CategoriesAssessment personal training Program Design

The Dubious D Word of the Fitness Industry

Here’s a hint:

It’s not dorsiflexion, diastasis, disc herniation, or density set.

And it’s also not deload, DOMS, or dorsal talonavicular ligament. <– say that three times fast.

Nope, the most dubious “D” word I’m referring to and the word I wish more fitness professionals would use LESS is…

dysfunction.

Copyright: melnyk58 / 123RF Stock Photo

Stop It. Stop It Right Now

It’s a common tactic for fitness professionals, especially during an initial session or assessment, to go out of their way to demonstrate just how dysfunctional someone is.

“Okay, so, after everything we’ve gone through and discussed it seems you have an internally rotated right shoulder, a bit of anterior pelvic tilt, upper back kyphosis, you lack thoracic rotation on your left side, you need to clip your toenails, and one eye is lower than the other.

We’ve got some work to do to fix everything.”

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say I’ve been perfect my entire career and that I never did the same thing.

I did.

And while hindsight is 20/20…I can’t even begin to imagine how much business I lost because I felt it a good idea to showcase to potential clients how much of a walking ball of fail they were on Day #1.

To that end, I do believe there’s a natural growth or maturation (that only comes with experience) of any fitness professional where you begin to understand and appreciate this train of thought.

Of course it’s our job to “audit” movement and to ascertain, to the best of our ability, what will set people up for the most success possible given their goals, injury history, and ability level(s).

But I adamantly feel that one of the worst things you can do as a fitness professional is to highlight dysfunction and to make people feel broken out of the gate.

Take scapular winging for example, where the shoulder blade lacks congruency with the ribcage (I.e., it peels off the rib cage).

Is it actually a dysfunctional thing?

Now, admittedly, the picture above is a little a lot fucked up.

This is TRUE scapular winging, an actual medical diagnosis where the long thoracic nerve is not doing its job innervating the Serratus Anterior.

No amount of Prone Trap Raises or Forearm Wall Slides is going to fix that dumpster fire. It’s going to entail meticulous manual therapy and someone with a keener sense of neurological wizardry to fix it.

However, many people walk around thinking they have “scapular winging” (HINT: pretty much everyone has it to some degree) and that they’re doomed to a laundry list of corrective exercise purgatory.

I have news for you.

Most people’s long thoracic nerve works just fine and most people are NOT in a state of dysfunction.

In fact you can fix scapular winging pretty quickly by adding LOAD and by getting people to TRAIN.

Load helps nudge people into better positioning and training just helps people not want to jump in front of a bus (trust me: corrective exercise purgatory is no fun for anyone).

There are a litany of ways to accomplish this.

In this short video, I outline some of my thoughts and manage to not swear the entire time.

 

This is a short clip from mine and Dean Somerset’s new series Even More Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint, a brand new product with entirely new content from the version 1 workshop, which is on sale until Sunday for $70 off the regular price, and digs into individualization concepts like this, plus so much more to help you get the best possible plan of action for your clients in order to get them results in the fastest, easiest and safest manner possible.

 

 

CategoriesAssessment coaching Program Design

How to Fix Scapular Winging

Scapular winging. It’s a thing.

I guess.

Copyright: olegdudko / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Forgive the aloof and standoffish tone. I recognize the term “scapular winging” is a thing and that it can be an actual, real-live, medical diagnosis with dastardly consequences.1

But more on that in a minute.

It’s just that, in some ways, I find a lot of fitness pros – personal trainers, strength coaches, and even physical therapists – can often be a little too liberal with use of the term. They toss it around with little understanding of what it actually means and with little “feel” on how it’s interpreted by their clients and athletes.

I’ve long championed the sentiment that most (not all) fitness pros use the initial assessment as an opportunity to showcase how much people suck at doing things and how broken they are, and that, for the mere cost of a 215 pack of training sessions (the equivalent of a really, really nice Audi), they’ll fix you.

Pffffft, who wants an Audi anyways?

Here’s how a typical conversation goes:

Client: “Hey, I’m thinking about hiring someone to train me.”

Douchy Trainer: “Great, I’d be glad to help. We need to start with an assessment so I have ample opportunity to showcase how much of walking ball of fail you are and how I alone can fix you.”

Client: “Uh, okay. When do we start?

Douchy Trainer: “Right now, take off your shirt.”

Client: “Not going to buy me dinner first, huh? Kidding, okay, BAM.”

[takes off shirt]

Douchy Trainer:Oh……….MY………..GOD.”

Client: “What? What’s wrong?”

Douchy Trainer: “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but, you may want to sit down for this.”

Client: “Okay. What is it?

Douchy Trainer: “I’m sorry to have to tell you, but, but…..you have scapular winging.”

Client: “Is….that bad?”

Douchy Trainer: “I honestly have no idea how you’re able to walk, let alone speak complete sentences. We need to fix this ASAP.”

And this is where the trainer turns into that a-hole nun from Game of Thrones walking the client, Cersei style, down to the training floor to take them through a bevy of corrective exercise drills.

via GIPHY

 

Lets pump the brakes, mmmkay?

Scapular Winging: What It Is

It’s this:

Now, admittedly, the key words used to find this picture were “most fucked up, dumpster fire of a case of scapular winging on the internet,” so don’t get too alarmed.

This is a legit, medically diagnosed case, and not at all normal.

 

Pretty cool, right? That’s some Gandalf shit right there.

Quadruped Rockback w/ Floor Press

 

Typically the Quadruped Rockback is a a screen used to gauge active hip flexion ROM and to ascertain someone’s appropriate squat depth based of his or her’s anatomy. However, after listening to Mike Reinold speak on the topic it’s also a great drill to cue people into more protraction and upward rotation

Floor Press w/ Upward Rotation

 

Taking the floor press a step further, we can take away a base of support (and force the stabilizing arm to work that much harder in order to maintain position) and then incorporate some upward rotation.

Wrap Up

The umbrella theme here is not to dismiss scapular winging as an actual diagnosis. It is a diagnosis. It’s just not as common as people think, and I wish more fitness pros would stop jumping to conclusions so fast.

Oftentimes the fix is just to coach people up, introduce some load, and get them into better positions.

Last Chance to Save $100 off Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint

TODAY (7/6) is, for real this time, the last day you can purchase Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint at 50% off the regular price.

Because of the 4th and everyone’s travel plans, Dean Somerset and I extended our sale by one day so more people could take advantage.

That’s $100 you’re saving. Take that money you’ll save and go to a nice steak dinner instead.

—> LAST CHANCE. GO HERE. <—