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Corrective Exercise Strategies: Shoulder Stabilization
Do you train clients with shoulder dysfunction? Have you tried corrective strategies for improving your clients scapular winging? Have you noticed chronic tightness in your clients upper back and neck?
If you work with the general population you likely will have answered yes to each of the previous questions. Neck tightness, shoulder tightness, upper back tightness – they’re all prevalent in clients. Whether they stem from poor breathing strategies, is rooted in too many hours in front of the computer, or occurs as a common response to stress, these common issues are directly related to the increased visits to chiropractic physicians, medical doctors, and physiotherapists – and of course the fitness professionals.
Do you know the best corrective exercise strategies to deal with these issues? Do you have a strategy that addresses the most common causes of shoulder dysfunction? Would you like to develop yourself as an expert in dealing with dysfunctional shoulder and neck movement patterns and help more individuals reach their functional health and fitness goals?
If so, this FITNESS INSIDER webinar series is for you. In this 3-part series, you will be introduced to common causes of shoulder and hip issues as well as some of the exact corrective exercise strategies I utilize in my office to improve function in my patients. These strategies will be presented in a user-friendly and simple fashion so you can instantly use them with your clients to help them restore function and/or train longer and harder so they can achieve their functional goals.
In Part II, we will look at the corrective exercise strategies for Hip Stabilization.
The Most Important Method of Conditioning the Psoas, Part 2
Happy New Year! Jenice and I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that this edition of FITNESS INSIDER finds your new year off to a fabulous start. I’ll make this brief because I know you’re busy.
Pay particular attention to the section that comes towards the end of the video – for the one component we must train in our clients that have psoas, transversus abdominus, and pelvic floor dysfunction. It is one of the biggest missing pieces in the training and conditioning industries – it’s even in rehabilitation – to improving function especially in clients that have low back, pelvic, and hip dysfunction.
If you have the discipline to improve this function in your clients, you will be that expert that they need and want and will refer to their family and friends.
Until next time, maintain the discipline to be the movement based-solution to the health care crisis.
The Most Important Method of Conditioning the Psoas
I just returned from presenting at the 20th Annual Medical Fitness Association in Orlando Florida. The Medical Fitness (MFA) is one of my favorite conferences to present at because of the focus of the event – exercise as medicine. And given the immediate health care crisis and impending colossal crisis that is about to come, the MFA conference is so vitally pertinent to the health and fitness industry because it is one of the few conferences that truly has presenters and sessions that deal with the training, conditioning, and rehabilitation of individuals with chronic disease. It does not deal with training the elite athletes, movie stars, Navy Seals or any of the other outliers of society. Rather they focus on the intrinsic factors that will most dramatically bring a change the health care crisis including
- How to motivate individuals to begin to exercise and how to keep them enrolled in health and wellness programs;
- How to educate medical professionals as to the importance of our work so they can be a regular referral source for us;
- How to position yourself as an expert so you can become a vital part of the solution to the health care crisis.
In my discussion – as in the majority of my presentations – I discussed the two key components to becoming that vital part of the solution to the health care crisis.
- You must believe that you are – or can be – that solution. Because if you don’t believe, you can’t convince any one else that you can be.
- You must develop yourself into an expert. If you are not an expert and do not understand how to appropriately work with the chronic pain, deconditioned, and post-rehabilitation client, you will fail to serve the clients you are meant to serve.
And to become that specialist you must understand functional anatomy and kinesiology. Just as important, you must know how to apply this knowledge to solve movement problems in your clients.
As part of my discussion at the MFA conference – The Integrative Movement Solution to Chronic Pain and Degeneration – I briefly introduced and discussed the primary role of the psoas. And unfortunately, most of what we have been taught about the psoas is completely wrong! Or at least, it is woefully incomplete. For example:
- The major functional role of the psoas is not hip flexion.
- The psoas major is not even necessary to achieve full range of hip flexion.
- In clients and patients with back pain, the psoas is not short and tight in the majority of these cases.
- The Modified Thomas test is a relatively poor evaluator of psoas length.
- Performing hip flexion under load is not the way to condition or ‘strengthen’ the psoas.
Check out the accompanying webinar to learn more about how this muscle functions and how to condition this important muscle.
