Fix That Cranky Shoulder (Part 1)
Justthe other day, someone asked me if I had a man crush on Dwight Howard’sshoulders. The answer? Why yes, yes I do.
Now,let’s not go off the deep end, as I think he’s completely overrated and the KimKardashian of the NBA (famous for never really doing anything). But, attaining “Dwight-caliber” shoulderswill remain a pipe dream for the majority of Americans. The reason? They already have a bad shoulder.
It’simportant to start off by saying that there are tons of problems that can occur in the shoulder. But as I wrotehere, focusing on the joint that hurts can be somewhat of a misguided approach,since the painful joint may be doing everything correctly. In the case of the shoulder, the culprits forshoulder pain can often be a bad thoracic spine or scapula.
AsI’ve written about the joint-by-joint theory in one of my previous posts, Iwant to briefly touch on how this theory of “mobile levers on stable joints”relates to the upper torso.
Ifwe think of the upper back, or thoracic spine, you’re supposed to be relativelymobile. Think of any type of athleticmove (such as a golf swing, a baseball pitch, etc.) and you’ll see that thereis a ton of extension/rotation that occurs through the upper back. In fact, to understand how important thisconcept is, try to do anything athletic while doing an impression of the Hunchback ofNotre Dame. Safe to say, it’s going tobe awkward.
Next,we come to the scapula, otherwise known as the shoulder blade. According to the theory, this area needs tobe stable. Why? Because unlike the hip, which has a nicefitting of the femur into the socket (which nerds will refer to as theacetabulum), the shoulder is a joint that’s really just a bunch of bones allwrapped together. If you take away thescapula when it should be stable, we can liken it to taking away part of yourhip socket. If that happens, your shoulder will spontaneously burst into aflaming ball of failure.
Finally,we get to the shoulder joint, which needs to be mobile in order to reach foranything or throw a baseball. While Iwon’t get into the specifics of shoulder/rotator cuff mechanics yet, it’simportant to point out that any kink in the chain can really complicate mattersup here. If you don’t have great t-spinemobility, your scapulas will not be able to get stable in the right position, andyour shoulder will not have a sufficient base of stability in order to bemobile.
Stillwith me? I hope so, because now let’sget into how you can really fix that cranky shoulder…
Firstup, you have to make sure you can breathe correctly. You may be saying “What the what!? I need to breathe? I’m pretty sure I know how to do that, sinceum…I’m still living, AND BREATHING!” Well, that’s true, but it doesn’t mean you’re doing it correctly.
Ourbodies are extremely talented at compensating for movements and patterns. Since breathing will always trump everythingelse as priority #1, we may have picked up some inefficient breathing patterns which can naturally occur from sitting in a desk all day or in otherpositions. (As a quick test, take note ofhow you’re sitting. Now, switchpositions entirely so that you’re a mirror image, just on the other side. My bet is that you’ll feel a bituncomfortable in the second position).
Belowis a quick, 2 minute video on breathing patterns that I put together the otherday, with a few notes below:
Now,I just want to quickly return to why breathing is important. As I mentioned in the video, bad breathingpatterns can “turn on” muscles that we don’t necessary want to have “on” whenwe breathe. How this relates to shouldermobility is that if you’re properly maximizing the diaphragm and your deepabdominals, these muscles will begin to do their job, which will “dim” or “turnoff” the muscles in your upper torso that were doing the brunt of the breathingwork. Once that happens, then we canreally start to get your mobility back!
Checkback next week for part 2, where I’ll show you the next step to regainingmobility and fixing that shoulder!