shoulder injury - ostearartiritus?

After workouts recently i have been getting severe pain in my left shoulder

feels like my tendon is really sore and the joint hurts.

i have been to my gp who sent me for xray at my local hospital

the results didn't show any damage bone wise

what the doctor said was i have ostearartiritus in my ac joint and not to continue with the training i do the continuous repetitions on rings and dips has caused the problem - ie gymnastics and conditioning - i used to train with weights for a while before starting gymnastics - this may have contributed to this but i dont remember having pain then

very bad news for me as my training is a big part of my life in general,

i am being refered to a specialist in the coming weeks to get more advice

i have been laying off of the ring muscle ups and dips and handstand press ups - Pain has eased

has anyone had this? - is it common?

can it be treated?

or is it game over gymnastic wise?

Coach sommer - have you come across this at all?

Wrapping your joints with exercises

This is very common, unfurtunatly.

The rings were distributed a couple of years ago in the fitness industry, but with no warnings about their uses or any preparatory skills progression outlined by a professional.

Many people jumped into the wagon of ring training with insufficient GPP and preparation of the muscu-skeletel system. As coach Sommer says: the rings are the ultimate training tool, they will move in 360 degrees and always to your weakest point. This will also make them the ultimate tools for injurying unprepared athletes and uncovering past injuries, long forgotten.

I advice you, as a good friend of mine and gymanstics-coach extraordiner Yuri Raviz says, to 'wrap your joints with exercises'. And especialy the joints with the most mobility and least stability, like the shoulders.

Lay off the rings for now, and make friends with the elastic bands and stable apparatus such as the floor, PBars, high bar and classical db's and bb's. Stablize the joint and build integrity.

Good luck.

This is unfortunately just as common with bodyweight training as with weight training. People often train too intensely, with too much volume, with variations that are too demanding, without adequately cycling the intensity of training load and failing to periodically interchange movement variations; all while under the mistaken notion that it is all just bodyweight and I can train as hard as I would like, right? Wrong.

Increasing physical strength can never be a simple straight linear progression. The body is not a machine and requires periods of overload (heavy strain), load (medium level effort) and underload (light comfortable recovery oriented). The body has a set physiological window of recovery and recuperation of the various tissues that cannot be exceeded. Most of us tend to focus on maintaining too much work in the overload portion of our training, too little in the load and far too little in the underload.

Muscle imbalances can also be a key issue for those training more advanced ring strength elements unless steps are taken to prevent this occurance. As an example, an athlete is training the maltese. Over time, the anterior delts become enormously strong and, without proper pre-hab and forethought, will actually begin to overpower the posterior delts, which will in turn lead to impingement and pain within the shoulder.

The solution for the example provided is actually two fold:

1) Focus on maintaining a healthy balance of anterior to posterior shoulder strength. Training various rowing movements and victorian developmental exercises will go a long way towards alleviating this problem.

2) Perform the correct joint mobility and pre-hab exercises. I tend to refer to not including these movements in a training program as the silent killer. It is so easy to see and recognize strength gains (a maltese) and so easy to set aside those boring pre-hab movements, or to perform them, but to do so haphazardly and with little attention to proper execution. All seems to be progressing well, the athlete is getting stronger and stronger, however the range of motion gradually becomes more restricted and compromised over time until the situation reaches a critical situation (i.e. pain while training).

As a US National Team Coach, I have seen this situation occur countless times over the years. It is especially prevalent with the older, stronger, more advanced athletes who have a significant gap between their strength and joint mobility/prehab. Rest of the damaged area will reduce the pain and inflammation. However upon recommencing training once again, the situation re-appears as only the inflammation has been reduced, not the root cause of the issue which was the muscle imbalances and lack of proper pre-hab. What is needed to rectify the situation is not simply rest and recovery, but a reconstruction of the athlete's training philosophy.

This also brings to mind a situation from last year's National Championships. A group of the athletes and parents were gathered together, going over their list of over-use injuries present during that competition. To their minds these types of injuries were simply inevitable and a part of being tough and seeing it through as it were. One had sore wrists, one had painful shoulders and still another had both knees heavily wrapped and his wrist was bothering him as well. When they inquired of my athlete what was bothering him and he replied nothing at all, they were shocked to say the least.

At a later training camp, I shared my wrist preparation series with another coach attending; one whose athlete was the young man previously mentioned with both chronic wrist and knee problems. What makes this story especially interesting was that this was not simply any coach, but a former World Champion from the Chinese National Team. This occurred last September and I saw the coach for the first time since then just this last weekend. He thanked me for sharing my wrist series with him and said that it was far better than anything they used in China and had completely corrected the wrist problems of his athlete. In fact, he went on to say that the only time the wrist issues re-surfaced were when he was negligent in diligently performing the series I had provided.

