Health and Performance Made Ridiculously Simple
Ever felt like your shoulder blade’s trying to take flight? It’s not just about the muscles—it’s the stage they perform on. Dive into the forgotten joint and the 3-step game plan that’s changing the scapular winging game. Science-backed, Zac-approved. 🤘
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Unlock your movement potential with these five fundamental exercises designed to enhance mobility and reduce pain. From the Calcaneal Traction Roll to the Wall Squat with Low Reach, these simple yet effective moves are the building blocks to a more mobile and pain-free life. Each exercise is explained in detail, complete with step-by-step instructions and common mistakes to avoid. Master these basics before moving on to more complex exercises, and experience the difference in your mobility journey.
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That NO ONE looks at Almost all painful shoulders neglect improving mobility in 1 key area. An area that services as the foundation for shoulder girdle function. The ribcage. That’s right, your ribcage isn’t only there to protect your vital organs. It’s the shoulder girdle’s base. Improve the dynamics of this area, and most of those common shoulder issues will vanish. Want to learn how? Check out the blog, video, and podcast below.
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THIS is why you’re so darn stiff Ever wake up feeling like a stiff robot (not the cool dancing kind)? Or deal with aches and pains impacting life? Know what’s frustrating? If it’s not pain from trauma or serious pathology, rarely do we know what causes pain. What do we do then? If we don’t know, it’s hard to figure out how to improve our movement and comfort. But I got your back (even if it’s not low back pain). I’m about to reveal one culprit responsible for 90% of the pain and movement issues seen out there. You won’t just get the cause either, but the solution.
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4 Exercises That Alleviate Shoulder Pain FAST! If you’ve got overhead press pain, you’ve got to try these three fixes to help loosen up your arms and take stress off the shoulders. Overhead pressing can be troublesome because it requires a lot of shoulder mobility to ensure solid technique. Without it, you can expect your low back to arch, your shoulder to ache, and your weights to be small. But good news! I’ve got three movements that will loosen up your shoulders and help you with any pain while overhead pressing. Check out the video and post below to learn about it. Get Lower Rib Cage First, it’s important to place attention on the lower rib cage. If the lower ribs are flared out, then the upper lung will have trouble filling and supporting the shoulder blade. And no shoulder blade stability means no shoulder joint mobility! To cue this rib cage position, I like quadruped on elbows. Quadruped on Elbows Start on elbows and knees, forming a triangle shape with your forearms Exhale slowly and pull the belly up toward the ceiling while tucking the hips Press the palms flat into the ground Push the inner elbow through the ground making sure to stay long from top of the head to tail Take an easy inhale through the nose Exhale slowly, but fully, sighing out through the mouth Pause for 5 seconds before repeating for 5 breaths Mistakes to look out for: Don’t crunch when exhaling. Ribs coming backward
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Does going overhead feel stuck? Then you MUST watch this case study Full overhead motion is important for many sports, yet so few people have access to the full range. It’s super common to feel a block, stuck, or limited. The issue? There aren’t really any good solutions to getting more overhead. I mean, come on, we all know stretching doesn’t really cut it. What if there was a way to remove that overhead block without a single stretch? Instead, just choosing the right weight room exercises for them mobility gains? We did that in today’s case study. Watch us help someone with limited shoulder mobility, and see the 4 exercises (and one manual technique) that both increased shoulder mobility and removed that sense of feeling blocked. No stretch required 😉
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Having rounded shoulders doesn’t occur for the reason you think it does Rounded shoulders are an often common complaint of folks who perceivably have poor posture. Conventional rehab makes us think that the simple solution to this problem entails stretching the pecs, strengthening the upper back, attaining a good head position, and sitting up straight. But what if conventional treatment for bad posture was all wrong? The problem with typical treatments is that we rarely look at the foundational influence—ribcage dynamics—that likely governs where your shoulders go. That changes today. In this video, we will outline postural factors that contribute to having rounded shoulders. The one’s your standard PTs gloss over.
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An underappreciated kettlebell exercise The kettlebell armbar is a vastly underrated move for improving your range of motion, strength, and stability in your upper body. The reason why it’s underrated and underutilized is because it’s quite unclear when to program this activity and how to execute it most effectively. We will change that with today’s post.
