Shoulder pain holding pads and throwing hooks

[LS1Rx7]

Tweaking my shoulder pretty bad consistently when holding pads and throwing hooks.

I'm new to striking so I know I need to modify my mitt/pads holding technique but even when people are not hitting them hard, all of a sudden I'll tweak my shoulder and it'll hurt for a second and then just tighten up and be sore.


Lots of advil, ice, and icy hot has been helping and I dont seem to tweak them ever if I take advil before going to the gym but I know thats not healthy.

The other time I have an issues is throwing hooks. I cant throw a damn hook worth my life except for a slapping lead right hook (cause I'm a southpaw) while I circle to get around them. Thats pretty much the extent of my hooks. I can throw every other strike pretty easily.

But otherwise I have no hooks. I cant seem to get my elbow up high and keep my wrist straight so even when I connect my wrist seems to fold. and most of my hooks are girly slap looking things.

I tweaked my shoulder again bad today working hooks with focus mitts, I connected with a left hook and tweaked the shoulder bad and I felt it on the inside of my elbow which is a little sore from a recent arm bar. I still trained and sparred, but when the other guy would hit my left glove it would give me another quick tweak.

Now I'm doing the whole RICE thing but I am starting to think there is a semi serious inbalance in my shoulder. I dont know how though because I can go do bench presses, pushups, over head presses dips.. there doesnt seem to be a standard motion that really pisses the shoulder off other than boxing.

 

[dat1978]

Ever dislocated the shoulder before? Even if you only partially did it, called subluxation, often times your shoulder will always be loose. With the different angles and forces that boxing can exert on your shoulder it's easy to tweek it all the time in practice.

Couple things to try are 1) improve your technique with nothing and holding, and 2) do more specific shoulder rehab exercises along with your normal lifting.

Both my shoulders are messed up so I have to make sure to keep them strong or else they get sore like you are describing.

 

[bowlie]

This is big thread necromancy, but I have the same problem. I cant hold pads for hooks because I dislocated my shoulders and it feels like Im going to do it again despite having corrective surgery. It just feels like when someone really wails in a hard hook im asking for trouble.

 

[JeetKunDoGuy]

Hmmm...I subluxated my left shoulder in high school and sometimes it gives me problems but not quite as bad as you are describing.

I would work on making sure your technique is really solid. Perhaps you are letting your elbow flare out too much therefore hyperextending your shoulder. Make sure you are keeping your elbow in tight and allowing the pivoting movement to drive the punch. I was having a lot of trouble with my left shoulder before I fixed my technique.

 

[bowlie]

Hmmm...I subluxated my left shoulder in high school and sometimes it gives me problems but not quite as bad as you are describing.

I would work on making sure your technique is really solid. Perhaps you are letting your elbow flare out too much therefore hyperextending your shoulder. Make sure you are keeping your elbow in tight and allowing the pivoting movement to drive the punch. I was having a lot of trouble with my left shoulder before I fixed my technique.

Its not throwing the hook (although that feels suspect, but I think thats more nerves than anything) its having someone throw the hook on the pads im holding.

 

[a guy]

Have you been doing rehab exercises after the injury? It's very possible that the muscles simply aren't strong enough to stabilize against the force of a hook.

Another possibility is that you aren't holding the mitts properly. Make sure you brace your shoulder for the impact before it occurs and don't let your hand be hit towards the end of your range of motion. What I mean by that is if you hold the pad out like you're going to catch a hook then move your arm outwards to the side, you'll feel a stretch on your shoulder at some point. If you're being hit too close to this point then your shoulder is being put at risk.

If it's not these things, it very well could be a problem of posture. Make sure your shoulders are in the sockets and back, not hunched or forward.

 

[bowlie]

Have you been doing rehab exercises after the injury? It's very possible that the muscles simply aren't strong enough to stabilize against the force of a hook.

Another possibility is that you aren't holding the mitts properly. Make sure you brace your shoulder for the impact before it occurs and don't let your hand be hit towards the end of your range of motion. What I mean by that is if you hold the pad out like you're going to catch a hook then move your arm outwards to the side, you'll feel a stretch on your shoulder at some point. If you're being hit too close to this point then your shoulder is being put at risk.

If it's not these things, it very well could be a problem of posture. Make sure your shoulders are in the sockets and back, not hunched or forward.

I had surgery to tighten the ligaments and reconstruct the joints, and rehab after that, although there is a real possibility that the joint still isnt strong enough. I think im holding the pads right, and I always move into them to absorb the shock, but its very possible my posture is causing the problems.

 

[a guy]

I had surgery to tighten the ligaments and reconstruct the joints, and rehab after that, although there is a real possibility that the joint still isnt strong enough. I think im holding the pads right, and I always move into them to absorb the shock, but its very possible my posture is causing the problems.

Well if the muscles are weak then that's a relatively easy fix.

