Distal Clavicle Osteolysis and GST

[Kenton Wilcox]

Greetings everyone,

 

I am a newbie here on the forums and mostly to GST. I've grown tired of all the strength training and weightlifting that I've been doing for about a decade now and I would like to start completely over with GST, beginning with Foundation One of course. Currently, I have complications in both Acromioclavicular (A/C) joints; the right one has been diagnosed with arthritis from a broken and then healed clavicle and the left one has succumbed to distal clavicle osteolysis (DCO), which, without going into too much detail, is an overuse condition. The arthritis usually isn't a problem, just the DCO. 

 

The reason I know about these conditions is because I had x-rays done on both joints due to very uncomfortable pain. At it's worst (a year ago), I was unable to perform handstands, push-ups, tuck planches, and dips and it seems to me that GST might further aggravate the DCO. With some time off of those exercises and then coming back to them, I can comfortably do several different kinds of push-ups, but the dips, handstands, and tuck planches tend to aggravate the A/C joints. 

 

I am going to visit a doctor again in a couple weeks before starting any new routines, but I wanted to see if any of you GST practitioners may have had similar issues and were able to work through them without getting an A/C joint resection and/or without any kind of discomfort in the joint.

 

Thank you for any input or advice you may have to offer. 

 

TL:DR - In your opinion, will GST aggravate distal clavicle osteolysis and will I be able to do Foundation One without pain?

[Wesley Tan]

Hi there, 

 

Good move switching to GST with regards to your physical health and wanting to improve it.

 

I believe you will be okay with foundation 1, there are of course some elements that will put pressure on your upper limb joints and so may cause some discomfort, but what you will find with the foundation series is that you will have to slow down a little in your approach and work a lot on improving your mobility anyway, which will do a lot for your AC joints.

 

As an Osteopath, thinking Osteopathically, there will be numerous factors leading to why your AC joints have taken a pounding. As you know, the clavicle is the only bony attachement the upper limb has to the thorax, meaning most force transference between the body and arm is myofascial. The clavicle, being shaped like a crank shaft, helps to magnify smaller movements at the SC end into bigger movements at the AC end. The SC joint is more ball and socket and so capable of rotation where as the AC joint is a plane type and so not designed to take rotational forces. So logically thinking, your AC's must have been under toi much stress from lack of mobility at the SC end (affected by mobility of you upper back/ribs/neck and all associated musculature) causing to much rotation stress at the AC and poor force transference along the myofascial routes from arm to body (imbalance in strength, length and tension between Pecs, serratus anterior, traps, deltoids, biceps, triceps, levator scapulae, rhomboids, lats, sternocleidomastoid etc.

 

The reason I say all this is because although the pain and problem is in your AC, this is an effect of which there are causes. The mainstream medical approach focuses on the effect. The xrays are a picture of the effect, you know what's there but not why and what to do about it. F1 is going to highlight all the imbalances which you will undoubtedly have as without these causes there would be no effect. The weight training of course has had an impact but not everyone who weight trains gets problems in the AC. We all have our own physical uniqueness and imbalances.

 

I hope I haven't rambled too much, start F1 and explore your physical being in greater detail. Think about seeing someone other than doctor too, Osteopath or experienced physio??

 

I hope it helps.

 

Wes

[Kenton Wilcox]

Wes, 

 

Thank you very much for your expert insight and advice! To be specific, I have an appointment with an Orthopedist for, what will be, a second opinion since I found the DCO. The first Orthopedist told me I had three options: 1. stop doing whatever aggravates it, 2. get a Cortisone shot which will only temporarily solve my problems, and 3. get a resection (trying to avoid at all costs). In a perfect world, I'd like to avoid having to choose any of those options and just step back and try something different. I am quite sure that I've got some imbalances and am excited at the prospect of starting fresh and fleshing those out. 

 

I look forward to having extremely helpful conversations like this one in the near future with the rest of the community. You most certainly did not ramble at all, excellent information from one who knows just what DCO is is more than I could have asked for.

 

Thanks again Wes

 

Kenton

[Mats Trane]

I would highly recomend F1. I had problems for a long time with my right shoulder mainly the AC joint.

Whats helped me alot the last months I have always warmed up my shoulders with:

All the iM's from HBP F1 and some from F2-F3

The whole band routine from R1

Done this http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/812/Shoulder-Series-3%3A-Subscapularis-Tendinitis 6-7 days a week

Seen/seeing an Osteopath once a month.

[Kenton Wilcox]

Hi Mats,

 

I'm glad to hear that someone else who had A/C joint issues highly recommends F1. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what this all means:

 

"All the iM's from HBP F1 and some from F2-F3

The whole band routine from R1"

 

I gather that it's content from some of the other courses, but I don' have them just yet. Regardless, I appreciate the help you've offered.

With Wes's and your recommendation, I believe it's time for me to start F1. Thank you both.

 

Kenton

[Mats Trane]

Yes Kenton it's from the courses. I can't say exactly what of the above solved my problem but one thing is for sure I put a lot of emphasis on my warm up these days. Good luck!

[Stelios Vantelas]

Hey Kwilcox,

 

I have had my share of pain with distal clavicle osteolysis.  For me it manifested in excruciating pain when doing dips, ring supports and some horizontal pushing.  For 20 months or so tried several remedies cortisone, rehab exercises, manual therapies, rest, work, prayer you name it.  But ultimately I had the surgery, distal clavicular excision with subacromial decompression 11 months ago. I have gone back to pre-strength levels if not surpassed previous strength and mobility.  Foundation and Handstand courses have really been instrumental in keeping my shoulder strong and mobile post surgery.

 

I am now able to rock climb and do dips pain free!!! I would definitely avoid the cortisone unless your in horrible pain.  Long term I don't it really will fix your problem.  If you review the research on the procedure most people have excellent recovery.  DCO is called weight lifters shoulder as it often happens to power lifters who over do it.  

 

I agree surgery should not be looked at lightly, things like age and level of impairment should be considered.  If you want more info on recovery and the surgery I'd be happy to help just PM me.

 

If you want more

[Kenton Wilcox]

Hi Stelaki8,

 

Thank you for sharing your experience with DCO. It really only hurt when I did dips and handstands and I'm taking a workout leave at the moment to try and start F1 without any complications from my old workout routine so I'm currently pain-free.

 

I won't be doing Cortisone shots for sure because I don't want to mask any pain that's trying to tell me something and my A/C joint doesn't hurt at all for the time being. We'll see what happens when I start up F1 and get to the exercises that put pressure on the A/C joint. 

 

Best,

 

Kenton