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Shoulder Internal Rotator (Subscapularis) Isolated Activation

This video shows a simple and effective exercise for isolated activation of the shoulder subscapularis for improved stability in athletes and other active individuals. Learn how to increase rotational strength and stability for optimal performance.

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Transcript

00:04 - 00:06This is Brent president of the Brookbush Institute bringing
00:06 - 00:08you guys a technique that you may not
00:08 - 00:10use as often as some of the other
00:10 - 00:11techniques we've demonstrated in
00:11 - 00:13previous videos, and that's because we're
00:13 - 00:15going to demonstrate internal rotator
00:15 - 00:18activation. Now why you wouldn't use
00:18 - 00:19internal rotator activation is because
00:19 - 00:20most individuals have a propensity
00:20 - 00:23towards excessive glenohumeral or
00:23 - 00:25shoulder internal rotation during both
00:25 - 00:28static and dynamic postures, however
00:28 - 00:30there is also a group of individuals who
00:30 - 00:33are affected by shoulder hypermobility
00:33 - 00:37or glenohumeral laxity. Now
00:37 - 00:39in those individuals we have a
00:39 - 00:42propensity towards excessive anterior
00:42 - 00:46glide, and now we see where the
00:46 - 00:49subscapularis lying in front of the
00:49 - 00:52humerus, if it increases in activity may
00:52 - 00:57actually have a good fiber arrangement
00:57 - 01:01to help block excessive anterior glide.
01:01 - 01:02So I'm going to have my friend Melissa
01:02 - 01:04come out, she's going to help me
01:04 - 01:06demonstrate this exercise that actually
01:06 - 01:08took me quite a while to come up with
01:08 - 01:11because we have this problem when we try
01:11 - 01:13to do internal rotator activation. I'm
01:13 - 01:15sure some of you have seen internal
01:15 - 01:17rotator activation this way which is a
01:17 - 01:19good general idea it is internal
01:19 - 01:23rotation, other than we have two or three
01:23 - 01:27larger internal
01:27 - 01:30rotators being our pectoralis major,
01:30 - 01:33latissimus dorsi and teres
01:33 - 01:36major. So now the question becomes well
01:36 - 01:39how do I target my subscapularis because
01:39 - 01:41chances are my pectoralis major, my
01:41 - 01:43latissimus dorsi and my teres major
01:43 - 01:46aren't going to help me with this
01:46 - 01:49anterior shoulder laxity. So Melissa I'm
01:49 - 01:53going to have you take the band and do
01:53 - 01:56this, so it's across your back and
01:56 - 01:58you're going to put it right underneath
01:58 - 02:00the border of your deltoid so that it's
02:00 - 02:04literally wrapped around you.
02:04 - 02:06Alright so as she does that I know some of
02:06 - 02:09you guys are already thinking well he
02:09 - 02:12said he wants to hit the subscapularis and we basically
02:12 - 02:15have pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi
02:15 - 02:17that I need to reciprocally inhibit,
02:17 - 02:18If you are thinking toward some of
02:18 - 02:20the other activation videos we did. And
02:20 - 02:22pectoralis major I could
02:22 - 02:25probably reciprocally inhibit using
02:25 - 02:28horizontal abduction, and then my
02:28 - 02:30latissimus dorsi I probably can inhibit
02:30 - 02:33using flexion. So what would it look like
02:33 - 02:36to do horizontal abduction, flexion and
02:36 - 02:38internal rotation all at the same time,
02:38 - 02:41and how do I resist that. Now you know
02:41 - 02:42why this took me a few months to come up
02:42 - 02:44with. What you're going to
02:44 - 02:45do Melissa is go ahead and lie on your
02:45 - 02:50side. Now since the band is wrapped
02:50 - 02:53around her back
02:53 - 02:56I already have internal rotation
02:56 - 02:59resisted on this bottom arm. Just if
02:59 - 03:01she goes, so just take this out away for
03:01 - 03:05a second. If she goes like this, the band
03:05 - 03:08gets stretched around her arm, that'll
03:08 - 03:11resist my internal rotation. Now to
03:11 - 03:13inhibit my pectoralis major with
03:13 - 03:16horizontal abduction all I have to do
03:16 - 03:19is cue Melissa to take the shoulder and
03:19 - 03:22press it back into the wall. So we're
03:22 - 03:24using a plyo box just for video purposes, but
03:24 - 03:25you could just do this against
03:25 - 03:30any blank wall. Now to get the latissimus
03:30 - 03:33dorsi out I'm going to go ahead and use
03:33 - 03:34a little shoulder flexion, and the way
03:34 - 03:36I'm going to do that is i'm going to
03:36 - 03:38have Melissa take this hand and put it
03:38 - 03:41on top of the bicep. Alright so now she's
03:41 - 03:43she's getting pretty close to to what's
03:43 - 03:45going to end up being this kind of cross
03:45 - 03:47arm pose which is our goal. The only
03:47 - 03:49difference is I'm going to actually have
03:49 - 03:50her kind of cue this chicken wing
03:50 - 03:52maneuver where I have her think about
03:52 - 03:56going elbow up and hand down so that our
03:56 - 03:59hand just passes this elbow. So she's kind
03:59 - 04:01of grinding her elbow into the turf here
04:01 - 04:04going this way, while bringing her hand
04:04 - 04:09down this way, good and back up. So she
04:09 - 04:12started with her elbow kind of low, you
