W.O.D.
7/8
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5 Minutes to a Better Overhead Position
By: Ian McHugh
Holding a load in the overhead position is difficult for many people due to poor mobility through their thoracic spine and shoulders. By taking just five minutes of your time to focus on these drills you can allow yourself to comfortably execute movements with a load overhead.
Your Left Trapezius
For this piece I worked with our friend and member Mark. Take a look at his before pic. and notice how poor his range of motion (ROM) is at this point. This is Mark actually trying to pull back his arms. Now think about if he was holding a 135# barbell overhead and trying to overhead squat. My professional opinion is that it would be very difficult for him to pull back on the bar in order to keep the load in his mid-line. We should be able to see a portion of or the whole ear. Please note this was taken post warm-up/post WOD, so it would be safe to assume that he was already "loose".
Mark actually trying to pull his arms back
What I had mark work on was the following:
- 1 min of foam rolling (focusing on his thoracic spine area all the way up to the top of his trapezius.)
- 2 min of thoracic spine mobilization using two tennis balls taped together
- 1 min of work with the lacrosse ball (focusing on moving one arm at a time from across his body to the over head position.)
- 1 min of shoulder pass through
Here are some pics:
Foam rolling
A $1.99 lacrosse ball will change your life!
Shoulder pass though. Keep the arms extended throughout this drill
So in 5 minutes what did we accomplish? Checkout the after pic:
No problem at all!
Now imagine Mark overhead squatting. He would definitely be able to pull that bar back comfortably into his mid-line. Make it happen guys!
(*the inspiration behind this article was Kelly Starrett's series "Two Minute Drils" found on the CrossFit Journal)
Skill Work: Barbell Snatch Drop 5/5/5/5/5
then,
AMRAP in 15 min
800m run (only once)
Move barbell (115#/85#) from ground to overhead using any method, for the remainder of the time. At the top of every min you will complete 5 burpees.
Your score is the reps completed.
Remember each time you bring someone in for any WOD you are automatically entered into the Every Second Counts DVD raffle.
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7 Comments
Anon says...
i don't think the change is quite as dramatic as proposed. it looks like Mark is compensating with lumbar extension. notice that his shirt is sticking out a lot more in the bottom picture.
We could see why you would think that, but I don't think we can make that assumption based on one pic. Truthfully I believe that after the 5 minutes of drills he is simply more mobile through his posterior chain.
I would love for Mark to chime in and tell us how he felt before and after.
i agree that improvement was likely made and felt by Mark, the picture is just a bit misleading as to the magnitude. that's all. other than that still a good post with solid information.
Anon says...
if you are right that we cannot make that assumption based on one picture, then i would have to say that we also cannot make the opposite assumption that improvement was made based on one picture, which is exactly what this post did.
i agree that improvement was likely made and felt by Mark, the picture is just a bit misleading as to the magnitude. that's all. other than that still a good post with solid information.
Touché! Well, I guess we all can't be believers.
Reinaldo says...
If you think Mark is stiff, you should see me! If I try to pull my arms back, I only get a 45º angle. Yeah, that bad. Any advices for me?
If you subcribe to the CrossFit Journal checkout Kelly Starrett's 2 Minute Drills series. He offers some great advice for improving your overhead position. If you don't subscribe I would suggest trying the drills from above. Ask you Coach for guidance first though.
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