If you’ve trained the snatch then you’ve felt discomfort in the positions. Unfortunately, for some of us this discomfort turns into pain and continued discomfort.

Let’s end that!

Below is a video where I work with Dr. Richard Ulm an International Instructor in Dynamic Neuromuscular Stability. He travels the world helping athlete, coaches and doctors fix issues!

Two Common Ailments

I ask Dr. Ulm what was the most common ailment he saw when it came to shoulders. He listed two.

1. A Tight Pec
2. A Tight Rotator Cuff

Let’s break each down…

A Tight Pec – Many athletes who are having pain in the snatch overhead have an overly tight pec. The pec muscles are then pulling the shoulder forward which creates a shearing force in the shoulder (watch the video above for a great visual).  If we work office jobs and lean over a computer… this can be magnified!

A Tight Rotator Cuff – There are four muscles that can be involved here… subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus and teres minor.

Stay with me here!

When the shoulder blade gets unstable these four muscles can start to tighten up trying to provide stability for the shoulder. When this happens then again there is pressure pushed forward into the biceps tendon.

What do both the tight pec and tight rotator cuff have in common? A stability issue can cause them!

The Cause – A Stability Issue

I’ve mentioned a number of muscles getting “tight” and being related to our shoulder pain. However, the cure isn’t just to loosen these muscles!! (Even though that is important)

If the muscles are tightening because of instability then we must solve that instability.

… but, what is stability?

Stability is how our bodies control a joint through a movement. In the case of the snatch, can we maintain a good shoulder position as we transition under the bar?

The shoulder doesn’t have a lot of structural support. It is a shallow socket compared to the hip…

So that puts a lot of stress on the dynamic structures like the muscles I mentioned above. We must take time and put focused effort on getting these muscles to work correctly together.

How to Stop the Pain

You might not want to hear this, but if you have pain then it is time to rest! This doesn’t mean you have to stay home and sit on the couch!

It does mean however, that you should decrease the volume of going overhead into the positions that irritate your shoulder.

During your rest you need to open up those muscles mentioned above. Get them loosened up…

Then, you must attack stability! How you say? Well, we’ve created a second part to the video above to help!

Check it out below and good luck!