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- Welcome, my friends, to the Bob and Brad Podcast,
produced by Bob and Brad,
the two most famous physical therapists on the Internet.
I am Bob, exactly one half of the Bob and Brad team.
And today, my partner in crime is actually.
- Mike Kienitz, PT assistant.
- Right, no Brad,
but we're gonna talk about today,
we're gonna talk about with Ross Clifford.
He is the author of the book, Mike, wanna say it?
- "Build Your Own Bulletproof Body,"
all body weight exercises, core stretches,
and foam rolling, as well.
- You're gonna find this really interesting.
Here we go.
Welcome to the program, Ross Clifford.
So, I'm a big fan of the book,
"Build Your Own Bulletproof Body."
We'll have a link below.
We're actually gonna start a section now
on how to bulletproof your shoulders.
So, Mike, you wanna ask the first question?
- So we talked about the importance of shoulder blade
and ribcage as an important false joint.
Could you tell us why and what muscles
are attached to those regions?
- Okay, so it's often referred to
as a pseudo or a false joint like you say,
and this is basically that the articulation on the joint
between the ribcage and then the scapula
that sits on top of that.
So effectively, it's not a true joint
in that you don't get bone on bone
with, you know, the--
- Right.
- Both things you'd normally see in a joint.
- Call it shoulder blade by--
- Absolutely, again effectively a muscle sandwich.
So you get the ribcage and you get the scapula,
the shoulder blade,
and you get this muscle called the serratus anterius
sitting between it,
and then you also get some of the rotator cuff muscles,
you've got subscapularis
and then the major rotator cuff muscles on the back.
But more importantly,
you have these muscles called the rhomboids
and the trapezius,
which most people will be familiar with,
particularly the upper trapezius.
And then, there's a long, strap-like muscle,
called the levator scapula,
and it does exactly what it says on the label really,
it elevates the shoulder blade, the scapula.
And between the trapezius, the rhomboids,
and the levator scapula,
you tend to get a lot of imbalance.
So what that causes or what it's caused by
is sometimes that the shoulder tends to protract
or come forwards and slope.
And you can see even in this position here,
that places a lot of pull and tension on the muscles
that run from the shoulder to the neck.
So if you're sat there for a nine, 10 hour day at a desk
in that position, you can see--
- Yeah, problems.
- Some stretching going on there just thinking about it.
And yeah, exactly, yeah, I'm the same.
It just sort of,
it raises your awareness
that there's not balance there.
And that's really where I think
that the bulletproof body weight exercise movement
can help restore some of that balance
between those key muscles.
- Well, you maybe answered my next question.
So the goals of the body weight exercises
for the shoulder are?
- Yeah, to restore balance effectively,
so to try and get you to retract or pull back.
So there's a nice exercise which is the chest stretch,
which you just open up at the front.
There's some active exercises
to try and draw back the muscles of the back,
the rhomboids and the lower trapezius, as well.
There are exercises that target the latissimus dorsi,
you know, the big lats muscles,
as they're commonly referred to.
Because they have a little bit of contact
on the shoulder blade and then they come down
to the ribs, as well.
So we're really targeting the muscles
that need to be stretched at the front
and to be activated at the back,
sort of open up the chest.
- Gotcha.
- [Ross] And back, as well.
- So in trying to rehab a chronic shoulder issue,
do you often start by focusing on the false joint?
- Yes, absolutely, because
the analogy that I often use with my patients is
okay, you've come with what appears
to be a rotator cuff problem today.
- Right.
- We can do all the work in the world on this,
but if you walk away from this session
and you then let your shoulder drop
into that normal position, then--
- A bag of problems, yeah.
- It discounts everything that we've just done.
So the idea is, you know, you build your house
on solid foundations
and you do your shoulder work, your true shoulder work,
on the solid foundation
of a nicely positioned shoulder blade.
Now, what that true position is, we don't know.
But it's certainly isn't being held
in this forward position.
- Right.
- [Ross] For hours on end.
- It can lead to impingement, too, right?
- Absolutely, yeah.
And you know, there'll be a lot of therapists
who will work just on the impingement,
but you're wasting your time
unless you address the underlying cause,
which may be that there is this secondary postural issue
created at the shoulder blade, you know,
the shoulder girdle, as we sometimes call it, as well.
- So we're gonna go over five of your exercises.
We'll start with a chest stretch.
You talked about it before, right?
But could you please describe it
and give a little purpose of it.
- Yeah, sure.
So I think this is around page 38 in the book,
or thereabouts.
And it's a nice, easy stretch.
Effectively, what you're doing
is you're bringing your shoulder backwards,
you're bringing your arm backwards
just to open up the chest position.
So ultimately, you're stretching the pectoral muscles
and in particular we're trying to target
the pec minor muscle, as well as the pec major muscle,
just to see if we can bring that should blade
backwards and relieve some of the tension
on the front of the chest.
So there's a nice diagram in the book
with a simple description, as well,
and effectively just involves
bringing that arm and shoulder backwards
and maintaining that stretch.
- Right, and Mike's demonstrating the exercise
while we talk.
- Yeah, I'm gonna overlay some video image
so the viewers cab, the audio people are screwed,
but... (laughs)
- Yeah, that's right.
- (laughs) Yeah.
Well, I gave a great, hopefully,
audio description there, so I'll do my best.
- Could you talk about the shoulder stretch
you have on page 42 of your book
and the benefits of it?
- Oh, yeah.
So this is,
I mean, this is a game changer from my point of view
for anything that's shoulder-related,
that's the one, you've got it.
