A Language to Diagnose With Kelly Starrett: Part 6

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction at CrossFit South Bay.

In this segment, Starrett addresses how to express midline stabilization in gymnastics movements like the push-up, because the push-up is a movement often associated with shoulder pain.

“This is basic positioning,” he says.

Starrett has a group of athletes practice push-up technique on the floor and on low rings using midline stabilization. The first piece is external rotation of the shoulder, which creates torque. His cue is to “bring the elbow pit forward.”

The only problem is that this rotation often causes overextension in the lower back.

“I have to buffer that. That’s why I’ve gotta be tight,” Starrett says. His cue to get tight is to “squeeze the butt.”

“This is a quick way to spot these problems, and they’re magnified,” Starrett says. “All we’ve gotta do is put our athletes into a good position and then load them up.”

8min 21sec

HD file size: 186 MB
SD wmv file size: 99.8 MB
SD mov file size: 91.9 MB

Please note: These files are larger than normal Journal videos. For smoother viewing, please download the entire file to your hard drive before watching it (right-click and choose Save Link As...).

Additional reading: Hamstrung by Kelly Starrett, published July 1, 2007.