How the body works cracks me up

This morning I was getting a training session in before I heading off for a private session with a client. Pressing was on the agenda, and a good lockout at the top is key to any good press.

I discovered this past spring that my right elbow does not lock out – at least not happily. It’s not terribly obvious to most people, but I can feel it and a highly-trained eye can see it. This morning I decided to take some extra time to work on my lockout, to see if I could find the key. Shoulder circles and camshafts in a ton of different directions revealed that I cannot maintain lockout with the arm overhead on shoulder circles (every other position is fine) and straight-arm camshafts are simply not possible. Tactile cueing at the elbow does fix it, but it’s not a great long-term solution. Tactile cueing at the shoulder is also helpful, but not as good as at the elbow.

I already knew that I have problems with external rotation with abduction on the opposite hip. It’s one of the only places in my body, where moving it just plain causes sharp pain. Because of the concept of opposing joints (hip to shoulder), I decided to see if playing with that would help. I went in to external rotation, applied some medium pressure where the pain flares up, and then did some abduction. I was careful to keep the range of motion relatively small, and I never moved in to pain. It actually felt great.

OK, back to the shoulder/elbow. Elbow lockout much better. Shoulder circles much better. Camshafts much better. So, presses much better!

“All the body all the time” is both really powerful and really annoying. Before Z-Health, I never would have thought to look at the opposing hip. The beauty of a principle-based system.