If it's posture, pay a lot of attention to keeping your shoulders in place and back straight. There's a good chance the reason it dislocated in the first place is because it was coming out of it's sockets when you were throwing hooks. Also, you might want to find out if you have an actual postural problem or if you just tended to let your shoulders come forward as a technical issue.

Another thing is that you might wanna talk to your partners about the way they hit the pads. They shouldn't be seriously following through and trying to build power. In my opinion, the best use of pads is to develop footwork and defensive awareness while punching, or to develop the mechanics of techniques under the careful instruction of a coach. Pad work isn't a place to mindlessly throw power shots in pre-set combinations. If you wanna do something that will keep your shoulder safe while helping your partner develop, either make them use footwork to land the hook as you move around (their accuracy and power will decrease until they get good, so you'll get hurt less), make them react to counters (they have to focus less on power to be more aware and balanced) or both.

 

[bowlie]

Well if the muscles are weak then that's a relatively easy fix.

If it's posture, pay a lot of attention to keeping your shoulders in place and back straight. There's a good chance the reason it dislocated in the first place is because it was coming out of it's sockets when you were throwing hooks. Also, you might want to find out if you have an actual postural problem or if you just tended to let your shoulders come forward as a technical issue.

Another thing is that you might wanna talk to your partners about the way they hit the pads. They shouldn't be seriously following through and trying to build power. In my opinion, the best use of pads is to develop footwork and defensive awareness while punching, or to develop the mechanics of techniques under the careful instruction of a coach. Pad work isn't a place to mindlessly throw power shots in pre-set combinations. If you wanna do something that will keep your shoulder safe while helping your partner develop, either make them use footwork to land the hook as you move around (their accuracy and power will decrease until they get good, so you'll get hurt less), make them react to counters (they have to focus less on power to be more aware and balanced) or both.

Which muscles would you try and strengthen? rotator cuff, chest and upper back? Anything specific you recomend?

 

[thugpoet]

Go to a doctor and get an x ray.

 

[a guy]

Which muscles would you try and strengthen? rotator cuff, chest and upper back? Anything specific you recomend?

Almost definitely not chest. Most people (even ones with weak chests) have disproportionately strong chests when compared to their backs, which leads to shoulder injury. I'm not a physical therapist, but I'd say that strengthening your rotator cuffs will help, but it might be targeting the symptom more than the problem. Then again, this is only true if you have postural issues. I don't know if you do, I'm just pointing out possibilities.

 

[alphaandomega]

in my case, fish oil and super cissus helped extrmely with a couple of joint pain instances I was experiencing.

 

[Sinister]

Almost definitely not chest. Most people (even ones with weak chests) have disproportionately strong chests when compared to their backs, which leads to shoulder injury. I'm not a physical therapist, but I'd say that strengthening your rotator cuffs will help, but it might be targeting the symptom more than the problem. Then again, this is only true if you have postural issues. I don't know if you do, I'm just pointing out possibilities.

Having seen bowlie move, I think the opposite is the problem here. When the shoulders come forward, it's the back muscles that are too strong and the chest relatively weak. I could be wrong, but that's what my memory recalls.

I never have shoulder problems with mitt work, but if you look at the clip of me working Taino on the mitts in the training thread on this page, you can see why. I never really use my shoulders. How you hold them is very important. The shoulder is very weak, it's meant to rotate, nothing more. Not meant to hold tremendous amounts of weight or force. Unlike the hip, it doesn't have a lot of stabilization systems around it. So it's best to just not use the shoulder or allow it to absorb a lot of force period. Many fighters who betray this, however, end up with torn rotator cuffs. Happens quite a bit.

 

[a guy]

Having seen bowlie move, I think the opposite is the problem here. When the shoulders come forward, it's the back muscles that are too strong and the chest relatively weak. I could be wrong, but that's what my memory recalls.

To my knowledge, the muscles that are stronger end up being shorter and tighter, while the antagonist muscles end up longer and thus inactive. So when the shoulders come forward, I believe it's a case of the upper back muscles being too loose while the chest is too tight. However, as I said, I'm not a physical therapist and I very easily could be wrong as well.

 

[Sinister]

To my knowledge, the muscles that are stronger end up being shorter and tighter, while the antagonist muscles end up longer and thus inactive. So when the shoulders come forward, I believe it's a case of the upper back muscles being too loose while the chest is too tight. However, as I said, I'm not a physical therapist and I very easily could be wrong as well.

I don't know if tightness/looseness corresponds with strength and weakness that precisely. The reason being is because the guys in my gym with the shoulders furthest forward have weak chests. Small muscles, not very developed, etc.

 

[a guy]

I don't know if tightness/looseness corresponds with strength and weakness that precisely. The reason being is because the guys in my gym with the shoulders furthest forward have weak chests. Small muscles, not very developed, etc.

You're probably right, the correlation might not be as strong as I believed.