Description
Correcting shoulder mobility involves much more than just stretching the shoulders - and it's one of the patterns where poor exercise choices can cause significant problems. Regardless of the screen or assessment you use to identify shoulder dysfunction, it almost always prompts consideration of neck problems, overall posture and left/right imbalances (think throwing and rotational athletes). The SFMA, FMS and Symmio each use a variation of reaching pattern to look at shoulder mobility, taking into account movement from the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. The latter two screens look at both shoulders simultaneously because of their shared connection point (the spine) and how they are used to counterbalance each other.
Gray Cook presents an exercise progression that starts with rolling, moves through chops and lifts, deadlifts and windmills and ends with his six-position carry. These corrective exercises focus on the calibration - syncing the shoulder with the posture and ensuring upper body stability - that needs to happen before conditioning activities.
Gray unpacks the importance of shoulder girdle stability, tissue mobility, and breath sequence as he uses variations in spine posture to support functional shoulder movement.
Course length: 1 hour
Sneak Peak of This Course!
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Get access to the whole Corrective Strategies Series with our bundle option!
This course is part of a series that explores the FMS approach to identifying and correcting movement dysfunctions. Other patterns explored include Hip Hinge, Balance, Rotation, and Squat. Each details the differences between the FMS assessments and screens - SFMA, FMS, and Symmio, and follows with exercises based on a hierarchy of developmental postures: Supported, Suspended, Stacked, and Standing. The exercises are also structured by the ABCs principle: Awareness, Breathing, and Control, and use Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT) to engage motor learning, or as Gray says, “motor remembering”
The addition of Symmio includes an overview of the movement self-screen as well as a discussion of the impact of non-musculoskeletal lifestyle factors on movement health and wellness.
Functional exercise should never cause dysfunction and this FMS Corrective Strategies series, along with the insight into the system you integrate into your work, whether it be SFMA, FMS, Symmio, or all of our options, provides you with the basics of a test-correct-retest standard operating procedure. Go beyond the body parts and see the importance of patterns for identifying and correcting movement health issues at the edge of ability in a rich sensory environment.
