Shoulder rehab is hard right? There are so many things that can go wrong in there- subacromial bursitis, supraspinatus impingement, biceps impingement, rotator cuff weakness, frozen shoulders. The list goes on and on. How do we know what is what? And what do we do specifically if we don’t know what is specifically wrong? And maybe worse, what do we do when we do know what the problem actually is? Looking through a well-regarded text like Kendall’s ‘Muscles; Testing and function’, with its 100+ pages of muscle tests for the upper extremity alone can tempt even the most stoic of anatomy nerds to place shoulders into the ‘too hard basket’. It needn’t be this hard.

Suddenly our ideal ’corrective’ exercises are suddenly not only useless, they may be reinforcing dysfunctional patterns already present! 

Let me give you two pieces of information that may ease your frazzled mind.

1) As an Exercise Professional, it is not your job to diagnose. In fact, as a Personal Trainer or Exercise Physiologist diagnosis exists outside of your scope of practice.

2) Regardless, diagnosis of the specific injury is superfluous to what you actually need to do for effective shoulder rehab.

For a shoulder to be happy, healthy and functioning beautifully you really only need to tick three boxes. Continue reading →