Robertson Training Systems Newsletter 6.07
Shoulder Solutions, Part II
In Part I of our Shoulder Solutions series, we discussed the fundamentals of proper shoulder training.
In Part II, we’re going to discuss some specific training mediums to get those shoulders feeling as good as possible!
Thoracic Spine Training
Let’s start by examining the thoracic spine, first and foremost. Hopefully you committed this comment from the first newsletter to memory:
Optimizing thoracic spine position is critical if your goal is long-term shoulder, elbow and wrist health.
The t-spine is a critical piece with regards to shoulder health. What we typically see are that clients/athletes with shoulder issues present with horrible thoracic spine extension and rotation.
What’s interesting is that this lack of motion at the t-spine can cause shoulder, neck or lower back issues! It may not happen at the same time (or in the same person), but the same root cause (poor t-spine mobility) can manifest itself in a number of different injuries.
We discussed in my lumbar spine series that rotary capacity at the lower back is poor. In general, you have about 0-2 degrees of rotation per segment in the lumbar spine, with the exception being L5-S1, where you have anywhere from 0-5 degrees of rotation.
In contrast, your upper thoracic spine has anywhere from 7-9 degrees of rotation per segment! As far as total numbers go, your thoracic spine accounts for about 70 degrees of spinal rotation, while the lumbar spine only afford us 10-15.
Hopefully we can agree that rotation is important, and even more important is where we get that rotation from – it needs to come from our hips and thoracic spine. But I’ve deliberately left out one important point.
You must get thoracic spine extension first!
Try this little test out if you’re sitting down: I want you to slouch over your computer, and then try to rotate your t-spine. Don’t let your lower back move!
Pretty hard, isn’t it?
Now, try and sit up as tall as possible and rotate your t-spine again. Quite a bit easier, isn’t it?
This helps prove a point – you must work to improve thoracic spine extension first. I often refer to extension as the key that unlocks t-spine rotation. As extension gets better, you can progressively increase t-spine rotation as well.
To improve thoracic spine extension, it may be as simple as some foam rolling and mobility exercises to unlock the muscles surrounding your upper back.
However, a more complete approach would include foam rolling, specific mobility exercises, and an honest examination of your upper body workouts. If you’re one of those guys that bench presses 3 times per week, chances are your thoracic spine alignment isn’t the best.
If you’re interested in specific drills, I would highly recommend either checking out Assess and Correct or Inside-Out. If you don’t want to spend the cash, try checking out YouTube for thoracic spine mobility drills and I’m sure you’ll come across a few.
Scapular mobility and stability
Once we’ve begun to address the thoracic spine, it’s time to examine the scapulae. The scapulae are interesting when examined under the joint-by-joint approach – from a basic vantage point, we’d say that they need stability.
But when examined more closely, it’s obvious we need more of a balance between mobility and stability at this joint than most others. Let’s start with stability.
Stability exercises can range from isolative (Prone I’s, T’s, and Y’s, etc.) to more integated exercises (dumbbell rows, chins-ups, etc.)
I think this is one of the misnomers regarding corrective exercise – it doesn’t have to be strictly low-level, isolative stuff! If that’s what you need in the beginning, great. But later on, you absolutely must use big-bang, compound exercises to further your development.
Here’s another one to write down: Failure to balance strength around joints is going to be a huge issue over the long haul if you fail to address it.
We can’t forget about mobility, however. For most, it’s a lack of upward rotation mobility that gets them into trouble. To have adequate upward rotation mobility, we need sufficient strength and motor control in the upper trapezius, lower trapezius, and serratus anterior. These three muscle work in concert to develop scapular upward rotation.
If you’ve assessed many clients in your day, you’ll notice two things:
1 – Upper traps are rarely weak, and
2 – Lower traps and serratus are almost always weak!
One of the best exercises to develop serratus anterior strength are push-up variations. We’ll often start people off on an incline (until they can do so without any scapular winging), and slowly progress them down over time. Once these variations become easy, feel free to incorporate loaded/resisted push-up variations.
To develop lower trapezius strength, we need not look any further than chin-ups and pull-ups. In this case, it’s all about the execution of the exercise.
The lower trapezius muscles are not only scapular upward rotators, but scapular depressors as well. If you’re unfamiliar with scapular depression, try this: Envision performing a scapular wall slide, and think about actively “pulling” your scapulae down your rib cage. Pavel calls this pulling your shoulder blades into your back pockets. Either way, this movement is scapular depression.
Did you know, though, that this is how you should be completing your vertical pulls? Think about actively depressing or pulling your scapulae down at the top of the rep. Here’s an example:
Therefore, it’s my opinion that serratus and lower trap strength are two critical components of overall shoulder health. Don’t neglect these two muscle groups in your training!
Gleno-humeral range of motion
One of the final components of a healthy shoulder is good gleno-humeral joint range of motion. It’s generally accepted that the shoulder should have approximately 180 degrees of total range of motion, although many people lack this.
If you’ve played overhead sports for any extended period of time, chances are you’re lost some internal rotation at your shoulder. The sleeper stretch is generally regarded as the premiere stretch for improving/regaining shoulder internal rotation. Eric Cressey does a fantastic job of outlining proper performance of the sleeper stretch HERE.
Limited external rotation range of motion can be due to short/stiff pecs or lats, so in this case we’ll often incorporate (again!) more pulling exercises in the program, along with either pec or lat EQI stretches at the end of the workout.
One Final Note
While all these factors (t-spine mobility, scapular mobility/stability, etc.) are important in isolation, don’t forget to integrate!
Isolative work is not only important, it’s critical. You have to isolate out the weakest link and/or limitations if you want to rebuild someones foundation and improve their movement efficiency.
However, it’s a fine line – too often, we spend all our time on isolation and no work on integration. The best example is the trainer/therapist that insists on isolated rotator cuff work via band internal and external rotations from 100 different shoulder and elbow positions.
It doesn’t work like that.
Instead, once you’ve improve the isolative qualities, you need to reintegrate the entire upper extremity. Obviously PNF work is fantastic because it incorporates all of the above qualities, but it can also be taken a step further to tie the shoulder, core, and opposite hip together.
Another idea would be more “reflexive” cuff work that focuses on stabilizing the humeral ahead and centering it within the glenoid fossa.
Summary
I hope these first two pieces have given you a good idea of my basic philosophy on shoulder training, as well as actual training thoughts to back it up.
In Part III, we’ll cover some coaching issues that frequently need to be addressed when coaching clients and athletes. See you next week!
Stay strong
MR