Hey, what's up, triathletes?
Well, I guess anyone that's experiencing shoulder pain can watch this.
Anyway, Taren here.
If you're experiencing any type of shoulder pain from just day-to-day use or, in triathlete's
case, swimming specifically, you're going to want to stick around because today we're
talking about some very new science that has come out over the last couple of years with
a very interesting way to eliminate bad shoulder pain and keep you out of the doctor's office.
Over the last few years, an orthopedic surgeon with over 33 years of shoulder reconstruction
surgery named Dr. John Kirsch,
Hello.
My name is Dr. John Kirsch.
... has come out with some theories about humans that since we developed from apes,
our shoulder structure is very conducive to going through the hanging motion or brachiating.
Because we, as humans, in our day-to-day ongoing, don't tend to hang very often, unless you're
doing some strange monkey bar Olympics training, that our shoulders end up deteriorating, and
they don't get the exercise that they need in order to stay healthy and strong.
Because they're not as strong in the range of motion that they need to go through based
off of how we've evolved, our shoulders are very ripe for injury.
That's the case with a lot of people.
In the US, over $850 billion is spent every single year on shoulder reconstruction surgeries.
For triathletes, this is a particular problem because of swimming and getting into the aero
position where our shoulders are crunched together.
Are we just effed and we're destined for a life of shoulder reconstruction surgeries,
and injuries, and constant rotator cuff physiotherapy as triathletes?
No.
Here's some secret sauce that Dr. John Kirsch has come out with.
He just unveiled the results of a 28 yearlong study where 90 patients who are all experiencing
some severe shoulder pain, two of those patients were even scheduled for surgery, they went
through a hanging program that Dr. John Kirsch believes is the secret sauce to keeping our
shoulders healthy based off of how we've evolved.
The results?
Every single one of those 90 patients was able to return to daily active living and
the two patients that were scheduled for shoulder surgery, they did not need it.
Now, this has been talked about a lot in popular culture lately.
I heard about it from Tim Ferriss's podcast and the Joe Rogan podcast, both of whom have
a daily hanging routine.
A couple of months ago, I decided to give it a try myself because I am very susceptible
to shoulder injuries.
This happens particularly towards the end of the year when we start ramping up the swim
volume in preparation for next season.
I am batting a perfect three for three over the last few years having to take at least
a month off due to shoulder pain.
Another friend experiences quite a bit of elbow pain right in here due to tendonitis,
so the both of us have been testing out this hanging routine after every swim that we go
through.
What's happened?
We have had zero pain, zip, zilch, nada, none.
What's happening with a lot of shoulder pain is an impingement that there's a couple of
tendons, one right in the shoulder joint, called the supraspinatus tendon.
When you raise your arm to horizontal, it ends up getting pinched.
When you raise it past horizontal, if you can get your arm up there, it ends up releasing
that because the shoulder girdle opens up.
The theory behind this hanging is that opened up motion combined with a little bit of downward
pressure and traction ends up taking the pressure off of the supraspinatus tendon and off of
a ligament that holds it together and, much like braces, gradually start moving your teeth
into a different structure.
The longer you hang, the stronger your shoulders become and the better that shoulder girdle
is prepared for things like swimming and daily active use.
I am going to preface all this that in order to qualify for a hang routine, you need to
at least be able to raise your arm to horizontal with a little bit of strength.
You don't need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger on this one, but you need to be able to hold
your arm there without having it just pressed down immediately.
Then beyond that, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a physiotherapist, and I don't even play one
on the internet.
If you are experiencing any shoulder pain or you want to consider this, consult a sport
specific physiotherapist before you go through with it.
I'm just here to tip you off on this these things.
That's all.
All right.
Now, here's how you do it.
You just hang.
In my case, I started with one set, one rep of about 15 seconds.
I slowly built up to the point that now I'm doing three reps of 33 seconds.
It's pretty much instant that, as I started getting into this, the shoulder pain that
I normally would have experienced went away.
According to Dr. John Kirsch, you can build up to as much as 10 to 15 minutes of hanging
throughout the day.
The longer you go, the stronger you're going to be and the better your shoulder is going
to be able to accept things like heavy loads through day-to-day use if you're carrying
heavy things or heavy loads like triathletes put on themselves when they do heavy mileage
in the pool.
What I've also added in that Dr. John Kirsch recommends is a little bit of rotator cuff
strengthening so you can just use a stretchy band or a light weight doing the standard
side out and this stuff, all that stuff that we don't like.
I only do that a couple of times a week with really light weight.
I will put a link in the description below to about a 92-page pamphlet that Dr. John
Kirsch has put out.
It's a small book.
It's a big pamphlet explaining the theories behind this and how you, too, can incorporate
a hanging routine into your strength program to keep your shoulders healthy and injury-free.
Hopefully all of that helps.
As always triathletes, happy and hard training and healthy training.
Good luck in your next triathlon.