I now have the privilege of uploading videos to YouTube that are longer than 15 minutes. I am guessing that I have passed a certain number of uploads and maintained a positive status with You Tube. So basically I have not uploaded any iphone videos of a Bruins broadcast or anything like that. I did recently post a series of videos on You Tube giving a basic overview of the OPT Model over the course of five videos. Visit my YouTube channel if you want to see them http://youtube.com/theericbeard. You probably notice that I have been investing my time outside of my blog lately I logged in last week to post and spent an hour fixing the typos in my last post. Sheesjh! What a stinker! My apologies for letting that go out. The content was good but what a mess! So that is fit for public consumption and worth a peak when you have time

More importantly is that I uploaded an entire DVD of mine to You Tube. It is finishing processing right now. The DVD is actually the prologue installment for my DVD series Secrets and Staples of Training the Athletic Shoulder. (of course available at http://athleticshoulder.com ) it is 54 minutes long and has some greta stuff in it if I do say so myself. Please watch it and let me know what you think! I am confident that you will find it helpful.

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
CEO A-Team
Corrective Exercise Specialist
AthleticShoulder.com
http://facebook.com/theericbeard
http://youtube.com/theericbeard

• September 14, 2009 -- Secrets of Training the Athletic Shoulder: Corner Activatons from AthleticShoulder.com (0)
• September 8, 2009 -- Corrective Exercise and Performance Enhancement for The Shoulder Complex Has Evolved (0)
• March 3, 2011 -- Shoulder Dysfunction and Contra-Lateral Sacroiliac Joint Health in a Tennis Player (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- Corrective Exercise for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? (2)
• September 25, 2009 -- Teaching an NASM Personal Trainer Workshop in Atlanta Thinking about HFPN.com (0)
• January 22, 2012 -- Knock The Rust Off With Some Core Stability Work (0)
• January 19, 2012 -- Vertical Core Stability Training (0)
• January 12, 2012 -- Quick Tip to Improve Dorsiflexion (making your calve stretch more effective) (0)
• January 7, 2012 -- Can You Give Me Some Advice? (0)
• January 4, 2012 -- Does 30+30+30 Really Equal 90? (0)

Eric Beard

CEO A-Team

Corrective Exercise Specialist

AthleticShoulder.com
RangeOfMotionWorkshop.com

• February 26, 2010 -- First Month of Another Fitness Challenge Brings Eric Beard Some Results (1)
• February 24, 2010 -- Another Fitness Challenge Update on Ankle Mobility of Eric Beard (0)
• March 19, 2010 -- Active Heel Slides for Deep Core Stabilizers and Psoas Inhibition: Corrective Exercise (0)
• February 9, 2010 -- 5 Minute Core Stability / Corrective Exercise for Back Pain by Eric Beard with the MECA Back (0)
• February 12, 2010 -- Will Smith Needs Corrective Exercise…but He Helps Me this Time (0)
• February 8, 2010 -- Revist, Recite, Re-Write Your Goals Dailly to Manifest your Dreams (0)
• January 31, 2010 -- FLY This-Eric Beard Shows a Cool Variation for Core Stability plus Another Fitness Challenge (1)
• January 15, 2010 -- Boston CPT for NASM Ends up With Some After Hours Corrective Exercise Action for Eric Beard (0)
• January 7, 2010 -- Range of Motion Workshop and DVD, Goniometry for Personal Trainers and Corrective Exercise Specialists (0)
• September 16, 2009 -- NASM PRO Almost Live? This Corrective Exercise Specialist is Getting Excited! (0)

“In 2003, approximately 13.7 million people went to the doctor’s office for a shoulder problem, including 3.7 million visits for shoulder and upper arm sprains and strains.

Shoulder injuries are frequently caused by athletic activities that involve excessive, repetitive, overhead motion, such as swimming, tennis, pitching, and weightlifting. Injuries can also occur during everyday activities such washing walls, hanging curtains, and gardening.”

How about performing an over head serve like this?

So add poor technique to the list of potential causes of injury. In the rare case that someone has ideal posture, muscular balance, great neuromuscular control but they are learning how to serve overhead, or are just bad at it, injury may result as well.

