What is likely getting strained and needs work here? (shoulder area)

[Chris Correia]

Bill:

This past weekend at a taekwondo training, I was holding targets, and after a particularly hard kick to the target, I felt a pull in the back and shoulder (actually the opposite back & shoulder). Let me describe it, and some relevant background info.

When holding targets, in this case focus mitts (which means our body/arm takes the brunt of the force of the technique, since there is no flex or give to the target), a kick usually sends the arm flying and it has to be decelerated. The kicks come from all directions: up, from the side, and down. Most of the time it is from the side (a roundhouse kick); the target is held out in front (usually at about waist level, sometimes face level) and when kicked, the arm flys to my outside (actually up and outside, usually). I will sometimes feel strain across the front of the shoulder, in particular, as a result of holding targets thusly. I've assumed a rotator issue.


Further, when holding targets thusly, I am usually reaching forward with the arm, to keep some distance between the target/kick and my body. So the arm is extended (overextended?).

This past weekend, I had held target for a number of kicks with both hands by the time this happened: Someone did an ax kick (chopping down with heel), while I held the mitt in front of me with my palm facing up (left hand). When the kick hit, my arm flew downward (and a bit to the outside), and I actually felt the discomfort in my OPPOSITE shoulder and arm; it felt like a pull from the spine across the shoulder blade, and down the back of the shoulder and arm to the elbow; also, there was discomfort down the front of the sholder and bicep.

The residual discomfort after the training is all those areas, mostly down the front & backs of the shoulder and arm. I assumed that arm/shoulder (the right) was fatigued, since it had done a lot/most of the work thus far.

So, what is getting strained, and what exercises are likely to help?

Thanks in advance.

[Chris Correia]

It got completely better after about three days.

I guess extra external rotator work wouldn't hurt, so I'll add some in.

[Bill Hartman]

Much like baseball pitchers who do a lousy job of decelerating with their body and end up tearing up their shoulder girdle, it sounds like you need to distribute some of the blow by absorbing it through the body. It doesn't take a great deal of body movement to do so.

I also would not fully extend the arm (absorbing the ax kick - palms up, arm extended - overloads your biceps tendon [that can tear the labrum] and the supraspinatus)whenever possible.

Sounds like your neck got "tweaked" on the ax kick. Perhaps a quick stretch the the cervical nerves. Football players get such things from direct shoulder blows or when their head gets whipped around. Their called stingers. Was it just a transient feeling?

Has this been something new since you've been lifting along with your TKD training?

Bill

[Chris Correia]

Originally posted by Bill Hartman:
Much like baseball pitchers who do a lousy job of decelerating with their body and end up tearing up their shoulder girdle, it sounds like you need to distribute some of the blow by absorbing it through the body. It doesn't take a great deal of body movement to do so.

I also would not fully extend the arm (absorbing the ax kick - palms up, arm extended - overloads your biceps tendon [that can tear the labrum] and the supraspinatus)whenever possible.

Sounds like your neck got "tweaked" on the ax kick. Perhaps a quick stretch the the cervical nerves. Football players get such things from direct shoulder blows or when their head gets whipped around. Their called stingers. Was it just a transient feeling?

Has this been something new since you've been lifting along with your TKD training?

Bill

Transient feeling? If I understand you correctly, no, it hung around throughout the next day.

In describing the target holding position, I realized how we overextend at times while holding targets, and figured that is not good to do.

I'll work with the notion of some body movement to help absorb the blows. That makes a lot of sense.

This is not necessarily new since I started weight training. It really only happens then using that type of target which sits directly on the hand, versus other types that have some flex to them (such a paddles). I recall it happening other times throughout the past few years when we are at occassional black belt trainings with this one master who likes us to use the mitts for targets. It's just that taking kicks to those things (normally used for punching) is hard on the holders/wearers.

Thanks, Bill, for the insight.