Fix That Cranky Shoulder (Part 3)

As my head hurts from watching Notre Dame get absolutely pounded by Alabama last night,today’s post is mostly in video form.  Infact, I figured today’s post is pretty appropriate....as fixing your bum shoulderis going to be a lot easier for you to accomplish than Brent Musburgerrealizing his dream of eloping with A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. (If you need help with that reference, just click here.)

Anyway, if you need a bit of a refresher, or you missed my first installments in this series last month you can click over here view Part 1 as well as Part 2.

As I spoke about in Part 1, our first goal is different thansimply focusing on your shoulder.  First,we want to make sure your breathing patterns are correct, as all of thesubsequent work will be pointless if you’re a heavy “chest breather.”  Also, practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing(breathing into your stomach) will help reduce tone in your sympathetic nervoussystem.  Why’s that important?  Think about trying to learn something important whenyour “fight or flight” response is kicked in. You’re going to have a bad time.

In Part 2, I spoke about how many of the shoulder problems that people encounter actually have their roots in the Thoracic Spine and Scapula.  In fact, it’s the scapula that prevents your shoulder from exploding into a ball of fail, and you need a mobile Thoracic spine so this scapula can move on the back of your rib cage.

In part 3, I talk about locking in that new mobilitywith some stability.  As I mention in thevideo, this is a critical aspect of fixing your shoulder as the hope is that by building some stability,the mobility gains you just achieved won’t be completely erased whenyou wake up in the morning.  Thenew video is below, and while you’re watching, I’ll focus on not seeing Alabama’s Eddie Lacy runfor another touchdown whenever I close my eyes.

With wall slides, it's best to perform a few sets to really build in that stability, and you'll be surprised at how much easier they get after a few weeks.  As there are many different reasons why people have a bad shoulder, wall slides may not work for everyone, so give it a try and see how you feel.

That's it for Part 3 everyone, but if you're enjoying this series keep your eyes peeled for Part 4 early next week.  In that post I'll talk about building additional stability through more "functional" patterns.  Take care!