Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › Weakness in arm.

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    • 06/04/2014 at 6:34 pm #70973
      AvatarShannon cupp Cupp
      Participant

      I have an athlete with an issue that I was hoping to pick up a few tips for in here.

      He has a long injury history stemming from a motorcycle accident and a titanium rod in his clavicle.  
      First off, he’s a super strong, super tight dude.  He came to my CrossFit gym with a long history of bodybuilding type movements, very strict with all movements.  Not to mention, he’s a long-distance biker.  He has horrible shoulder flexion, front rack is almost non-existent.  He lacks terminal extension and can’t straighten his arms on pullups, etc.  Tight hips and ankles, tspine.  He’s a hot mess, but he’s WAY better in the year he’s been with me.
      Long story short, he was working on hand stand pushups and a coach was working with him on screwing his arms into the ground in his press out.  He claims that since that day, he woke up the next morning and has had severe weakness in his left arm (the titanium side).  He can’t even do a bodyweight pushup.  Today no pressing overhead strength.  He’s ok with pullups, however.  He has a pinchy feeling between his spine and scap on that side.  He can get the pain to reside, and some strength returns after considerable smashing, but soon the pinch returns and the weakness returns.
      Any thoughts?
      Thanks!
      Scott – Bare Hands CrossFit
    • 06/09/2014 at 11:43 am #74759
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      Can he do the overhead, front rack archtypes?
      If not that is where you start.
      Mobilize those positions until he is able to replicate those archtypes.
      It sounds like you’ve identified the problem areas. Start chipping away at them.
      Does he started in an organized stable position?
      Start with the spine.
      If spine is not organized you don’t have access to the primary engines of the hip and shoulder.
      Was he injured doing hspus?
      His body has less tolerance for less than optimal positioning since the accident.
      Has anyone looked at his push up technique and movement pattern?

    • 06/15/2014 at 1:24 pm #74797
      AvatarShannon cupp Cupp
      Participant

      Hi Kaitlyn,

      Thank you for responding.  I have to say, while his overhead and front rack archetypes are considerably improved since his joining my gym, he scores a zero on every range of motion test in his shoulders (and hips, and ankles…wow he’s tight).  Front rack is definitely one of his goats, he struggles keeping his elbows locked in OHS, can’t straighten arms on the bottom of a pull-up.  Basically, the root cause is obvious, I just needed a quick kick in the butt to remind me because after a year of advising his progress, it’s easy to get disheartened.  Back to the mobility grindstone for good old Greg!  
      Thanks!
    • 06/16/2014 at 12:37 pm #74805
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      You want to mobilize the arch types he is not able to perform.
      Sounds like these are not new situations so it can take some time to have a situation resolved.
      It takes 7 months to replace fascia.
      Keep chipping away at it.
      Sounds like he is seeing improvements which is good.

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