Working with athletes of many disciplines affords me an opportunity to look at many shoulders week to week. Increasingly, I am seeing more Crossfit athletes for various shoulder problems. \u00a0In many cases, they have rotator cuff tendonitis, impingement, AC joint pain, labral pathology or a combination of the aforementioned issues. \u00a0The other big group of athletes I see is throwers.<\/p>\n
These two groups share many of the same dysfunctions including posterior shoulder tightness and decreased mobility. Tightness in the pecs and lats is commonplace. \u00a0I feel latissimus tightness often goes unnoticed or perhaps is not an area of emphasis in prehab\/rehab plans. \u00a0Tight lats will restrict elevation and contribute to postural dysfunction.<\/p>\n
With restricted elevation, athletes may turn to excessive spinal extension and\/or rotation to achieve elevation necessary (e.g. overhead squats, snatches, throwing) and this can contribute to poor movement patterns. \u00a0I have also seen this impact volleyball players asymmetrically with serving and hitting.<\/p>\n
Lat tightness can easily be assessed by placing the athlete supine and simply asking them to bring the arms completely overhead. \u00a0While most people do not have 180 degrees of flexion, I feel working to achieve elevation greater than or equal to 160 is completely reasonable. \u00a0The body often uses abduction and external rotation to make things work (and this is natural for throwers), but the more pure elevation capacity we have the the better.<\/p>\n
Crossfit involves lots of pull-ups and throwing heavily utilizes the pecs and lats for acceleration. \u00a0It only follows that muscular tightness in this region may need to be addressed. \u00a0Step one often involves soft tissue mobilization\/compression techniques. \u00a0I prefer to use a Trigger Point ball or Grid to work on the soft tissue mobilizing it on the wall (TP ball) or floor (Grid) in an elevated position.<\/p>\n
Next, I like to employ active mobility work. \u00a0I recently featured a simple exercise using the BOSU Ballast Ball in my PFP column. The pictures below reveal a rolling double arm version, as well as a single arm method\/progression. \u00a0These active movements can also be complimented by sustained holds as desired.<\/p>\n\n\t\t