I was talking to a client of mine who is a certified High Performance Coach through the United States Tennis Association, excellent tennis pro and all around good guy, Tim Smith, about the shoulder complex and how it relates to tennis. In his years of experience as a player, coach with the New England Academy of Tennis and Director of the Junior Program at Longwood Country Club in Brookline, MA Tim has seen plenty! The topic that day was internal rotation of the shoulder, or lack of it, and how that impacts the follow through on the overhead serve. Just like I have talked about before, this can cause unwanted movement of the scapulae leading to impingement in the glenohumeral joint amongst other maladies. of course I brought up Maria Sharapova, who I have written about a few times and Tim mentioned seeing that same compensation in many players. We then reviewed some soft tissue techniques and stretches that are critical for tennis players to do on a regular basis to keep the shoulder healthy.

Soft tissue work like this;

or this…

Stretches such as the sleeper stretch…

Or if you have access to a SHARQ…

There are many people that need help with corrective exercise and refining their tennis game. We want to get to them before they get hurt! An ounce of prevention…

Tim is doing some great stuff with video work comparing his players execution to that or pros, much like I do with the overhead and single leg squat. I enjoy my conversations with him and look to improving our ability to help our clients and athletes move better, play better and play longer!

Currently editing my DVD “Secrets and Staples of Training the tennis Shoulder”! Looks great so far! Over two and a half hours of content! Hope to have it ready by April first!

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

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What about an integrated assessment by a corrective exercise specialist to find the root of the problem?

Ask.com says;

“Treatment involves resting the shoulder and avoiding activities that cause pain. Ice packs applied to the shoulder and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will help reduce inflammation and pain.

Physical therapy to strengthen the muscles of the rotator cuff should be started. If the pain persists or if therapy is not possible because of severe pain, a steroid injection may reduce pain and inflammation enough to allow effective therapy.

If the rotator cuff has sustained a complete tear, or if the symptoms persist despite conservative therapy, surgery may be necessary. Arthroscopic surgery can remove bone spurs and inflamed tissue around the shoulder.

Small tears can be treated with arthroscopic surgery. Newer techniques allow even large tears to be repaired arthroscopically, although some large tears require open surgery to repair the torn tendon.”

Sure this is just from a website, but this protocol is probably pretty standard treatment for rotator cuff tendinitis. This is a relatively common injury for tennis players, who make up a great deal of my practice.

Impingement is a fairly common injury as well…

…with significant tears of the rotator cuff being less frequent with my clientele.

What really needs to be addressed is the alignment and function of the thoracic spine and scapulae

These two areas seem to be omitted from many rehabilitation protocols. This is a shame b/c addressing the inflammation at the rotator cuff will help with the symptom, but rarely the cause. the same thing with biceps tendinitis that elicits anterior shoulder pain. The thoracic spine must rotate and the scapulae mus be lined up long before the rotator cuff is strengthened. This just leads to repeated dysfunction at the shoulder joint or elsewhere through the kinetic chain.

Remember to have a corrective exercise specialist perform an integrated assessment which in turn will help to create a program that promotes athletic longevity, injury prevention and enhanced athletic performance!

Have to turn in, have an awesome workshop to deliver in Pittssburg the next two days and I have to be up early!

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

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I am not so sure about either of those. I honestly have no first hand information to go from, but based on my experience I would say that no one looked at how here body moves as a whole, like during an overhead squat test.

Restrictions in joints down in the big toe and ankle can lead to upper extremity dysfunction. Maybe her primary area of concern is not her shoulder??? In this example, the athlete can not keep their feet straight ahead during their squat, this could mean tightness in their calves (amongst other tings), this will have a significant impact on her low back and the low back is most definitely connected to the shoulder via the latissimus dorsi. The human body is a wonderfully interconnected organism and the kinetic chain principle states that we are only as strong as our weakest link. Sometimes the weak link is somewhere other than where the pain is. an integrated approach will help to determine if that is the case.

I hope that they looked at the internal rotation in her shoulder as well. This picture demonstrates poor technique performing this assessment, but you get the gist. There should be 70 degrees of internal rotation at the glenohumeral joint from this position. The picture shows about 58 degrees, but with compensations at the shoulder.

