I have been having shoulder pain. I was told by the doc that I have a bit of arthritis in my right shoulder. I can do many movements and have pretty good strength and range of motion. A lot of things, like the forearm stand in my cover photo, cause no discomfort at all. But certain ranges and movement are painful. And at night, I get a lot of discomfort, especially sleeping on my right side. So, I have been reading about shoulders and looking into alternatives...and not liking most of them. But I have been looking into adding hanging as part of my daily movement practice. Yoga works a lot of muscles and provides a ton of flexion, extension, and rotation, but hanging from the hands, swinging from the trees, brachiating is a movement pattern that is hard to come by. There are a few people out there advocating this as a very basic movement pattern that has been lost in the modern world, along with a ton of other movement patterns. I am going to start with a movement challenge from Ido Portal. The challenge involves both active and passive hanging for 7 minutes a day for 30 days. Today was my first day. I plan to do only passive hangs for the first week. Arms straight up, should width, hanging using as little muscle energy possible....just enough to hang onto the bar, but relaxed as possible in the arms, shoulders, and the rest of my body. I did 7 one-minute hangs spread throughout the day. I am not testing myself to see how long I can hang, but I dont think I could go a lot longer than a minute. I will go slow. This is a big stretch. People promoting this suggest that a hanging practice can remodel the arch of ligament and bone that covers the upper arm and tendons of the rotator cuff. (according to Dr. John Kirsch). Kirsch suggests that we lose range and movement and are structurally deformed by gravity, certain sorts of movement, and, importantly, the absence of some other types of movement. Constriction of this arch is blamed for many rotator cuff tears. Specifically, he is a big believer in brachiating. Here is a link to his book on Amazon. Interesting stuff. amazon/Shoulder-Pain-Solution-Prevention-Fourth-ebook/dp/B003ICWIUM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417488715&sr=8-1&keywords=kirsch+shoulder So, off I go. I am very interested in parsing the inevitable effects of senescence for the preventable effects of patterns of action (and inaction) that lead to disability. I will post on progress! If this 30 intro to hanging goes well, I will be adding hanging to my daily movement practice.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 03:02:37 +0000
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