There are primarily 3 segments of the body that have to be considered for overhead lifting; thoracic spine, shoulder blade on the rib cage (the ‘scapulothoracic joint’), and the shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint).

The muscular considerations for overhead lifting, in terms of muscles that can limit range of motion, include the pectoralis major, the pectoralis minor, the lats, and the teres major. These would be the muscles to target during stretching.

In order to have good overhead lifting, there has to be sufficient mobility.

The wall angel test is a great catch-all test that will quickly tell you if someone has upper body stiffness or not. If someone does, we need to work on thoracic spine mobility, upper back strength, lat stretching, and pec stretching.

In the cat/cow an athlete should have the body awareness to move his/her shoulder blades independently of the thoracic spine, neck, and lower back. If they can’t, this is a big area to work on developing awareness.

Instead of aggressively stretching the shoulder joint (which is already the most mobile joint in the human body), it’s more effective to focus on the musculature around the joint (pecs, lats, teres major), strengthening the upper back, and building up the rotator cuff.

For long term shoulder health and better performance, we can’t rely on just ‘stretching the shoulders’. We need good upper back strength, good body awareness, and a rotator cuff that performs up to the demands we ask of it.

The important concepts / skills to take away from this video:

• Global assessment for upper body mobility required for overhead lifting (wall angel)
• Differentiate of 4 segments: neck, mid back, low back, shoulder blades
• Lat stretching techniques
• Evaluating shoulder mobility (scratch test) vs ability to move segments independently (cat/cow)
• Horizontal pulling exercises to improve upper back strength
• Rotator cuff exercises to improve strength and endurance

After viewing this section’s video and reviewing the notes, it’s time to move to the last section: The Low Back