If we look at what is happening at Maria’s shoulder dynamically, it appears that her shoulder is not internally rotating sufficiently during her follow through. That is a precursor to impingement syndrome, tennis elbow and rotator cuff tendinitis at the least, and other undetected issues throughout the kinetic chain at the worst. It is causing her shoulder blade to elevate and tilt forward and her trunk to lean too much to the side as well.

I hope they are not just doing massage, electrical stimulation and rotator cuff strengthening on her. There is much more that she, and most other tennis players and athletes in general need.

Soooo the next time your or one of your athlete’s shoulder hurts, or even better….BEFORE there is an injury, find a corrective exercise specialist or licensed health care professional that is truly proficient at completing an integrated assessment. An assessment that look at how the body moves as a single unit, that can help to pin point segments that are impacting the entire kinetic chain. this can save hours or pain and rehabilitation, keep players on the court and in Maria’s case…save hundreds of thousands of dollars. From there specific;

1) soft tissue work/manual therapy
2) flexibility techniques
3) joint mobilizations
4) activation techniques
5) coordination/total body strengthening techniques

…can be applied in a systematic manner.

Thanks for reading and remember to look at the big picture but pay attention to the small details!!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

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Core Training

“Core” training is pretty trendy, but very important. A good definition of the core is “the lumbo-pelvic-hip-complex (LPHC), thoracic and cervical spine. Basically, anything but the arms and legs.  The core is where movement initiates and where our center of gravity lies.  It is crucial for transmitting force from the lower extremity up through the rest of the body or from the upper extremity down through the rest of the body. If the musculature within the core does not provide appropriate stability, force production will be reduced and the passive system (ligaments, discs, bones) will be exposed to excessive forces.

The musculature in the core can be categorized into two systems.

The stabilization system musculature is comprised of mostly Type I muscle fibers. Compared to Type II muscle fibers, they are smaller in size, have better endurance and can produce less force. They attach close to the spine and provide what is called inter-segmental or inter-vertebral stabilization. They help to maintain alignment of the vertebrae. 

Due to poor posture, muscular imbalances, poor technical skill or past injury, the stabilization muscles are often weak and inhibited (unable to reduce, produce or dynamically stabilize force), hard to control and have poor endurance. This is often times a major limiting factor to optimal athletic and daily performance. 

This is a HUGE contributing factor to low back pain!

Challenge

Are you a chest breather or a diaphragmatic breather?

1) place your left thumb in your belly button and let the rest of your palm support your “pooch” or lower abdomen. If you do not have a pooch eat moreJ

2) place your right hand just under your collar bones, on top of your sternum right in the middle of your chest with the palm flat against your body

3) take 3 or 4 deep breathes, what hand moves first> top or bottom? Which hand move ore top or bottom?

Tune in next time for your results and to see if you passed the challenge!!!

•         By training the core properly, this will strengthen the muscles surrounding the spine which can help prevent back pain.

•         By training the core properly, this will create a strong foundation for the prime movers, allowing you to lift more weight.

•         By training the core properly, this will enhance you or your client’s, patient’s or athlete’s cosmetic appearance by emphasizing the drawn-in abdominal region.

Thanks for reading and remember core training is critical for everyone, especially my tennis players!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

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I hope the sarcasm is obvious. The person that is teaching these young girls this probably has zero investment into their long term health. They must just be putting them through the meat grinder of high level youth athletics looking to produce the next national champion and Olympic hopeful.

Who is going to pick up the pieces for these girls when they drop out of their swimming program b/c of shoulder pain?

Who is going to care for them when they have to have their shoulders surgically repaired when they are 25? Not the coach, that’s for sure.

Anyone who works with young athletes must understand the long-term implications of their actions. The instant gratification that comes from a successful season or an athletes rise into an upper echelon of competition is powerful for some. There are many of us who would rather see our young athletes delay their gratification a few years as we help them develop appropriately and actually watch them blossom as young adults.

Training for these athletic endeavors is no different. Too much, too fast done too poorly is the norm. We as coaches and trainers need to step up and put the kibosh on outdated and down right dangerous training methodologies that do not promote injury prevention and LONG TERM athletic success.

How many of us had this done to as when we were younger?

Well now is the time to put a stop to this. It is the time to raise the bar for education, application and integrity. Our athletic programs, health insurance system and relationships with our young athletes will be all the better for it.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Beard
Corrective Exercise Specialist
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
theericbeard@blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

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