What are you doing to improve?

     Is your training program helping or hurting you?  I don't have the answer for you...Just want you to think about a few things:

1. Do the exercises you choose meet you goals?  If your goal is to run a faster 5k or improve your golf game, ask yourself how the tricep extensions is going to help.
2. Is you ROM increasing, decreasing or remaining the same?  The goal of any training program should not be to move worse.  If you are no longer able to reach the top shelf of your pantry it may be time to rethink a few things.
3. Do specific exercises cause pain?  Pain can be caused by many things.  Your training should not be one of them.  If you live in pain due to training injuries, impingement, ect it would be wise to seek assistance.  

    In order to show how much I believe in this (especially #2 and #3),  I have recently taken on a project which is long overdue.  In doing this I had to accept the fact that something was wrong.  I had to set my ego aside a put a few things on hold.  This is by far one of the most difficult things I have done.  I mean no guy wants to admit his limitations or even worse...reverse all gains and start from scratch.
    I have to think it all started around 6-7 years ago.  To this day I have no idea what the initial cause was but looking back now...it never got corrected.  At the time I had experienced sharp pain in my right shoulder.  An MRI came up negative and the Orthopedic Surgeon referred me out to a local Physical Therapy group.  We spent many months going over exercises to help eliminate the "pain".  Never once did we look for the underlying problem.  Eventually the pain went away and I went back to my daily life.  I just assumed the limited mobility was normal and something I would have to live with.
    Let's move forward about 5 years to the point I was introduced to the FMS system.  I don't want to go into detail of FMS but I can tell you it opened my eyes!  The more I read and the more interaction I had with the system, the more I began to believe in it.  So about a month ago I decided to tackle my shoulder problem.  I vowed to put my goals on hold and stop pressing, or anything else that would undermine my improvement (let me tell...it feels like a lot).

Here is where I am so far.....

1. One month ago I was scoring a "1" and a "3" in my shoulder mobility screen.
2. Three weeks ago I had my first trigger point dry needle session.  For those of you wondering what this is...it's incredible.  It may be one of the most uncomfortable experiences out there but the results are amazing.  I am 3 sessions in and my mobility has increased 100%.
3. With all the recent dry needle sessions we have been able to increase my mobility.  This increase in mobility has revealed a greater scapula instability than previously suspected.  It seems that years of poor movement has allowed my upper traps to take over.  This in return has caused atrophy in my lower traps, allowing my scapulae to move.  The PT is thinking the unstable scapula is the cause of my frequent irritation to my rotator cuff.
4. All this requires daily shoulder mobility and stretching.  I then follow that with some stabilization work and isolated exercises to activate the lower trap.

     What exercises have I eliminated?  At this point anything and everything that causes my upper trap and rhomboids to fire first.  This includes all overhead movements, pull-ups and single arm swings.  As of the last time we checked, a 16kg kettlebell is still to heavy for single arm swings.  The plan is to re-check with a 12kg later in the week.
     So what does that leave me other than frustrated?  I was able to do pain free push-ups with good form the other day.  That's a good start!  Until then it's 2 hand swings, squats and corrective drills.

 At the end of the day it's not about how much did I do...it's about whether or not it made me better!  Thank you to those who have played a role in this so far...you know who you are. 

TO BE CONTINUED.......