Football

Forward shoulders, rounded shoulders, shoulder pain

YOU MUST SQUEEZE THE SHOULDERS DOWN AND BACK!

Of all the cu

es fitness professionals give their clients, the instruction to “squeeze the shoulder blades down and back” is perhaps the most prevalent.

Simply go on You Tube or Google the term ‘scapular stabilization’ and what you will find is resource after resource of trainers, coaches, and even health care professionals giving the instructions to pull the shoulders down and back. And perhaps no cue creates more or perpetuates more dysfunction than the cue to bring the shoulder blades ‘down and back.’

In this edition of FITNESS INSIDER, we will:

*take a look at why so many professionals use this cue

*the problem with this cue

*share with you what the participants discovered during our last module for improving scapular function.

AND… if you understand and apply this one key concept, you will be able to eliminate the majority of your client’s chronic neck tension and shoulder problems.

FIRST, why do so many trainers, coaches, and health care professionals use this cue? There are 3 main reasons and 3 cautions that accompany this type of thinking.

1. Because of the upper crossed syndrome: Read any book on posture or corrective exercise and they discuss Janda’s upper crossed syndrome. You know the posture – thoracic hyperkyphosis, forward shoulders and head carriage. What about your clients that aren’t like that? What about the ones with depressed or downward rotated scapula or the ones with a thoracic lordosis? Can we use the exact same exercise cues for them?

CAUTION: Look at your clients as an individual and do not use a cookie-cutter approach.

2. Because of what they see. Many of these ‘experts’ see an elevated shoulder position and therefore use a simple postural cue to reverse the position they see. Unfortunately many of these elevated shoulder positions are accompanied by downward rotation and scapular instability and pulling the shoulders down and back further perpetuates this problem.

CAUTION: We only see what we are trained to see. Begin looking with a renewed view of what is actually occurring in your client.

3. Because it’s easy! It’s easy to tell someone to pull the shoulder blades down and back and most of our clients can do this.

CAUTION: Remember what we said about corrective exercises that are easy – if exercises are easy for your clients to perform, they are likely not what the client needs to be doing.

So just how should your clients be cued to promote proper scapular and shoulder function?

Check out the accompanying video for a demonstration of a quick assessment and corrective cueing.

http://fitnesseducationseminars.com/lat_pulldown.htm

www.fitnesseducationseminars.com

Fitness Education Seminars Disclaimer:

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About the Author

Dr. Evan Osar is a chiropractic physician and movement special

ist. His practice is built on teaching his patients and clients to move better with the use of corrective exercises. He lectures nationally and internationally on the topic of exercise and corrective movement. He has authored several books and dvds on the topic of exercise and corrective movement.

Multi-Purpose Shoulder Support -Sample Clip 1

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