Name: Overhead Squat Assessment 15 - Sign Clusters: Asymmetrical Weight Shift
Uploaded: 2023-04-26T01:00:15.000Z
Duration: 13 min 47 s

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https://stream.mux.com/HVKCkyc8yBBTm02bhdi1jlXAugkfUvm5YsWRLLourebI.m3u8

Learn how to identify and assess an asymmetrical weight shift using sign clusters within the overhead squat assessment in this comprehensive step-by-step instructional video from the Brookbush Institute. This evidence-based video provides expert guidance on recognizing asymmetrical pelvic motion, interpreting compensations between the left and right sides, and understanding how an asymmetrical weight shift reflects underlying mobility, stability, and motor control deficits. Develop the skills needed to analyze movement asymmetries, develop corrective exercise and manual therapy strategies, and improve squat mechanics and functional performance. Perfect for clinicians, fitness professionals, and rehabilitation clients seeking to refine movement assessment accuracy, enhance corrective exercise decision-making, and reduce injury risk while optimizing movement efficiency.

Understanding Asymmetrical Weight Shifts

Identifying Signs of Dysfunction

Analyzing Lumbopelvic Hip Complex Impacts

Differentiating Sources of Dysfunction

Corrective Strategies based on Dysfunction Type

Advanced Considerations for Asymmetrical Patterns

Overhead Squat Assessment 15 - Sign Clusters: Asymmetrical Weight Shift

This is Brent and in this video we're going after a dysfunction that many of you have had questions about, that's the asymmetrical weight shift. But this video has been placed very purposely at the end of our signs contributing to clusters, contributing to compensation patterns, because the asymmetrical weight shift isn't just a sign of dysfunction it is actually a compensation pattern unto itself, and there are going to be several signs that contribute to it. So if we expect to be successful with our corrective exercise strategy, we're going to need to understand how several joints work together before we just check this box and think that we're going to get a real easy quick solution. So I'm going to have my friend Melissa come out, she's going to help me demonstrate what's going on here. Let's say for a second that I've seen Melissa squat, go ahead and throw your hands up, and I noticed right off the bat maybe I even noticed this when she was working out like doing squats or deadlifts out on the gym floor, that she squatted down and she had an asymmetrical weight shift. Alright so I've got that box checked off, the question is is where is that coming from, and I know a lot of you guys think that right here is where asymmetrical weight shift comes from. That's kind of what the solution tables out there have said that this is where asymmetrical weight shift has come from, but that's not necessarily the case. Asymmetrical weight shift can come from any one of our segments, so we talked about upper body in a video, we talked about lower leg, i'm going to talk about how that's probably the most common contributor to an asymmetrical weight shift, and it can also come from here. Alright so if I've seen or do an asymmetrical weight shift out there, I need to pay closer attention now. So i'm going to set her up, second toe pointing forward. I got her pants on her ASIS and PSIS, looking to see if those are within one inch of level, alright and I got our hands up elbows locked. Now when she squats, go ahead and squat down i'm going to key into every dysfunction I see, but what I'm really looking for is anything asymmetrical. So any sign that happens on the right or left only, or the right more than the left or left more than the right. So let's say for a second that Melissa does this squat, we know she has an asymmetrical weight shift but she squats down and her right foot turns out more than her left, that is something for you to look out for. You really want to key into that is worse than that side. Alright go ahead and stand up again, we want to see about the knees, does one knee bow out and one knee bow in. Alright so if she does an asymmetrical weight shift towards me. What that looks like to me guys, I don't know if you can see this, that's technically knee bow out on her left side and knee bow in on her right side. That's going to be real important. I'm going to mark that down, right so she does that again and I would say knee bow out left only, knee bow in right only. Good so let's go to lateral view, hands up squat down. Maybe I start to see some other lumbo-pelvic hip complex signs right. I know you guys have learned that asymmetrical weight shift is generally a lumbo-pelvic hip complex thing, there is definitely a lot going on there. I still see that excessive lordosis, I see an excessive forward lean. Alright go ahead and come back up, obviously those aren't going to be right or left only. Then let's see her upper body, let's see her arms alright. Go ahead and squat down, occasionally what you will see is this, alright where she has one side where the lat is really really geared up, if that was on the same side of her dysfunction I'm definitely geering into that, I'm definitely thinking okay there might be a connection there, where her lat on this side is pulling her right pelvis anteriorly, which is causing her to shift on that side. Good now the question is how I figure out where it's coming from, i just gave you a lot of reasons why maybe her right side being more dysfunctional than her left in lower leg could cause her to collapse and shift to that side. We talked a little bit about the lumbo-pelvic hip complex, maybe just right-sided knee bows in right, and then this side bows out, and then we also talked about how a lat could contribute to a right anterior pelvic tilt and a shift. So now we have to figure out some way to isolate, which just goes back to our squat with modifications. So what I'm going to probably do in this case is i won't do hands down and feet up at the same time, just to see if one at a time i can kind of knock things out. If i have her hands up, wait hands up high heels, all I'm doing now is try to differentiate between what's going on and whether it comes from her lower leg and ankle. If she squats down and her asymmetrical weight shift disappears, because I put her on high heels then the problem is not at the lumbo-pelvic hip complex it's at the tighter ankle. Basically what's happening there is go ahead and back off, this would be the equivalent of let's say she