Weak shoulder, aching again: How Mirabai Chanu was ‘fixed’ in USA

Mirabai Chanu lifts weights greater than twice her body weight for enjoyable. But when a physiotherapist utilized mild stress on her proper hand, utilizing simply two fingers, it collapsed. “I thought, ‘am I so weak?’” Chanu laughs.
She isn’t, evidenced by her clean-and-jerk world report set through the Asian Championship final week. That 119kg elevate, and the bronze medal that got here with it, catapulted the weightlifter to the world’s elite in her 49kg class. It additionally raised hopes of her ending on the rostrum on July 24, the opening day of occasions on the Tokyo Olympics.
Both these prospects, nevertheless, appeared distinct not too way back. Chanu lifted lots of of kilos of iron every day for years. That, although, bruised her physique a lot that in the midst of 2020, she couldn’t elevate even half the load she usually would. An analysis of Chanu’s situation by a former American weightlifter-turned-physiotherapist, Aaron Horschig learn like this: “Right shoulder instability and weakness; left shoulder mobility restrictions; left hip mobility and stability problems; backache…” The record was infinite.
So curious was Chanu’s case, in reality, that Horschig ended up making a half-hour present on her, calling it ‘Fixing the World Champions Weightlifter.’
‘Fixing’ Chanu appeared an inconceivable activity at one level. “We weren’t able to train,” says India’s weightlifting coach Vijay Sharma. “We were not even able to come close to lifting this kind of load.”
Sharma is speaking concerning the section simply after final yr’s nationwide lockdown. For virtually two months, Chanu was compelled inside her tiny room on the National Institute of Sport in Patiala. “Even if I miss training for just one or two days, I lose muscles. This lasted for two months,” she says.
The impression confirmed the second the previous world champion resumed coaching: the 26-year-old felt a twitch in her again and a sudden tightness in her shoulder. The dreaded reminiscences of the painful damage she complained about simply after the 2018 Commonwealth Games got here flooding again. This time, it appeared extra worrisome. The postponed Olympics had been quick approaching. “But there wasn’t a single day where I was training without any pain,” Chanu says.

I’m proud of my efficiency on the Asian Championship 2021. Thank you everybody on your love and assist. I’ll proceed to work onerous and enhance myself. pic.twitter.com/9pJERrVj80
— Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (@mirabai_chanu) April 18, 2021
Pain, the fixed companion
In the early half of the present Olympic cycle, the battle was extra on the psychological side. Chanu was a medal potential even on the Rio Olympics. But on the day of her occasion, she froze. Three failed lifts in clean-and-jerk – one of many two occasions in Olympic weightlifting, the opposite being snatch – noticed her crash out woefully.
The failure haunted her a lot that Chanu was compelled to take just a few days break to take her thoughts off the sport. She went a step forward and contemplated quitting the game altogether and she or he would have, had her mom Tombi not talked her out of it.
Chanu’s refreshingly optimistic outlook ensured she didn’t dwell on the ‘disaster’ for lengthy. And Rio has turned out to be an aberration up to now. In each competitors since then, Chanu has solely bettered herself. In 2017, she turned solely the second Indian after Karnam Malleswari to win the gold medal on the World Championship, lifting a complete of 194kg. The following yr, on the Gold Coast CWG, she received the gold by tallying 2kgs extra.
With each event, Chanu was making her case stronger for an Olympic medal till all of the sudden, her again gave up. For months, India’s high medical doctors tried to diagnose, albeit in useless, the issue. Demons began dancing in her head once more. “We didn’t know if she would be able to compete again,” Sharma says.
The ache abated as all of the sudden because it had surfaced. And 9 months later when she returned, Chanu continued like she was by no means away from competitors. At the continental championships in 2019, she bettered her CWG tally by three kilos to elevate a complete of 199kg. A number of months later, on the World Championship in Pattaya final yr, she crossed the 200kg-mark for the primary time by totalling 201kg. “I improved in every tournament after Rio and after crossing 200kg, my confidence went really high,” Chanu says.
At the beginning of 2020, she had set her sights on a much bigger complete however the stop-start nature of Chanu’s Road to Tokyo took one other twist. This time, extra dramatic than earlier than: The pandemic struck, a lockdown was introduced and her coaching stopped. “It was one of the most difficult periods. More so, mentally,” Chanu says.
When the lockdown was partially lifted and coaching resumed, so did the again ache. This time it felt extra extreme.
“If I did heavy training one day, which is lifting around 75-80kg in snatch and up to 100kg in clean and jerk, then I had to give my body rest the entire next day. I couldn’t handle that much training because my back would get stiff,” Chanu remembers.
In late 2020, Sharma determined to take Chanu to St. Louis, USA.