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Many times if you don’t get the result you are looking for movement-wise, it is often related to losing the stack (and not talking to Zac). How do you know where the failure occurred? That’s exactly what we sift through in this video. In it, we walk through a failed case, and look at where tweaks could be made to improve the outcome. Watch it to learn more! Looking at each component of the stack In this case of a person with shoulder pain, we look at some of the big limitations this person had: Decreased shoulder internal rotation biliaterally Decreased left shoulder external rotation Narrow infrasternal angle From here, you then need to look at each piece of the stack to determine how to design the activity with the best possible chance of success. What are those components? I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!! Here are the pieces we focus on for the stack in order of importance (though fam, you need to build it all!): Pelvic positioning Full exhale Pause and inhale with ab tension and relaxed upper thorax Reach without crunching Now based on what we need to maximize this person’s movement options, we can then engineer exercises with a high probability of increasing available movement. The keys we need to respect are restoring external rotation before internal rotation, respecting their anthropometric structure, and address asymmetry (shoulder rotation limitations indicate this person has a right rotation bias). Therefore, we can engineer activities that can create high odds for success:
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Movement Debrief Episode 57 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: What factors do I look for to determine I selected the right exercise amount that leads to changes in testing stick? How much of a stimulus do we need before a client sees adaptation? Why do crossfitters always hurt their shoulder? What things can crossfitters work on to reduce injury risk? How do I get buy-in when I am working on an area or a quality that is not directly related to what the client wants to improve? If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 7pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version… Here were the links I mentioned: Sign-up for the Human Matrix in Seattle, WA on September 15-16th here Sign up for the Human Matrix in Kansas City, KS on October 27-28th here Sign-up for the Human Matrix in Portland, OR on November 10-11 here Tim Gabbett Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get nearly 3 hours and 50 pages of content, a free acute:chronic workload calculator, basketball conditioning program, podcasts, and weekend learning goodies: [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Get learning goodies and more”] Bill Hartman Here is a move I am using to get scapular upward rotation Here is a move I use to get subscapularis
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I recently did a mentorship session with my good friend, movement consultation partner, functional medicine guru, and #bae, Dave Rascoe from Method Strength. Dave and I collaborated on a client of his, and we used one of our mentorship sessions to talk through my decision-making process. We talked about a variety of topics, including theoretical underpinnings that influenced my decisions, the assessment process, exercise selection, and so much more. If you like what you see, want to improve your coaching skills, want to make better clinical decisions with your patients, and so much more, you can join my personalized mentorship program by filling out the form below the video. You can also learn more about the program here. Enjoy the video, and read the case summary and topics mentioned in the talk below to get a glimpse into my thought process. Fill out the form below to sign up for the mentorship program. Here were a couple links and videos of things discussed in this session. Here are some posts on the infrasternal angle: Infrasternal Angle Overhead vs. Quadruped Diaphragmatic Breathing You can also get the most in-depth discussion on the infrasternal angle by subscribing to my newsletter in the link below: [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Yes, I want to know it all!!!!!”] Here is the glute-biased dorsal rostral thoracic expansion, a great move for people with narrow infrasternal angles and hip external rotation limitations The glute-biased straight leg raise crossovers serve a similar purpose, as the above activity, only adding a
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Movement Debrief Episode 14 happened yesterday, and it was a good ol’ fashioned reader Q&A. Here’s what we talked about: Evidence (or lack thereof) for taping in general How I incorporate taping into my practice What the keys are to having a successful performance team The keys to being a successful leader If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook, Instagram, or sometimes Twitter. They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy. Here were some of the links I mentioned in this Debrief. The 3 Biggest Basketball Conditioning Mistakes Effects of Patellar Taping on Brain Activity During Knee Joint Proprioception Tests Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systematic Review of the Effect of Taping Techniques on Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Effect of kinesiology taping on pain in individuals with musculoskeletal injuries: systematic review and meta-analysis. Dynamic Tape Leukotape Kinesiotape Managing Performance Teams
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