04:12 - 04:14guys don't have to be at 90 degrees of
04:14 - 04:16flexion necessarily. It may be more
04:16 - 04:17comfortable for somebody
04:17 - 04:19to come down to like 45 degrees of
04:19 - 04:22flexion, if she wanted to she could
04:22 - 04:28definitely go higher. Lets see can
04:28 - 04:32you go all the way up. Let's try this,
04:33 - 04:37how does that feel? A little tougher up there
04:37 - 04:39which you'll find unfortunately is
04:39 - 04:41although it's tougher to do it 90
04:41 - 04:43degrees of flexion, some individuals who
04:43 - 04:45have some shoulder pain already, they're
04:45 - 04:47already showing symptoms of inflammation,
04:47 - 04:51they may not like doing internal
04:51 - 04:53rotation at 90 degrees it just doesn't
04:53 - 04:57feel comfortable for them. Alright you
04:57 - 04:59just have them like I said keep trying to
04:59 - 05:02get this hand past this elbow. If you
05:02 - 05:04know how much internal rotation
05:04 - 05:06somebody is supposed to have in this
05:06 - 05:08position it should be between 50 and 70
05:08 - 05:11degrees, they should actually be able to
05:11 - 05:13get their fingertips
05:13 - 05:16pretty close to the floor, assuming
05:16 - 05:17they're going to do a little wrist
05:17 - 05:19flexion too. We can see Melissa is
05:19 - 05:21missing a few degrees there. Under
05:21 - 05:23normal circumstances we would have done
05:23 - 05:26some mobility techniques first. Alright Melissa
05:26 - 05:27do you want to try the other side see
05:27 - 05:30if you can get set up on your own. Good
05:30 - 05:32thing to work through with people is
05:32 - 05:34usually I'll show them one side and then
05:34 - 05:35I'll see how far they can get on their
05:35 - 05:37own without any cueing to set up the
05:37 - 05:40other side, just to make sure they're
05:40 - 05:41going to be able to do this in a home
05:41 - 05:46exercise program without my supervision.
05:47 - 05:49Make sure you're leaning back into the
05:49 - 06:00wall, there i go cueing again. Alright
06:05 - 06:08good how does that feel. A lot of people
06:08 - 06:10won't feel much, if they do feel
06:10 - 06:12something they might feel it deep in
06:12 - 06:13their armpit. If they start feeling a
06:13 - 06:15burn in their pectoralis major you know
06:15 - 06:16you're going to have to work a little
06:16 - 06:18harder to try to get them to inhibit
06:18 - 06:21their pectoralis major, and that might be
06:21 - 06:23leaning back into the wall a little bit
06:23 - 06:26harder, or messing around with how much
06:26 - 06:28flexion they had in the arm that they're
06:28 - 06:31working. From an assessment standpoint
06:31 - 06:32guys you're probably going to see
06:32 - 06:35something like excessive external
06:35 - 06:37rotation, maybe a hundred degrees of
06:37 - 06:40external rotation before implementing
06:40 - 06:44this technique; and oddly when compared
06:44 - 06:47to some of our other case studies that
06:47 - 06:50you might have gone through before, we're
06:50 - 06:52actually looking for a decrease in
06:52 - 06:55mobility after this technique has been
06:55 - 06:59performed like I said if we're using it
06:59 - 07:01for anterior shoulder laxity. Now I know
07:01 - 07:02some of you guys are going to use this
07:02 - 07:05potentially for individuals who have a
07:05 - 07:07decreased internal rotation range of
07:07 - 07:10motion which is okay. I might not use it
07:10 - 07:12for that based on some of the
07:12 - 07:14arthrokinematic dysfunction that's happening
07:14 - 07:15around that, but if that were the case
07:15 - 07:17then you would use internal rotation
07:17 - 07:20goniometry and actually expect an
07:20 - 07:23increase in internal rotation range of
07:23 - 07:26motion after doing this technique. So
07:26 - 07:29there you guys have it we have monster
07:29 - 07:31band resisted internal rotation,
07:31 - 07:34resistance is coming from the band being
07:34 - 07:37wrapped around their arm. So it's not
07:37 - 07:39like they're pulling on the band, the
07:39 - 07:41band is getting stretched around their
07:41 - 07:43arm as they're rotating inward. You're
07:43 - 07:46reciprocally inhibiting the
07:46 - 07:49pectoralis major through horizontal
07:49 - 07:51abduction, and you're resisting the
07:51 - 07:54latissimus dorsi be a little shoulder
07:54 - 07:58flexion. Ideal number of reps for all of
07:58 - 08:00our activation techniques is 12 to 20
08:00 - 08:02repetitions. Our tempo for something
08:02 - 08:04like this although I haven;t cued Melissa
08:04 - 08:06too harshly as you're just trying to get
08:06 - 08:08this set up, would be something like a
08:08 - 08:112-4-2, where I have her hold for four
08:11 - 08:12second at the bottom if I really want to
08:12 - 08:15work on that range of motion. Or a 4-2-2,
08:16 - 08:19where she would go through, hold and then
08:19 - 08:22back nice and slow working on eccentric
08:22 - 08:26control, and all we need is one, maybe two
08:26 - 08:29sets of these activation techniques
08:29 - 08:32before we start moving into our other
08:32 - 08:34more complicated resistance training
08:34 - 08:36based movement patterns. I look forward
08:36 - 08:38to hearing your questions and i hope you
08:38 - 08:40enjoyed this video, and enjoy using this
08:40 - 08:43exercise in your programs.

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