{"id":439,"date":"2010-01-22T14:30:05","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T21:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=439"},"modified":"2010-01-22T14:30:05","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T21:30:05","slug":"posterior-shoulder-stretching-impingement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Posterior Shoulder Stretching & Impingement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you are lay person, trainer or therapist reading this blog, I try to keep you up to date on science, training and my interpretation\/application of exercise based upon the research and practical application in my practice.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to touch on an article just published in the Journal of American Sports Medicine.\u00a0 It was based on a\u00a0 study conducted by Tim Tyler et al in New York.\u00a0 They set out to determine what effect decreasing GIRD (aka glenohumeral internal rotation deficit) and posterior shoulder tightness had on reducing symptoms associated with internal shoulder impingement.<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar with GIRD, it basically looks at total shoulder motion side to side\u00a0but focuses\u00a0on deficits\u00a0in internal rotation.\u00a0 Throwers often lack internal rotation on their dominant arms and exhibit excessive external range of motion for cocking and ball velocity.\u00a0 We tend to call this acquired laxity.\u00a0 Pitchers tend to have higher GIRD as well.\u00a0 Keep in mind total shoulder motion is critical as well.\u00a0 So, you cannot assume one will have problems just becasue there is decreased internal rotation.<\/p>\n

You may see similar GIRD and psterior shoulder tightness patterns in other overhead athletes (swimmers, tennis players, volleyball players, etc.)\u00a0 This particular study looked at\u00a0the effect on 11 men and 11 women who received manual mobilization by a PT combined with ER ROM, posterior shoulder stretches and scapular strengthening.<\/p>\n

They studied all 22 subjects (range\u00a0of symptoms from 1 to 24 months) and then compared data on the patients with and without symptom resolution.\u00a0 In effect the study revealed that posterior shoulder tightness was significantly improved in 12 of the subjects that had complete resolution of symptoms (more so than in the 10 who did not).\u00a0 In addition, changes in GIRD did not seek to impact the results.<\/p>\n

What is the take away from this study?\u00a0 In a nutshell, if you have symptoms related to internal impingement, you should be doing posterior shoulder stretches.\u00a0 So, what are the best ones to do?\u00a0 There was a recent article in the NSCA Strength and Conditioning Journal (December 2009) that laid out some effective stretches (two of which I will show you in the video).\u00a0 Also, you should note that this pattern\u00a0of tightness is common in weight lifters.<\/p>\n

I have included a short video clip with 3 effective stretches that easily can be done at home.\u00a0 The stretches are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Standing\u00a0cross chest shoulder\u00a0pull<\/em><\/strong> (across the chest) – this is a basic stretch I start most clients with who are experiencing pain.\u00a0 The drawback is that the scapula is not stabilized (or fixed) so you do not isolate the posterior shoulder effectively.\u00a0 However, it tends to be more comfortable for many early on and you will still get some benefit.\u00a0 When you are ready, it can be done against a wall to fix the scapula.<\/li>\n
  2. Side lying cross chest shoulder\u00a0pull<\/strong><\/em> – this would be equivalent to doing stretch number 1 against a wall.\u00a0 The floor acts to stabilize the scapula and then you pull the arm up and hold.<\/li>\n
  3. The sleeper stretch<\/em><\/strong> – go easy with this one as pushing too hard may actually increase inflammation in my experience.\u00a0 You may also vary the angle of the upper arm to hit different portions of the joint capsule.\u00a0 For example, you may elect to stretch at 90, 70 and\u00a045 degrees.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I advocate holding each stretch for 20-30 seconds and repeating 2-3 times daily.\u00a0 If you are in therapy, the stretching should be done following the joint mobilization by your therapist.\u00a0\u00a0 Click the video below to see the stretches.<\/p>\n

    \"Video<\/a><\/p>

    Click to play this video.<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Whether you are lay person, trainer or therapist reading this blog, I try to keep you up to date on science, training and my interpretation\/application of exercise based upon the research and practical application in my practice. Today, I want to touch on an article just published in the Journal of American Sports Medicine.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,36,11],"tags":[51,433,21,56,55],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-rehab","category-shoulder","category-shoulder-injuries","tag-impingement","tag-shoulder","tag-shoulder-pain","tag-shoulder-stiffness","tag-shoulder-stretches"],"yoast_head":"\nPosterior Shoulder Stretching & Impingement - Brian Schiff's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=439\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Posterior Shoulder Stretching & Impingement - Brian Schiff's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether you are lay person, trainer or therapist reading this blog, I try to keep you up to date on science, training and my interpretation\/application of exercise based upon the research and practical application in my practice. 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