has a tight right ankle maybe she sprained her right ankle a year ago, if she can't dorsiflex on this side right she's going to squat down, not be able to go any further, and she's either going to collapse this way to try to get down, or she's going to collapse away from just like that rotate that way, either one's going to cause an asymmetrical weight shift. You could try to correct at her lumbo-pelvic hip complex all day, and if it's coming from here it will not get better. So once again I have her on high heels, hands up if her asymmetrical weight shift disappears it's coming from lower leg. What if it doesn't disappear, well now I'm down to two options; is it coming from upper body or is it coming from lumbo-pelvic hip complex. Let's say here she still did it, so we're weight shift right right towards me good and now all that's that's still there. Alright so let's try arms down and now the asymmetrical weight shift disappears, well then I know where the problem is, the problem is on whatever side is more dysfunctional in her upper body, and I'm going to address that side and that side only in my corrective strategy. Now i have to admit of all of the possibilities i'm talking about here, upper body dysfunction contributing to lumbo-pelvic hip complex asymmetry is fairly rare, but it does happen. Now if i've taken her ankle out of it and i've taken her upper body out of it, she squats and she still has an asymmetrical weight shift, that's an asymmetrical weight shift coming from the lumbo-pelvic hip complex. Alright and actually I kind of keyed into how you solve this problem a few minutes ago. Notice very carefully how this is actually bowing in this knee, and this is bowing out, there is the solution. Right in that sign is the key to how you get somebody out of this asymmetrical pattern. Alright so thank you Melissa, much appreciated. Let's go to our graphs and talk about what this ends up looking like. Number one, if it came from the lower leg you're going to go back to the lower leg dysfunction video, use the lower leg dysfunction solution which you guys can get from my website brentbrookbush.com at the overhead squat assessment under the assessments category. Or you could go to lower leg dysfunction under postural dysfunctions and movement impairment. If it came from upper body same thing you're only going to fix the one upper side, upper body dysfunction, and again you can find the upper body dysfunction article under postural dysfunction of movement impairment, or you can go to the solution tables under overhead squat assessment. If it just so happens that it is coming from the lumbo-pelvic hip complex here's the solution. What you end up having is knee bow in on one side, knee bow out on the other. So the knee bow in side i'm going to go after all of my femoral internal rotators-  TFL, gluteus minimus, adductors, short head of the biceps femoris, alright that's femoral internal rotation via relative tibial external rotation; and then on the knee bows out side I'm going to do external rotators those overactive synergists piriformis, adductor Magnus is an external rotator, and biceps femoris long head. And then from an activation standpoint I'm going to go after my glute max and my glute medius on the side of the shift. So once I've released and stretched these overactive muscles, or released and lengthen these overactive muscles, I'm going to activate the glute on this side to help push me back to centre, be careful though you want to start here, make sure you clean this up. I find more often than not as soon as I clean this up all of a sudden out of nowhere that next layer of the onion is one of their feet flattens. A very common occurrence is we have this thing going on and I end up having to fix the internal rotation of this femur, and foot flat on that side, so foot flat was over activity of the everters and under activity of the inverters. So you just go back to your solutions table, fix this side for lower leg dysfunction, fix this side for knee bows in dysfunction. If you got that far and for whatever reason you still didn't fix this dysfunction, there is a dysfunction within this dysfunction that's fairly common which is sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Most often these individuals need some sort of mobilization for either the lumbar spine or sacrum, which means my personal trainers you're going to have to refer out and this is not a bad thing, this is an opportunity for you to create a connection with somebody who could be referring back to you right, they might need some sort of manual mobilization or manual manipulation. Alright for all of my PT's and ATC's my DC's, if this is the muscular model you guys are the ones that if you see an asymmetrical weight shift are going to need to go into those further assessments for the sacrum, further assessments for the lumbar spine, and probably further assessments for the hip, as well to see what sort of arthrokinematic dysfunction exists within this. I know this is a little complicated guys, I hope you start figuring out how it's actually one asymmetrical compensation pattern. So like lower leg dysfunction on one side, or really just lumbo-pelvic hip complex dysfunction on one side, contributing to this asymmetry, and the muddied water start to clear. If you practice this I think you will actually find that it is not a more complicated dysfunction than any other dysfunction we've been over, it just happens to have that weird thing that somehow we all mess up, which is right and left. We can all memorize our origins and insertions and all of these muscles and learn all these great techniques, but then you throw right and left into it like Melissa had right sided asymmetrical weight shift, so that would be right side knee bows in, she'd do release and stretch here, left side knees bow out she'd do here, and then she'd only do glute max and glute meius on the right side, and somehow just because I said right left that made this graph more complicated, Take your time, take a second practice it. Grab a few people who maybe are your colleagues that you have seen with a little bit of asymmetrical weight shift, try to solve for it and get some practice before you throw it at a client or patient. I look forward to hearing about your outcomes guys. I think you guys will have great success with this, and those of you those people who have asymmetry that you do correct, you're going to watch their performance go through the roof. I look forward to talking to you guys soon. 

