question... When doing scapula PU's, dislocates, Ido's mobility, and the dumbell fly's Should my elbows be rotated out, in, or neutral? I know Im not using the correct terminology so I hope that made sense. I've played around with it, and it feels like rotated out puts more of a stretch in the front of my shoulders and make it easier to contract my scapula. I just wanted to get someone else's opinion about it.

[Joshua Naterman]

Do what lets you feel the muscles you are trying to work.

[sn0wdude]

Joshua thanks again for all the advice! I need some more, 1. Since I don't think I can workout in the morning, is there any specific way of getting the calories I need throughout the night short of waking up for a midnight snack? and 2. Do you have a specific set/rep scheme for the workout I wrote out for my posture? Right now I'm warming up with the mobility and stretching, then I'm tri-setting the rest doing 2 sets of 12-15 of each exercise.

[Joshua Naterman]

Sets and reps I would recommend would be 2-3 sets to failure per exercise, with each set taking a minimum of 20 seconds and not increasing weight until you can go 50-60 seconds before failing. I don't care much about reps anymore, as they depend on tempo. For a while I would use fairly slow tempos, 3-5s up and same down.

As for calories, eat food. I don't know what else to tell you without a specific scenario.

[Jesus Rojas El Chino]

I have the same problem "similar trapezius "burn" is felt when I'm doing causal activities like sitting at a computer or riding a bike"

 

What is the solution im really frustrated

[Cole Dano]

That is largely due to too much time in one position, and not getting enough blood flow to the traps.

 

In the long term, the H1 course from the GB curriculum will help this. Also variations of down dog from yoga can help.

 

When it happens, if you can at a minimum work it out with some shoulder rotations and shrugs. 

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Kitchen timer, set to 15 minutes, when it rings, do 5 shoulder rotations each way, and 5 shrugs as Cole advised, reset your posture & the timer, rinse repeat...