Let your shoulders be pain free
Imagine having no neck, shoulder or thoracic spinal tension opposed to headaches caused by the way we sit, stand, lie or simply due to our poor mental state. Imagine never being aware of pain in your shoulders, arms, thoracic spine or neck because you don’t have any pain. Is this even possible? Absolutely!
So in our day and age, we are forced to abuse our bodies chronically i.e. sitting badly for years and years and years or playing specific sports that place tremendous strain on our shoulders. What do we expect our shoulders to do when we do not take notice of them at all when they are in pain?
Well the answer is simple. It will give you one of the following warning signs:
- Neck spasm.
- Erector spinae spasm.
- Headaches.
- Shoulder pain.
- Neural referral.
I always say that there are a few reasons why muscles spasm:
- They are too weak to do what they are doing.
- They are doing the work on their own.
- They are not able to hold on any longer as they do not have any other muscles assisting them properly.
So yes, your body is crying out and saying ‘For heavens sake, I cannot bear this any longer. You need to find another friend (muscle) near me that can assist me, or you need to change your alignment, or you need to make me a bit stronger! But until you do so, I am going to spasm….Kapeesh’.
I am personally so passionate about shoulder movement and have found that there is one fundamental factor that is seriously missing in all shoulder training. It is not flexibility or strength that I am referring to but rather FREE MOVEMENT of the shoulder joint. Being able to disassociate in the shoulder joint without any compensation or unnecessary additional force of the muscles of the shoulder joint at the point of low load movement. It should be FREE hence the word FREE MOVEMENT.
We tend to go for the exercises and the stretches but what about the easy flow of movements? The freedom of the humerus moving within the glenoid cavity with minimal effort. So much emphasis is placed on strength and mobility but hardly any on the freedom of movement. Don’t you think that the freedom of movement will encourage tension free movement, less stress, less spasms and less compensations. Overemphasis on strength is creating other problems at this point within the shoulder joint, neck and thoracic spine.
Your very first step should be free movement. And I do not just mean, move your arm randomly and hope it falls as it should. This is an art. It is a feeling. You need a strong mind-body connection to the scapula and less connection to the actual arm. In fact, forget about the arm because it is focusing on the arm that got you to where you are now.
The absolute pure pleasure that comes with FREE MOVEMENT….It is liberating, relaxing and totally injury preventative.
Never forget the strong relationship between the thoracic spine, shoulder and neck. Any misalignment in any one of these can cause total chaos.
Don’t just try it. You have to see it to believe it. We have helped thousands of shoulders in this way and only once they can achieve free movement and a connection to the blade gliding along the rib cage, do we then go ahead and do some strengthening. What a process, but so worth the wait!
Long term effects is what we are after.
To see this in action, click here and enjoy our amazing ‘Shoulder stabilization, precision and rehabilitation’ course. It will leave you with lifelong information that is going to keep you in the best shoulder stability form ever, as you grow old gracefully or do your sport with injury free shoulders.
It is time to do it differently and in doing this, keeping your shoulders healthy for a lifetime.
Enjoy our next blog post as we discuss the influence of the thoracic spine and neck to the shoulders as well as our own personality type!
