Traditional Pec Minor Stretch

A hypertonic pec minor muscle was identified as a big trouble maker at this years Scapular Summit in Kentucky. This is the recommended stretch for the muscle, the "doorway" method.

Here's the problem the way I see it. We're assuming the scap is staying put while the ribcage rotates away. We're also assuming we're stretching the pec minor & not the major. We're assuming the athlete has no anterior GH laxity. My thought is if the pec minor is tight, what's to stop it from dragging the scap with it? In this scenario all you would be stretching are the muscles that insert on the proximal humerus (pec major, ant. deltoid, biceps etc), no?

The Elizabeth Lambert Saga

I usually don't comment on this stuff, but the hair pulling incident brought up some issues I am seeing in high school girl's sports. I do see officials making calls they would NEVER make in a boy's game. And it seems parents, coaches, and athletes are OK with that for the most part. But there is the occasional official who works both girls & boys games and doesn't differentiate between the two genders.

We had girl's rugby game this past spring where a lot of player's from the other team were getting hurt. Some of our girl's tackles looked like NFL highlight films. They're really I nice bunch of kids- they just like to hit and they're good at it. The best is this little Puerto Rican girl, all 5'2" of her! The coach came out onto the field and admonished the ref for "letting the game get out of control" and threatened to pull his team off the field. To keep the game going our coach actually had to tell our players to bring them down a little easier, and took our 5'2" assassin off the field. It was a playoff game to boot.

Kibler's '09 Scapular Summit

Dr. Ben Kibler is an orthopedist from Lexington Kentucky USA. Would love to meet him someday. There are not many orthopedists who understand function more than him. This is his third international summit on the scapulothoracic joint.

In the coming weeks I'll be commenting on some of the highlights. Several of the presentations focused on the neuromuscular issue of the upper trap overpowering the mid/lower & the scapular dyskinesis that goes with it. I was a little disappointed all the solutions appeared to be isolated ones. Most of the exercises look like manual muscle testing positions.

I'm not sure what percentage of my functional approach has been scientifically driven, and how much comes from the population I work with. Remember I work with the adolescent population who by nature just cannot sit still; with a wide variety of learning disabilities mixed in. Getting them to lie down, put their elbow here, shoulder over there etc is just not going to happen.

At GAIN '10 I presented some of my ideas of how I approach the trap issue. It sure looked a lot different than what was presented at the scap summit. It's kind of paradoxical how my almost 30 years of experience in one job has enriched me in so many ways, yet boxed me in so many others.

Be careful with this stuff

I know quad atrophy following acl tears is frustrating, but don't rob Peter to pay Paul:

Patellofemoral joint force and stress during the wall squat and one-leg squat.
Escamilla RF, Fleisig GS, Wilk KE, Andrews et al, Med Sci Sport.EX 4/09

Doesn't make a difference how close you position the feet to the wall, they beat up the osteochondral surface of the patella.

Rachel's question

"I am an HS in So. IL and just getting into the S&C scene and just wanted to make sure I am understanding you correctly w/ how I approach this:Most HS athletes don't even know what core is and have done nothing to address it - so I look at doing the neutral positions first then adding movement when they are able to perform w/o help and w/ little-no difficulty."

First of all, welcome to the blog Rachel- Glad you found us!
2nd- Your athletes don't even know what the core is? GREAT!!! You are one step ahead of the game because they haven't been corrupted yet!

When you get a chance, be sure to visit my archives. YOU will be corrupted (in a good way) to my version of "the reactive core". A core that can brace the body to take a punch or handle a collision with another athlete; as well as blasting a soccer ball into a net. Like any other muscles of the body, the core is loaded by ground, gravity, and momentum. The core muscles are loaded with proprioceptors; and fascia which links it with the rest of the body. It loves when the hips are moving one way & the shoulders another; or in the same direction but different speeds.

There are some exercises which I consider core-ready, give your athletes a good dose of this stuff Rachel:

-3D jumping jacks
-3D skipping
-3D mountain climbers
-3D "burpees"
-3D pushups

Got to go. A weekend off, the first since July!

Neuromuscular vs. Muscular

This month's Journal of Strength & Conditoning research:

Relationship Between Hip and Knee Kinematics in Athletic Women During Cutting Maneuvers: A Possible Link to Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Prevention
Imwalle, Lauren E; Myer, Gregory D; Ford, Kevin R; Hewett, Timothy E

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research:
November 2009 - Volume 23 - Issue 8 - pp 2223-2230

placed biomechanical markers liberally on the upper & lower extremities & had them do 45 & 90 degree cutting maneuvers. At least in this study, frontal plane adduction moments at the hip were the biggest predictors of how much the knees abducted. They site Brent's research from a study published 3 years ago in "medicine & science in sport & exercise" that showed steady increases in hip abduction strength in adolescent boys; with no such similarity in girls. The authors recommend strategies that increase hip abduction control, & include protocols that include plyometrics, dynamic stabilization, & trunk neuromuscular training.


Much like in Hodge's work on spine stability, we have to be careful on the application side of this. Resist the temptation to run to those 4 way hip machines. Neuromuscular is a lot different & complicated than muscular. Neuromuscular adaptation takes longer. Neuromuscular integrates myofascial slings throughout the body that contribute to hip & knee stability. Neuromuscular understands the foot is on the ground dealing with artificial turf, or wet grass, or improper footwear; that the eyes are driving movement from above with the head & shoulders reacting.

Dave Tiberio, P.T. uses the term "resonent frequency" to describe tendon & ligaments (that includes the ACL) ability to react to changes in load intensity & velocity. Re-setting that resonent frequency is the key. We forget the ACL is living tissue & loaded with proprioceptors! It will tell the rest of the body what to do, provided the body has been trained to work in what G2 calls, "the transformational zone".

Neuromuscular takes planned performance training-muscular does not.

More Squatology

Thought I would give an A.T. perspective on Vern's post for today:

http://www.functionalpathtrainingblog.com/2009/11/more-than-an-exercise.html

Vern states he would not use the Bulgarian squat for football, soccer, or hockey. He is correct, groin strains & athletic hernia are prevelent in these sports, and alludes to this squat contributing to it.

While it might be appropriate as a lead up to a SLS (single leg squat), it's important to move on. The problem begins when you load the movement. The trail leg is used to stabilize, creating isometric contractions about the hips & pelvis that are not conducive to rythmic, flowing movement. Of course you can argue that isometric contraction happens naturally in a traditional SLS, and you would be correct. But, in the Bulgarian Squat, that stabilization is initiated top down since it is traveling through the pelvis first- "neural confusion" if you will.