I will detail and share all of the joint mobility and pre-hab series that I use with my athletes in my forthcoming volume, Liquid Steel™. In the meantime, some of the movements will occasionally be provided in the upcoming Gymnastic Bodies WOD.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

2) Perform the correct joint mobility and pre-hab exercises. I tend to refer to not including these movements in a training program as the silent killer. It is so easy to see and recognize strength gains (a maltese) and so easy to set aside those boring pre-hab movements, or to perform them, but to do so haphazardly and with little attention to proper execution. All seems to be progressing well, the athlete is getting stronger and stronger, however the range of motion gradually becomes more restricted and compromised over time until the situation reaches a critical situation (i.e. pain while training).

With all due respect Coach. You're saying that these pre-hab routines are critical for these joints esp shoulder joints and then later you're saying we wont get to use them until the next book Liquid Steel™ comes out?

Isnt it dangerous to have Xtreme Rings & BtGB prescribe progressions for exercises for which we dont have access to the right Pre-habs.

Can we please have some love for these shoulders & the pains?

Check out Ido's shoulder ROM and Scapula mobilization routines. I personally think they are amazing and have had great results with them!

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Thanks Nifty. I dont have these cords with me but I'll see what I can do.

I am still concerned with Coach's statement above.

With all due respect Coach. You're saying that these pre-hab routines are critical for these joints esp shoulder joints and then later you're saying we wont get to use them until the next book Liquid Steel™ comes out?

Isnt it dangerous to have Xtreme Rings & BtGB prescribe progressions for exercises for which we dont have access to the right Pre-habs.

You are engaging in paralysis by analysis. Your primary goal at this time should be developing a solid foundation of basic strength.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

With all due respect Coach. You're saying that these pre-hab routines are critical for these joints esp shoulder joints and then later you're saying we wont get to use them until the next book Liquid Steel™ comes out?

Isnt it dangerous to have Xtreme Rings & BtGB prescribe progressions for exercises for which we dont have access to the right Pre-habs.

You are engaging in paralysis by analysis. Your primary goal at this time should be developing a solid foundation of basic strength.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I know Coach. But given that I havent even started the exercises (FBEs or FSPs) at all and was just trying an FSP. And I've been down for a week, I'd like to not kill myself again

What could / should I do now?

- In terms of Rehab... (besides rest & mild relaxing lying down yoga)

- In terms of testing my shoulder to see where it stands before I start again?

When I do start next... assuming I recover soon.

Should I rack up a certain volume on normal FBEs like Pushups, Pullups & Dips before even trying to get a hang of the FSPs like FL-Tuck & BL-Tuck?

Originally posted by Coach Sommers

As an example, an athlete is training the maltese. Over time, the anterior delts become enormously strong and, without proper pre-hab and forethought, will actually begin to overpower the posterior delts, which will in turn lead to impingement and pain within the shoulder.

I think that is what I have. Does the pain show up when they perform maltese only, or does the impingement affect other movements (Dips and handstands)? I have been training planche leans for approximately 3 months, and pike pushups for about 2 months. Made significant progress in both. On two training sessions I experienced shoulder pain after doing a few sets of pike pushups. I've never had shoulder pain while doing planche leans, or any kind of pain for that matter, even when my shoulder was bothering me a bit, I actually set a PR on two occasions. Now, the same seems to apply for pike pushups. My shoulder can feel a little goofy, but my performance is not affect, and it feels comfortable, for the most part. The problem, now, is deep parallel bar dips. The movement feels more stiff, although the range of motion is still the same as in the past. I actually haven't worked dips for about 2 months. I'm thinking I definitely am suffering from muscle imbalance, because my shoulder ROM is actually improved since I began adding more stretches to stretch the anterior deltoid region. These stretches seemed to correlate with eliminated pain with pike pushups.

JL said:

Originally posted by Coach Sommers

As an example, an athlete is training the maltese. Over time, the anterior delts become enormously strong and, without proper pre-hab and forethought, will actually begin to overpower the posterior delts, which will in turn lead to impingement and pain within the shoulder.

I think that is what I have. Does the pain show up when they perform maltese only, or does the impingement affect other movements (Dips and handstands)? I have been training planche leans for approximately 3 months, and pike pushups for about 2 months. Made significant progress in both. On two training sessions I experienced shoulder pain after doing a few sets of pike pushups. I've never had shoulder pain while doing planche leans, or any kind of pain for that matter, even when my shoulder was bothering me a bit, I actually set a PR on two occasions. Now, the same seems to apply for pike pushups. My shoulder can feel a little goofy, but my performance is not affect, and it feels comfortable, for the most part. The problem, now, is deep parallel bar dips. The movement feels more stiff, although the range of motion is still the same as in the past. I actually haven't worked dips for about 2 months. I'm thinking I definitely am suffering from muscle imbalance, because my shoulder ROM is actually improved since I began adding more stretches to stretch the anterior deltoid region. These stretches seemed to correlate with eliminated pain with pike pushups.

It will affect everything if you have anterior dominance in the shoulder.

I "fixed" mine by first dropping all anterior work and only doing pulling (espeically horizontal pulling). After a couple weeks or maybe months I don't quite recall I added back in pressing work, but kept my pulling to pressing ratio about 3:2 or 2:1 exercises per workout until my shoulders were more balanced. They're still anterior dominant (because gymnastics/bodyweight work is), but they're MUCH improved now, and I don't have any problems.