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An explanation of common groupings of movement compensation signs ("clusters") in the overhead squat assessment (OHSA) and OHSA w/ modification. Solutions tables for lower leg, upper body, lumbopelvic hip complex, posterior pelvic tilt (posterior pelvis), and sacroiliac joint dysfunction (including asymmetrical weight shift). A breakdown of related joint actions and the overactive and underactive muscles.

Overhead Squat Assessment: Sign Clusters and Compensation Patterns

Interpreting Results (Differential Reasoning)

 is likely driven by an inability to adequately dorsiflex, and the resulting compensation pattern being an adaptation to achieve functional range "around" this limitation. Adding a heel rise, places the ankle in relative plantar flexion to begin the assessment. This increases the amount of available dorsiflexion range of motion during the OHSA. By removing this potential restriction from the OHSA, the ankle is "removed" from the assessment.

 noted during the OHSA is not present during the OHSA with Heel Rise, 

 we may assume that dysfunction originates at the ankle and 

 (Correct by addressing the side exhibiting more 

 noted during the OHSA is still present during the OHSA with Heel Rise, 

 we may assume that the dysfunction originates from the 

 noted during the OHSA improves, but is still present during the OHSA with Heel Rise, 

 we may assume that the dysfunction originates from both 

 dysfunction (Correct by addressing both the side exhibiting more 

Arms Down (Hands on Hips) Rationale: If the 

 is short/over-active it may contribute to an 

Excessive lordosis (Anterior pelvic tilt)

 over-activity may originate from either dysfunction. By placing the hands on the hips (

 are placed in a "shortened" position that reduces their capacity to contribute to the OHSA and the observed dysfunction.

 is present during the OHSA, but not present during the OHSA with Arms Down, 

 we may assume that dysfunction originates from 

 is present during the OHSA, and still present during the OHSA with Arms Down, 

 is present during the OHSA and improves but is still present during the OHSA with Arms Down, 

 we may assume that dysfunction originates from both 

 (Correct by addressing both the side exhibiting more 

Note: It has been our clinical experience that although it is possible that unilateral 

Overhead Squat Assessment 15 - Sign Clusters: Asymmetrical Weight Shift

Overhead Squat Assessment 16 - Sign Clusters: Posterior Pelvic Tilt ("Butt Wink") and Inadequate Forward Lean Breakdown

Overhead Squat Assessment 14 - Sign Clusters: Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Dysfunction

Overhead Squat Assessment 13 - Sign Clusters: Upper Body Dysfunction

Overhead Squat Assessment 12 - Sign Clusters: Lower Leg Dysfunction

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