After dealing with the sudden shock of the lockdown, it has been really enjoyable making the switch to sessions through videocall.
We have been doing Personal Training sessions, group sessions and an adapted version of our Movement Therapy sessions.
Last week I worked with a gentleman in his sixties, who has been suffering with a sudden loss of ABduction (raising the arm sideways, away from the body) in his right shoulder.
Before the session we took a full history highlighting his job work history, sporting activities as well as any injuries, operations, dental work and emotional trauma.
During the call we took a detailed movement assessment looking at his posture, walking gait and breathing; and then we zeroed in on his area of complaint.
He was struggling to bring his shoulder above 90’ of ABduction, getting pain in the posterior shoulder and hitting a road block as the shoulder would not move any further.
Although the symptoms were situated in the shoulder. The driver of the problem lay slightly away from the joint.
In my clients history, he broke ribs on his right side 3 years ago. When the shoulder goes into ABduction the Thoracic Spine flexes away from the direction of motion in the shoulder.
You can try this yourself. Flex your spine to the right and observe what happens to your shoulder. Does it drift to your body or away?
Then bring your spine back to straight and bring your arm out to the side and see what happens to your spine.
Then flex your thoracic spine to the left and try the bring your right arm out to the side. Does it go? Or does it get stuck?
Due to the injury to his ribs, he was unable to laterally flex the spine to the right, and it was this that restricted his ability to ABduct the shoulder.
We created some exercises that reintroduced these motions, safely and effectively. We had him hiking and dropping his hips, laterally flexing the lumbar and thoracic spine, using his ribcage as the fulcrum of the movement. This created an opposing lateral flexion in the cervical spine.
His thoracic spine and ribs were very restricted but soon created additional motion. As this improved we could feed it back into ABduction of the shoulder. The Scapula could glide more easily on the ribcage and the AC joint could glide more easily into the elevated position.
He will have to practice these motions for homework and also support these motions with breathing, to allow his ribs to move in a way that feels safe to his nervous system.
When working with movement issues it is vital to work out what is making the body feels unsafe. If we can give the body what it needs then it will give us back safe and enjoyable movement patterns.
If you have a movement issue that you would like to address, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
I am currently offering a free 30 minute discovery call.
Book in via email info@adfitness.biz or Message the Adfitness page #adfitnessbodymechanic #movementtherapy #movement #anatomyinmotion #functionalneurology #shoulderpain #frozenshoulder #pain #chronicpain #pdtr