Crunch and Munch

I've been having Mark "set" my back alot lately because it feels out of alignment....I'm not quite sure what I'm doing that is causing it but....

I train with Mark on Wednesday afternoons, and lately I've been training strict presses and TGU's with him coaching me. As I was doing a TGU on my right side and moved into the side plank position my back went B-L-L-L-L-UP....and it did it every single time....b-l-l-l-l-up. I heard it! I told Mark about it and he said...."That's not good!" So we tried all kinds of hand placements, foot placements, but on that side it kept happening....so those are on hold for a while.

Last week when I was snatching the 20kg I heard my upper back adjust again....it may have happened earlier in the workout, but I didn't hear it.

So yesterday as soon as I started snatching the 16kg, on my right side only, at the end of the downstroke (which is the part that has the greatest weight force).....my upper back. lower neck went "crunch and munch". Not a good thing.

OK, so I knew I had to fix it or I wouldn't be able to snatch the 16 regularly. My left side had no problems, so that was a releif, but I knew every time I had to snatch on my right it was going to be rough if I didn't figure it out.....afterall I had to do a total of 36 sets on that side!

I started to use my legs more as "shock absorbers" on the downstroke of the snatch. On my left side, I can hinge more on the downstroke, but not on my right side. This has been noticable on all of my snatch videos for as far back as I can remember. This adjustment seemed to kinda work, but I knew it wasn't the answer.....keep trying....

One of my asymmetries is my left arm, which was broken when I was 4 years old, and when it was put back together it had a permanent bend in it called "shotgun arm" (because the shape of the arm extended out looks like the shape of a shotgun). If you look at any photos of me, especially yoga photos you see this very clearly. But my left side never gives me grief when I snatch, only when I press. One of the reasons is that the "bend" in that arm automatically brings the bell in closer to my body, sooner, on the downstroke, which in turn, relieves the downward weight force of the bell, making it easier and more efficient to snatch.

Long story short.....it was the position of my head at the downstroke, on my right side....too much neck arch.....in technical terms, "posterior rotation of my head"....you know who gave me that one don't you? lol Mark of course! I had noticed after my last rep, as I was putting the weight down on the floor, as I "looked" down, no "crunch and munch"! So I changed my postion of my head and it seemed to have made the difference.

So finally, near the last 1/4 of the workout I started to get some relief....in my back and neck.....