Stretch Therapy Question

Hi Kit! I wanted to know, which of your books/products to you suggest to me for shoulder issues? I am slowly but successfully re-educating my right scapula to work properly, specifically the entire trapezius. Short pec minor with possible shortened capsular ligament is definitely present. I looked at the site but wasn't quite sure which book/package would be best. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated!

Kit responded to me via PM and said the head and neck book/dvd combo is what I want, it has all the latest arm and shoulder stuff as well. Thanks! I am looking forward to adding more effective stretches to the... what, two stretches I know that have some effect? One I made up myself. This should be great!

Just want this out there so that anyone with similar issues knows what the answer was!

Also, the stretch I made up is basically a hollow body elbow plank with active retraction. Elbows have to be under or slightly in front of the shoulder socket and a little wider than shoulder width. If you are tight in pec minor this will tell you right away. I find that I prefer a neutral or palms- up position in this stretch. It doubles as an excellent movement conditioner when you get to the most stretched position and, maintaining hollow body with neck in line and retracted, really helps train the scapular movement so that it can occur separately from spinal movement in stead of being paired with flexion and extension like most people seem to perform it. I also find this has helped my form on almost everything when it comes to hollow body strength progressions.

I am looking forward to adding more effective stretches to the... what, two stretches I know that have some effect? One I made up myself.

How is this possible? Weren't you paying attention at the GB Seminars?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

I am looking forward to adding more effective stretches to the... what, two stretches I know that have some effect? One I made up myself.

How is this possible? Weren't you paying attention at the GB Seminars?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Lol, yes! I can probably go through the whole routine by rote!

My issues are so... bizarre... that none of that does anything but put bad torque into the shoulder joint. The floor shoulder/chest stretches help some, but they don't address my pec minor issue. That's part of what makes me think there's ligament shortening involved as well. The pre-GH stretches and GH don't address it, and the only thing that has worked so far is that stretch I made up. I don't feel it at all on the left, but on the right... WOW. It's intense. I don't have more than 50% of the ROM that I have on the left, it's a pretty crazy difference.

I came up with the hollow plank retractions based on the scapular mechanics I was experiencing, and that was the only way I could leverate the acromial edge of the scapula straight back without putting torque into the shoulder socket and causing discomfort.

I definitely did not mean to sound disparaging!

Now that I have re-gained some small measure of my lost function the GB stretches for the shoulder are working much better.

What is interesting to me is that one of the most helpful things has been simply lifting one arm at a time into a perfect HS position... I can't do it with both at the same time, but it's coming along slowly and MAN it is a lot of work to try! Much harder than I thought. Carries over well to the wall HS though, form is better and it is much, much harder. Very humbling for me

Hi Joshua,

Something you might want to try, and it's kind of hard to explain but I'll do my best, is a Qi Gong exercise that I have used with great success:

Close your eyes. Hold the hands up to the front, about shoulder width apart and at shoulder height, with the fingers pointing towards the ceiling and the centre of the palms forward. Do your best to have the very centre of the palm extended so that if you held this position and walked towards a wall, the centre of the palm would hit it first, not the finger tips. or the base of the palm.

In this position and throughout this exercise it is absolutely imperative that you keep the shoulders as relaxed as possible, but without dropping the hands or letting the elbows bend at any point.

Thrust the shoulders alternatively back and forward, do not let the spine/head/hips move. There should be no arch in the spine! if anything, have a little bit of a hollow, but you should stay relatively straight through the spine. The chin should be tucked in gently and the crown of the head extended upwards. The pace should not be too fast, I would do about 1 second per thrust on each arm to begin with, however there is no such thing as too slow with this movement. If the shoulders start bunching up towards the ears, remind yourself to relax them.

Perform a minimum of 50 reps on each arm continuously. Then, keeping the shoulders relaxed and dropped but the arms at shoulder height, start to open them out to the side, until the arms are now in a straight line, centre of the palms pointing out to the side. The next part is tricky to coordinate for some people: alternatively thrust the arms in and out to the side. This should feel like the scapula on one side moves towards the spine while the other one moves away from the spine and is stretched out as far as you can, then change directions and do the other side. As before, there should be no movement of the spine/hips/head. Again do 50 repetitions on each side. Do not drop the arms at any point.

Once you have finished 50 reps in this part, slowly relax the hands and turn the palms to face up. Be sure they are facing directly up for the next two sections and not obliquely inwards. Gentle roll the hand into a fist and move the arms back into the first position with the only difference being the hand position. Repeat the first exercise again, open out to the side and repeat the second exercise, the hands are still in a fist with palms facing upwards.

At the end your arms should be in a straight line to the sides, gently unroll the fist and start to lift the hands upwards keeping the arms straight. Again it is imperative that the shoulders stay relaxed. As the hands "hold up" over head, you should be focussing your entire intent on feeling the surface of the palm. Put all your attention into the palm until the arms are shoulder width overhead and straight up. Turn the palms to face downwards so the fingers are pointing towards each other. Now move your focus to the shoulders and start relaxing them. The elbows and hands should automatically start dropping now, keep the hands roughly the same distance apart as they fall, but besides this they should be totally relaxed, falling following the relaxation of the shoulders. Once the shoulders are totally relaxed (elbows by the side of the ribs), the elbows may still be a bit bent, shift the attention to the elbows and let them totally relax, and then into the wrists and let them totally relax.

During this ending sequence as the arms drop you should feel a rush of circulation return to the shoulders and down the arms. If at any point fatigue sets in, it means you have too much tension in the shoulders. Relax the shoulders further and continue through until the end of the exercise. Do not drop the arms until the whole set is finished. As you get better at this, the shoulders will relax more, you will have greater scapula control, and the "length" of the thrust should be increased. Furthermore, you'll be able to do this for long periods of time (30 mins and onwards) without dropping the arms and it will start to get strangely comfortable and you will feel like you dont want to drop the arms.

If you decide to try this, let me know how you go. Any questions feel free to PM

HTH!