Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing A Bench Press Gone!

The Night I “Couldn’t” Bench Press By Dave “The Athlete Creator” Sandel

Just like every other Tuesday, it was bench press night with Mike. However, this Tuesday was different. I sent him an email earlier in the day stating:

“Tonight might be prehab/rehab for me. I was feeling just a touch of shoulder pain in my left shoulder after last week, and it was worse after training last night. This is, unless, your voodoo works again.”

So, I showed up at the usual time, did my usual Z-health CNS warm-up, and did some push-ups to test my shoulder. Push-ups tested fine and without pain. I thought, “Hmm, maybe everything will be alright tonight.”

Then it was my turn to warm-up with the empty bar. After a few slow, pain-free, concentrated reps I decided to try exploding a rep off my chest. That nearly caused my left arm to collapse because of the shooting pain in my left shoulder, just as I had felt before.

After a brief description of the previous night’s workout, Mike put his head down and started mumbling something to himself. Something about external rotation, abduction, sagittal planes, and some other stuff I didn’t quite recognize (eventhough I’m studying for my CSCS certification).

After a minute or so he finally had his answer. We started with some z-health mobility work directly on the shoulder, and then tested it out on the bench. It was better, but still not pain-free.

This is where it got a little weird…

He had me lie on my back, internally rotate my right leg (remember, my left shoulder is what was hurting), and perform cross-body leg circles. After a few tests doing band pull-aparts, we decided to try it out on the bench.

Lo and behold, I was virtually pain-free!

He explained what the drill was doing and why it works. I understood all of that, and it made perfect sense.

Now, I know there is a direct connection between opposite-side joints, but I still can’t wrap my head around why a “trauma” to my right hip is causing pain in my left shoulder. Oh well, I’ll leave that for another visit.

In the end, you’re probably wondering how my bench press session went.

Well, as I stated in the beginning, I walked in thinking I was going to be doing some mobility and prehab/rehab work all night. As it turns out, I actually ended up bench pressing 5 more pounds in a max effort lift than the previous week!

Not only that, but I added more volume on my accessory lifts as well! All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good night.

Thanks, Mike!

Dave Sandel
www.athletecreator.com

Bench 45 lbs with Pain To Bench 270 lbs Without Pain In One Session?

How?

I know this seems insane that someone could literally go from barely being able to press the bar without pain to benching around 260 lbs without pain, so that is the reason I had him write it up in his own words above.

If you are interested in how the heck this can work and look into the methods behind the madness, drop a comment below and if I get 10 comments by 1pm tomorrow (Thurs March 11, CST) I will have a post about how it works.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance!

This also saved Dave about 4-8 weeks of “standard” rehab type exercise work, during which he would be told not to bench (and for good reason since benching was painful).

Add to that time period 4 weeks at least to get back to where he was before and we probably saved him about 3 months in one session!

How much would you pay to get 3 months of training time back?

I know I would pay a lot for that.

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

• If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
• If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE and any time I update a post, you will know about it instantly!

You can also help out by hitting this  

PPS

10 comments below by 1pm tomorrow Thurs March 11 for the secret to how this is done!  Post a comment below now.

Joint Mobility for a Shoulder Issue, Which Joints Help the Most?

Common wisdom would say that you need to work on the shoulder.  Perhaps

Further done the chain they say scapular mobility.  Perhaps

Now thoracic spine mobility is the in thing.  Does that help?  Perhaps

What about opposite hip function since we know they are connected via the serape effect?  Perhpas

Opposite foot and ankle?  Same side wrist?

The key question is “How do you know”

Test it

Everyone is different, so you will need a custom approach with each athlete.

In general, for shoulder issues I find the following to work really well

• Same side wrist
• Thoracic Spine
• Opposite Hip
• Opposite foot/ankle

Does this work all the time?  No, but most of the time is does for acute/chronic movement issues.

If you get rid of the pain, is the athlete good to go?

No, you need to make sure they can play their sport at the same level as before.  Performance must be evaluated.  If there is still a decrease in performance, they are not 100%, despite passing whatever wizz bang test of the week they ace.

Comments?

What do you think?  What works for you?  Let me know in the comments section!  I love comments!!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Jodie for letting me film her in the video as an example.  Only 3 more weeks until the big wedding date for us!

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE and any time I update a post, you will know about it instantly!

You can also help out by hitting this  

Ouch, the Muscles Around My Shoulder Hurt:  Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

What are you waiting for?

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE

Testimonial on Joint Mobility Work Z-Health Style and Mike T Nelson for a Painful Shoulder

Here is another testimonial.  A HUGE thanks to Chris for stopping by the Extreme Human Performance Center in White Bear Lake, MN for 2 sessions.

For several years I’ve had a painful left shoulder that kept me from many things I like to do. The doctors, chiropractors and physical therapists could only tell me that there’s no specific injury or structural issue.

After only two sessions with Mike T Nelson, and a bit of homework on my part, the range of motion in my left shoulder has improved greatly and I began to find my lats again!

Now I can do several exercises I couldn’t do just a week before, others have improved, and my shoulder over-all just hurts less.  My shoulder is not 100% yet but it feels more stable than it has in years and I expect it to continue to improve.

Thanks Mike!

–Chris Hansen, Minnesota

Contact Mike T. Nelson to move better, lift more, with less pain today by clicking HERE.

I see a fair amount of shoulder “issues”   A simple test is to have the athlete bring their arm out to their side and all the way up while keeping their palm down and elbow straight and stop when they hit tension.

Have them do the same thing out in front.

If they don’t have a good range of motion (ROM), overhead lifting will NOT be a good idea!  Why would I put a kettlebell in their hand if they can’t get their arm over their head withOUT weight?

How to fix it

“He who treats the site of pain is lost” —Karel Lewitt, M.D

Not everyone who has less than stellar range of motion will have pain, but most that have shoulder pain have decrease shoulder ROM.

While my goal is not to directly get rid of their pain, I know that by getting a full range of motion a vast majority of the time their pain will go away.  Better movement almost always results in less pain.

Here is a video of a pre and post Z-Health joint mobility work

What Did We Do?

While every case is different, here we did some LEFT ankle mobility work (this athlete has some extra hardware in his left ankle and a scar from the said hardware), neck mobility work, and right wrist mobility work.

In general, from all the shoulder issues I’ve work with I find the following to help a vast majority of the time.

Mobility work for the

• Opposite foot/ankle
• Opposite hip
• Thoracic spine
• Same side hand/wrist.

While it is not this easy all the time, about 70% of the time it really is if you are doing the drills correctly (I love the Z-Health R Phase and I Phase drills for this) and you can reassess the athlete after EACH drill to know if you made them move better or worse.    A gait assessment and simple shoulder ROM test (both taught in the Z-Health R Phase certification) work awesome.

Since we are targeting the nervous system directly, we should see and IMMEDIATE change to know if the athlete is better or worse.  Gone are the days of sending them home with scap wall slide, stick ups, external rotation work, etc and then they come back 2- 6 weeks later to see if they worked or not!  We can now tell in SECONDS if the drills we did were good or bad.    This is critical since every athlete is an individual.

But I Do “Prehab” Exercises and They Work!

I am not saying that those other exercises never work or are “bad”, my point is that I believe there is a much faster way to get an end result.  You can now get great results with some simple looking joint mobility work and a reassessment protocol if you target the nervous system directly.

Any comments, let me know!

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are interested in more info about the Z-Health R Phase cert, drop me a line(Mike T. Nelson) by clicking HERE with the subject “Z-Health Cert Questions”