Coming in the next edition of FITNESS INSIDER: In part II of The Most Important Method of Conditioning the Psoas, I will expand upon these concepts and show you how to specifically condition the psoas so you can solve many of your clients chronically tight back and dysfunctional hips. How will this information benefit you? It will enable you to continue to develop yourself into the specialist your clients need and want and get booked solid because you’ve become that specialist that our industry so desperately needs.
If you are looking for a coach to help you develop yourself into a movement specialist, we can help. We developed The Integrative Movement Specialist Certification specifically for the fitness professional that wants to distinguish themselves from the industry and become a part of the solution to the health care crisis. We are currently accepting applications for the Spring 2012 program. There are only 6 spots remaining for the opportunity to learn and share with 9 of your equally passionate and dedicated colleagues in a distinctively interactive and accelerated learning format. Click here to discover just a sample of the clinically relevant information you will discover during The Integrative Movement Specialist Certification.
Limited Time IMS Early Enrollment Tuition
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Best Exercises for Shoulder Impingement Syndrome
Question:
- Do you train individuals that experience pain and impingement with overhead motion?
- Do you train clients that have poor scapular control during their pushing and pulling patterns? How about the client who has ‘clicking’ as they lower their arm from an overhead position?
- Do you use the cues of ‘pull your shoulder blades down and back’ when working with any of these clients I just asked you about?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions then this edition of Fitness Insider is for you! I am going to once again challenge your knowledge about shoulder stabilization and give you a strategy for improving scapular stabilization so you can develop your knowledge and skill-set and become a booked solid industry expert.
And I have included a video link below to show you two of the most effective exercises we use to improve scapular stabilization and train the rotator cuff as part of the corrective exercise component of the Integrative Movement SystemTM.
What is the problem with most of our clients’ shoulders that create impingement issues in the first place?
- 1. Downward rotation syndrome: Most clients with scapular instability have some component of downward rotation. This is most common when the downward rotators – pectoralis minor, levator scapula, and rhomboids – become the dominant scapular stabilizers in relation to the upward rotators – serratus anterior, upper and lower trapezius. This increases the likelihood of impingement syndromes both as the arm is going overhead and as the arm returns from an overhead position.
- 2. Posterior rotation of scapula: The lack of posterior rotation of the shoulder complex – both at the clavicle (by the subclavius) and at the scapulo-thoracic articulation (by the serratus anterior and lower trapezius) – increases the likelihood of impingement syndromes. Again, with dominance of the downward rotators – which also tend to contribute to anterior scapular tilting – there is a lack of posterior scapular tilting which is necessary for stabilizing the scapula against the thorax and decreasing the potential for shoulder impingement. Inhibition of the posterior rotators by the scapula depressors and anterior tilters increases the likelihood for impingement syndromes.
- 3. Improper cuing: Common cuing to improve poor scapular control such as ‘squeeze your shoulder blades down and back’ directly contribute the very problem they are trying to solve. The client with inhibition of the upward rotators and posterior tilters of the scapula generally have poor scapulo-thoracic awareness and therefore tend to pull their shoulder blades further into a depressed and downward rotated position. What should happen to optimally stabilize the scapulo-thoracic is that the scapula should wrap down (depress slightly) and around (upwardly rotate and posteriorly tilt) the thorax during functional patterns.
If you have not watch the video of the two patterns you may use to help improve function of the upward rotators and posterior tilters while simultaneously improving scapular depression.
CONCLUSION
- To improve scapular stability and decrease the likelihood for impingement, you must put the client into positions that activate the upward rotators and posterior tilters.
- To properly cue your clients with scapular dysfunction and or impingement issues, use cues such as ‘get long’ through your shoulders and ‘wrap your scapula down and around your thorax’ rather than ‘squeeze your shoulder blades down and back.’
- If you want to make a dramatic difference in the lives of your clients, if you want to book yourself solid, if you want to become part of the solution to the health care crisis, let us help. Make plans to join us in 2012 for the Integrative Movement SpecialistTM program and let us help you develop your expertise and confidence in becoming a movement specialist.
Coming Next Edition of FITNESS INSIDER: How to improve posture for improved core function
Helping You Think Bigger About Your Role as a Fitness Professional,
Evan Osar