So,
I mean, I see a lot of patients,
particularly over the age of sort of 60,
and they probably haven't brought their arms
above their shoulders for two or three years at least
because, you know,
they may be not engaged in sports,
the most they probably do is take out a little bit
of washing or close their curtains.
But they're not readily operating at this.
So often, when it comes to them actively raising the arms,
they really struggle with it.
But if you look at that stretch,
that's a way of passively bringing the arms
and shoulders all the way through to elevation.
Well, the absolute beauty of that stretch
is that if you see from the book in the image,
it creates extension of the thoracic spine, as well.
So we talk about building a house
on a solid foundation,
so not only are you stretching the shoulder joints,
the glenohumeral joints, as it's technically known,
but you're smoothing out the curve
of the thoracic spine
and you're allowing the shoulder blade scapula
to sit in a much better position.
- Wonderful.
So again, we wanna emphasize,
you have a lot of exercises,
but we're only showing five.
- [Ross] Yeah, sure.
- How about the rotator cuff stretch?
- Yeah, so the rotator cuff stretch.
So in this one, actually uses a dowel or a rod
to create a little bit of passive stretch.
And effectively, what he's trying to do
is he's trying to rotate out the shoulder
and then rotate in the shoulder.
And actually, I do have an issue with this left shoulder
of mine.
And I have noticed that--
- Yeah, I see that.
- You know, I have got some discrepancy
on this left side.
So it's definitely something that we should all address
and again, it probably comes
because of a postural defect.
And then, that means that some of the rotator cuff muscles
are held in a shortened position
and others are elongated.
So that stretch in particular
is around using the dowel to create our internal
or external rotation of the shoulder
and just stretch out those tight rotator cuff muscles.
- Are you left-handed or right-handed? (laughs)
- I'm right-handed actually.
- [Bob] Oh wow, that's what I--
- But I'm a left leaner, you see.
- [Bob] There we go.
- [Ross] So yeah.
- Do you wanna talk about
how you do foam rolling of the scapula?
- Oh, so yeah.
So the idea here is that you get the foam roller
and you sort of lay back onto it,
placing as much stress as you feel comfortable to do
onto the foam roller.
The rest of the stress can be taken out
through the buttocks or through the legs,
you know, depending on your position.
And again, that's demonstrated in the book.
But the idea, then, is you can take as much stress
as you are comfortable
and you just roll backwards and forwards on your back
with the foam roller going sort of across the back,
sort of perpendicular to the spine.
And yeah, what a great way of ironing out the--
- Yeah, I do it every day.
- The lower traps and the rhomboids,
but also, again, getting that thoracic extension
and quite often, you'll get a little bit of pop
or a cavitation, you'll get it, hear a little click.
And that makes everybody feel great, doesn't it?
- [Bob] Right, love the sound.
- [Ross] Love the sound.
- Scapula push up.
- Yeah, so scapula push up,
we're getting more now to the nitty gritty of the book,
the finer details.
But this again is around how do we activate muscles
that are perhaps a little bit sleepy,
a little bit underused?
So the idea here is you bring yourself into what would be
regarded as a press up position,
so again, you know, you've got the plank,
you've got all the core muscles working.
And the idea here is you hold yourself
in that press up position,
but you just roll the shoulder blades
back and down slightly,
as if you're almost trying to draw them
into your back pockets of your jeans.
And the idea is then you
activate those lower trapezius muscles,
so yes, great little exercise.
Not everybody can do it,
it takes a lot of practice though.
- Do you have any other thoughts or tips
for bulletproofing your shoulders?
- Well,
my absolute favorite, and it's not for everybody,
it's the frog stance,
I think is the term we use in the book.
- Yeah, I tried that one, I couldn't do it. (laughs)
- (laughs) If you're gonna do it,
I would say that's sort of a level three exercise,
maybe a level two exercise.
And you have to build up.
But the thing about it is
you don't have to go directly to frog stance.
You can bring yourself into position,
still keeping your tip toes on the floor,
but just lean forwards through the shoulders
and get the shoulders used to taking some body weight.
And that's one of the key formats of the textbook
is that it often reverses what we do with the body.
So, we're not used to taking a lot of load
through the shoulders, but actually
that's probably part of our evolutionary makeup
is that we were load-bearing through the shoulders.
So you know, there's maybe a little bit of a function there.
And you know, look at a child playing.
They'll crawl.
And actually, I believe there's some evidence
that children and babies that don't crawl
tend to go on to have more shoulder issues.
So there's definitely that need, I think,
to develop that weight bearing through the shoulder.
But it's not for everybody
and if you are going to do it
and come up forward onto your hands,
have a cushion, or pillow, or something soft,
(hand slaps)
just in case you fall forward.
- In case you fall over, yeah.
Thank you for taking the time
to demonstrate, I mean, discuss all these exercises.
And again, you wanna mention the book, Mike?
- Do you have a website or anything
where people can reach you at?
- I'm...
- [Mike] Or a social media?
- I wanna say yes
but I don't know what it is.
Ashley would know, but...
- You'll find it in the description box below
if you just wanna email it to us.
- Right. (Mike laughs)
- We'll send you something post-production.
- There we go.
- That sounds good.
- All right, any final thoughts you want to give, Ross?
- I just wanna say thank you both for your time.
It's been a pleasure to talk to you both
and I really, really appreciate this platform
and this conversation we've had today,
so thank you very much.
- It's a terrific book, so I suggest everybody get one.
- Well thank you, you're very kind.
You've got one already.
What more could you ask for?
- That's right.
- We need two. (laughs).
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