Throat/ Clavicle Pain preventing cleans/ overhead oly work

[-Ross Hunt]

About a month or two ago, when I was doing a lot of overhead work with a non-rotating bar and lowering a lot of it back to rack, the base of the left neck muscle started to swell where it attaches to the clavicle. I think I caused it by catching a lot of split cleans in an uneven rack position (left elbow lower than my right), and the strain just built over time, so I am trying to emphasize even, high elbow height in all exercises that involve holding the weight in front. I first noticed this when I started getting light-headed/ edging towards passing out occasionally while doing push-presses or jerks, which used to happen to me only once in a blue moon. Then, about a week and a half ago, without any acute strain or notable increase in training volume, it worsened to the point where I couldn't clean more than 90 kilos without experiencing enough pain to make efficient technique impossible. It only hurts when I'm catching something heavy on it.

I have laid off dynamic work from the front (cleans, power cleans, push-presses, jerks), switching all of my overhead work to the back and emphasizing a tight rack in my front split squats and overhead presses to keep the bar from resting on the trouble spot without support.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of an injury or have any advice about how to work around it and prevent its recurrence?

[Mike ODonnell]

May be inflammation and overuse. Recovery, Fish Oil and recheck the diet for any issues like gluten or sugars. Best advice is lay off it for a while and try to heal it up....pushing through it will never let it heal.

[-Ross Hunt]

No glutens and sugars, but come to think of it, I have laid off fish oil supplementation recently, and at about the time it flared up I was under a lot of stress from the end of a school semester and poor sleep, so maybe general inflammation did have something to do with it. I'll try adding the fish oil back in.

[Mike ODonnell]

Originally Posted by -Ross Hunt

No glutens and sugars, but come to think of it, I have laid off fish oil supplementation recently, and at about the time it flared up I was under a lot of stress from the end of a school semester and poor sleep, so maybe general inflammation did have something to do with it. I'll try adding the fish oil back in.

Of course sleep and stress reduction is also part of the whole recovery situation...so work on making those better.

[Susie Rosenberg]

Maybe you should check it out with an orthopedist or sports medicine doc:

http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/thoracic_outlet

Susie

[-Ross Hunt]

Susie,

Hmm. I hope I don't have that, but thanks for the heads-up. That looks like it's worth checking out. Maybe the extra pressing work I have been doing recently has messed with my shoulder and back mobility.