American sojourn
“The purpose was two-fold,” Sharma explains. “It would help us get fresh mentally since we had spent the whole year inside NIS Patiala. Training in a different environment would break the monotony. The gym there was very modest and we didn’t have a lot to do in our free time. But the bigger factor was to get Mira checked by Dr. Aaron.”
‘Dr. Aaron’ Horschig is a former weightlifter who has competed until the nationwide stage within the USA. He is now one of many foremost physiotherapists, having labored with the Major League Baseball (MLB), America’s National Football League (NFL), soccer gamers and Olympic weightlifters.
Sharma says he went armed with all of Chanu’s medical reviews. But Horschig recognized the problems inside hours by observing her prepare. Numerous them, he famous, might have been resulting from defective method.
Chanu’s left shoulder, Horschig mentioned, had mobility restrictions, which obtained evident through the drive section in clear and jerk – the motion when the barbell is lifted overhead – the arm wobbled, thus affecting her lifts. The drawback with the left shoulder resulted in additional load on the correct, which led to power ache that obtained accentuated as a result of her proper arm was weaker.
“Strength was not an issue for Mira,” Sharma says. “The problem, it turned out, was biomechanical. One shoulder was weak, which put the other under a lot more stress. That got sorted out.”
Her decrease physique, too, was affected. Horschig noticed that with heavy squats, Chanu’s hip shifted to the left when she was on the ascent and through the turnover in snatch – going from squatting place to lifting the weights overhead – her physique’s symmetry had a ‘significant problem.’
“She had difficulty in controlling her lower-body movement while squatting which put pressure on her lower back,” Sharma says.
Treating it wasn’t rocket science. Horschig used some corrective workout routines and conditioning to scale back the stress on her shoulders and again.
“The results were quick. From not being able to practice two days in a row, I was having two sessions every day while in the USA,” Chanu says. “The fact that I could lift heavy weights in training without feeling uncomfortable in my back or shoulders was reassuring.”

In her first worldwide competitors in additional than a yr, @mirabai_chanu makes a brand new nationwide report of 205 kgs on the Asian Championships and received bronze medal. Her good clear and jerk elevate of 119 kg is a brand new world report!Target Olympic Podium Mirabai! pic.twitter.com/ohOSOWZ94P
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) April 18, 2021
Back with a brand new world report
That confidence translated in her efficiency on the Asian Championship final week, her first event in additional than a yr. Chanu admits there have been ‘fears’ of not with the ability to replicate her coaching scores in competitors. The fears compounded when her first two makes an attempt in snatch had been red-flagged.
But Chanu 2.0 – stronger bodily and mentally, and with a sound method – didn’t crumble beneath stress this time.
Nothing extra encapsulates Chanu’s transformation higher than the truth that she now holds the world report within the very occasion the place she flopped on the Rio Olympics. If Sharma had his manner, he would bubble-wrap Chanu between now and the Olympics to maintain her injury-free.
“But after her treatment, I feel a lot more secure. This world record lift would not have been possible if we had not gone to the USA,” Sharma says.
The Chinese group, he provides, saved one eye on Chanu all through the occasion in Tashkent. Hou Zhihui and Jiang Huihua is perhaps comfortably forward of Chanu’s complete however funnier issues have occurred on the Olympics. And if something, they’re prone to hold a more in-depth eye on Chanu between now and Tokyo.
Chanu says her competitors isn’t with the Chinese. “I am competing with myself,” she says. “I failed in Rio. I have to make up for it in Tokyo.”