shoulder pain in front lever

Chris H Laing · 03-21-2009, 11:26 AM

I've been including the FL in my workouts for a couple weeks now, and I'm making good progress. However I've started to get a sharp pain in my right anterior shoulder whenever I do anything harder than a tuck FL. Adv tuck and one legged really make it hurt.

Any clue what I'm doing wrong that could be causing it? I'm thinking maybe i should pull my shoulders into the socket more? Only problems is i cant hold it nearly as long like that.

Also, any prehab exercises I could do to help alleviate the pain?

Garrett Smith · 03-21-2009, 01:28 PM

Bicipital tendonitis, most likely.

Check any of Steven Low's posts on tendonitis.

Don't do anything that aggravates it, work around it for now.

If you have pain, it's not prehab, it's rehab. I'd suggest wall extensions and DB Cuban presses.

Blair Lowe · 03-21-2009, 04:03 PM

Pretty common in a challenging front lever progression. My shoulder by my rotator cuff feels like it's being pulled out of it's socked in advanced tuck FL. It's just load.

Steven Low · 03-21-2009, 04:19 PM

If it is tendonitis of the biceps tendon then you do need to rest. This is easy to get if you are just SLIGHTLY bending your arms on these straight arm movies. You gotta take care to keep them all the way locked.

Otherwise, Check your IR/ER strength as well as flexibility of IR/ER...

Disparities should be addressed. Posture and overall shoulder development disparities should be addressed as well.

Chris H Laing · 03-23-2009, 04:13 AM

Thanks for all the answers guys. Is bicep tendonitis the kind of thing that goes away and then comes back, because the pain has gone away now, but i feel that it might come back the next time I do some front levers.

Garrett Smith · 03-23-2009, 06:27 AM

It can always come back, that's the nature of doing a lot of pulling exercises in gymnastics. Rest and good therapy will get it down, posture and muscle strength balance work (prehab) could help it stay away for longer or for good.

I'd say do things that don't irritate it for a month. Do stuff you know doesn't hurt, don't "test" it for that month. Then see how it is doing with a short foray into the easiest front lever variation that used to bother it and go slowly from there.

Chris H Laing · 03-24-2009, 05:15 PM

Well I tried some adv tuck fls yesterday (hardest variation I can do at the moment) and the shoulder felt fine. Maybe it was a fluke or something...

Chris Salvato · 03-26-2009, 08:16 PM

maybe all that contrast showering fixed it

Garrett Smith · 03-26-2009, 08:52 PM

Faker...