Coaching The Body Principles and Shoulder Treatment First Priorities

Focus: we begin the topic of shoulder pain with a focus on the glenohumeral muscles, which include the rotator cuff group - the two most important of which are the subscapularis and infraspinatus. This pair is often a cause of significant shoulder pain. We have to address any significant pain coming from glenohumeral movement before we can correct scapular positioning. Otherwise, we won't be able to move the client's arm enough to properly treat the positioning muscles - trap, serratus anterior, pecs, and levator. Subscapularis is an issue in virtually every shoulder pain client. Subscap is a key and highly vulnerable muscle which tends to become shortened because of poor scapular positioning and its role as a medial rotator. This week's lesson will focus on subscap in depth. We discuss how we use the Muscle Liberator™ and other therapeutic percussion tools as an amazing accelerator for producing change in muscle tissues. Each week includes sections on using both bodywork techniques and the tool where appropriate.

• Coaching the Body Principles
• Subscapularis Anatomy
• Subscapularis Lecture - CTB Shoulder
• Subscapularis Demo - CTB Shoulder
• Treating the Subscapularis
• Lightning Fast Subscapularis Treatment Using the Muscle Liberator™

Detailed Infraspinatus Treatment and Integrating Internal and External Rotation

Focus: Having covered the subscapularis in week 1, we now move to its key antagonist, the infraspinatus. Subscap and infra are a key pair that must be treated in relationship to each other. These muscles are prominent in nearly anyone with shoulder pain. We visit subscap first in the protocol in supine position, but you often cannot fully treat subscap unless you resolve issues in the infra. Most shoulder treatments are likely to involved returning to subscap in supine position after the infraspinatus is treated in side position.

• Infraspinatus Anatomy
• Infraspinatus Palpation
• Infraspinatus CTB Lecture
• Infraspinatus CTB Lecture Part 2
• Treating the Infraspinatus
• Lightning Fast Infraspinatus Treatment Using the Muscle Liberator™

Detailed Treatment of the Primary Arm Abductors

Focus: Arm Abduction (Supraspinatus, Deltoid) In this week's lesson we cover the 2 arm abduction muscles: supraspinatus and deltoid. Like subscapularis and infraspinatus (covered in the 2 previous lessons), supraspinatus is a rotator cuff muscle. As such, its primary function is stabilizing the head of the humerus in the glenoid fossa. Its action is to abduct the arm. We have to understand both function and action for each muscle. Function is generally more relevant in establishing a muscle's contribution to pain. If troubled, the supraspinatus can refer pain whenever it's being called upon to stabilize the humerus, which is basically during any arm movement. It is particularly likely to cause issues during its primary action of abduction, and we have to pay close attention to the opposing adductor group of muscles which have likely become engaged to lock down movement.

• Deltoid and Supraspinatus Anatomy
• Supraspinatus Palpation
• Supraspinatus and Deltoid Lecture-CTB Shoulder
• Supraspinatus Treatment-CTB Shoulder
• Lightning Fast Supraspinatus/Deltoid Treatment Using the Muscle Liberator™

Detailed Treatment of the Primary Arm Abductors

Focus: Arm Adduction (Lat, Teres Major) Last week, we looked at the arm abductors (supraspinatus and deltoid), now we turn our attention to their antagonists, the principal arm adductors latissimus dorsi and teres major. The lat is a long, lax muscle that usually doesn't limit range of motion. However, the teres major is a short muscle that can strongly limit abduction. If the supraspinatus has trigger points and there is pain when it contracts to abduct the arm, the teres major is recruited to prevent the painful movement. In severe cases like frozen shoulder, teres major locks the arm against the person's side in adduction and medial rotation (as does the subscapularis).

• Latissimus Dorsi - Anatomy and Theory
• Teres Major - Anatomy and Theory
• Teres Major - Palpation (Supine)
• Lat and Teres Major - Palpation (Side position)
• Lat, Teres Major - Treatment (Side position)
• Lightning Fast Teres Major/Lat Treatment Using the Muscle Liberator™
• Glenohumeral Muscle Treatment Review - Side position

Treating Frozen Shoulder Using the Coaching the Body Approach

Frozen shoulder is a stressful experience for anyone. The term itself is only descriptive, and not a diagnosis as most people assume. The “frozen” aspect refers to an extreme limitation of pain-free movement, but this is in general not due to capsular adhesions, rather to trigger points in muscles. Mainstream medicine fails to provide any reasonable explanation of why this condition develops. Severe pain combined with disempowerment, and a lack of understanding is a formula for stress. The common worldview assumes that shoulder pain, and pain in general, originates in a tear or some other kind of injury that needs to be repaired. My own work has show me that this generally is untrue - I can help shoulder clients get out of pain very quickly, and they can learn to take control of their own health.

• Intro to Treating Frozen Shoulder with CTB
• The CTB Understanding of Pain
• Treating Frozen Shoulder: The CTB Approach

Complete Shoulder Coverage, Moving Into Other Body Areas

We will continue to delve deeply into shoulder pain for several more weeks, culminating in coverage of the full CTB Shoulder Protocol and Scapular Positioning Protocol. After that, we turn our attention to other important and common areas of pain complaints: knee pain, sciatica, low back, mid back, hip pain and much more. Given that this is a multi-year program, we have time to explore deeply each pain complaint. Students have opportunities to interact with instructors via a private Facebook group, course comments and live events.