Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Tried replacing Kettlebell Arm Bar in my warmup

As part of warmup for today's workout, I tried replacing the kettlebell arm bar with another T-spine mobility exercise. It's one of the exercises recommended in Geoff Neupert's Kettlebell Strong! for improving mobility for the double KB Clean + Jerk - basically just lying on your back and moving tucked knees side to side.

My left shoulder felt uncomfortable during practice of the double KB press. It was as if my arm bone was a bit out of the shoulder socket. Paying stricter attention to the zip-up technique did not pull the arm back into the socket. I fixed the shoulder issue by adding an extra step to the zip-up: Engage the external rotators to really pull the shoulders back.

It seems that I have to resume including the KB Arm Bar in my warmup routine to help ensure my left arm doesn't wander away from the shoulder socket again. I think I'm starting to understand why the KB Arm Bar is thought of as a shoulder stability exercise, because my left shoulder sure didn't feel as stable as it did in previous KB pressing sessions. I did do the KB Bent Arm Bar, but that obviously did not prevent what happened with the shoulder today. I think part of it is the Bent Arm Bar stretches the front of the shoulder more, while the Arm Bar stretches the chest more. The Arm Bar also seems to work the rotators and other stabilizing muscles more intensely due to the straight arm being a longer lever than the bent arm.


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