Two summers ago, I joined a local men’s tennis league to go along with my return to suburban living and a continued eternal quest to look cool, even once, in front of my wife. (This also resulted in my trying out for the now-defunct Israel Baseball League, where, incomprehensibly, I managed to strike out the side in order with a sub-70 mph “fastball”. Or, more accurately, “ball”. My children will hear of this several times.)
Serving a tennis ball was the only sporty thing I was ever noticeably good at, even though the rest of my game was in the middling 4.0 level that pretty much every ex-teen player ends up in. So I was actually kinda crushed when I couldn’t do it anymore: Every time I reached the top of my swing, a shooting pain in my shoulder stopped me.
I didn’t get this pain from any other activity, so I didn’t want to bother with the expense of an orthopedist and a likely MRI. But I was aware of Doctor of Physical Therapy Kelly Starrett from Crossfit, and his MobilityWOD (Workout of the Day) blog. He was kind enough to do an article with me that is published in this month’s Outside Magazine. Also, he gave me a ten-minute fix that could have given me two years of tennis — apparently I had limited internal rotation in my shoulders, which causes impingement with overhead movements. He pointed me to this video of his, I did it, and the pain was gone. Yes, really.
Kelly has agreed to tape some videos tailored to PJ Media readers in the coming days, which likely will involve fixing bodies that spend most of the working day with a chair, keyboard, and screen. Give his stuff a real shot — these are ideas you will not find anywhere else, and he can offer a client list of Olympic athletes to back up his success rate.
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