Injuries happen. When they happen we blame the activity at hand and quote Roger Murtaugh saying something lame like “I’m getting too old for this…..” In reality age has a lot less to do with our injury than the fact we didn’t do anything to prevent it. During my short history in law enforcement I’ve seen more cops get sidelined for shoulder injuries than anything else. Know anyone that has trashed their shoulder recently? Ask them what they were doing to prevent it. I’m betting the answer is a blank stare.

Your crappy shoulder mobility is a ticking time bomb. It’s way past time to start working on some shoulder maintenance strategies. The implications of your junky shoulders go well beyond the obvious torn rotator cuff or dislocation injuries that come to mind when you think shoulder problems. Even if you don’t outright injure your shoulder it’s responsible for pain in more places than you think.

Do you have neck pain? Fix the shoulder.

Do you have back pain? Fix the shoulder.

Want to prevent pectoral tears? Fix the shoulder.

What about your elbow problems? Big surprise, fix the shoulder.

The list just keeps going.

If left unchecked sitting in a squad car in uniform all day will trash your shoulder mobility (Are you starting to notice a common theme with my writing here?). Spending year after year in a squad car with your shoulders in midrange flexion and anterior translation (shoulder sitting in the front of the socket) is a massive maladaptive positional load to overcome. It quickly becomes your default position which is not where you want it to be if you’re trying to be powerful and injury free.

By the way if you’re a big into bench and biceps curls there’s a really good chance your show muscle has you locked in some crappy positions and the timer is ticking faster. Don’t get me wrong I like getting a sweet pump from a good chest and arms session too, and nothing is specifically wrong with either exercise, but too much focus on both really shortens the pecs and biceps and will age your body faster than chain smoking in tanning booth.

 Your shoulder is an officer safety issue.

Almost all of us know a cop that jacked up their shoulder while scrapping with a suspect at work. Chances are they fought through the pain won the fight and got the arrest. They dealt with the pain for a few days, weeks or months before finally getting it checked out and ended up under the surgeon’s knife and off the schedule. Despite our best efforts to be safe the same thing happens during training. Think about the last time you practiced handcuffing at defensive tactics. How many guys took it way too easy or avoided being the suspect because of their shoulder? What about working on joint locks? Have you ever worked on an Americana or Kimura at ¼ speed and the guy playing suspect is tapping before it’s locked in? Yeah we’ve got serious problems if we can’t drill important skills at speed and be safe about it. These techniques can be effective but need to be trained often and sometimes at full intensity. Practicing them puts a stress on our bodies and too many of our compromised shoulders can’t handle it.  If the training is not safe or effective then what’s the point? Ask your departments’ workman’s compensation provider how they feel about you drilling some ground fighting skills. I’m willing to bet they prefer you do something else because with little doubt they will be paying out for something.

I wish I could tell you that I had a quick fix for this problem, but it’s going to take some work. Step 1: Keep working on thoracic spine extension. Step 2: You have to pay attention to your shoulder position at work: retract the shoulder blades just a little bit and keep the shoulders back. When you see yourself defaulting to a hunched over shoulder forward position slap yourself of the wrist and make a better decision. Step 3: Start building some shoulder maintenance into your life.

Introducing the MAWAP™ ® © <———My idea, you can’t have it, but I’ll let you use it…. For a nominal fee.

Crossfit may be the king of popularizing the use of acronyms in the fitness world. They got WOD- Workout Of the Day, AMRAP- As Many Rounds As Possible, EMOM- Every Minute On the Minute. Here’s one they missed MAWAP- Move As Well As Possible. This is a workout that has very little to do with rep volume and how many rounds you perform. Frankly it’s the anti-AMRAP. The purpose is to work in as much time under tension in various positions as you possibly can while moving. Going slow makes it harder and more effective.

 

One of the many knowledge bombs I picked up from Pavel Tsatsouline’s book Kettlebell Simple and Sinister comes from the section about the benefits of preforming the Turkish getup slowly. Pavel uses the example of martial artists preforming katas real slow to expose flaws in form and balance that would otherwise be rushed past and unnoticed. After perfecting movements at slower speeds the accuracy and quality of movement at full speed is impressive.

What we’re shooting for is mastery of shoulder positions but I’ll happily take simple competency for now.  I can’t stress this point enough. Slow it down. I guarantee if you do you will find out why less is more.

The proposed version of workout is a half hour long and should give you plenty of time under tension in these positions to not only mobilize the shoulder but give you a pretty solid workout even if you only do one round. In fact if you are moving the entire time and you only do one round you can consider yourself a beast.

If your shoulder is a ticking time bomb consider this the bomb squad.

We’re going to utilize variations of the animal movements you haven’t done since elementary physical education in combination with some loaded pushes and carries alternating movements in a down and back fashion. The goal is to work on mobility and stability in as many shoulder positions as possible. 30 min MAWAP.

A quick aside about the animal movements and P.E. I’ve only practiced these movements once since school and that was training for a GORUCK. Even being involved in fitness most

of my life the benefit of these movements never dawned on me as anything other than a method of fitness torture until recently in a moment of satori that was like Daniel LaRusso figuring out that wax on/wax off was actually allegory for deflecting an attack. It turns out these movements are just ways of challenging full expression of shoulder mobility under body weight load. Those tricky gym teachers are smarter than you think.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The movements

Push– For this I used my trusty Westside butcher sled. If you don’t have some sort of push sled then use a vehicle with training partner behind the wheel, or just push the training partner if you have one heavy enough to create enough resistance. Whatever the load is, make sure it’s enough to make you grind a little and move slow. Depending on your forward lean and torso position this can be analogous to the press (vertical torso) or overhead position (forward lean).

 

Bear Crawl– I like the knee-less bear crawl because it really gets after end range of shoulder flexion. Think about hitting your best possible downward dog and move. Take slow small steps across the yard using the pattern hand, hand, foot, foot. Focus on how this reaching overhead while keeping the shoulder stable in external rotation (get the creases of the elbows pointing toward your fingers) and did I mention to move slowly?

 

Crab walk– This is the arguably the most beneficial movement of the workout. Shoulder extension (arm behind the body) is the key here. If you can, take the kink out of the hips Squeeze the butt and get yourself in a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Open the chest and feel the stretch in the biceps. The goal here is a little closer to the yoga position of tabletop than what you remember crab being. Call it walking table top if you want I don’t care. Take your time and do the best you can. A lot of cops are going to be missing shoulder extension so scale this to be as safe as you can.

If your hips need to drop, let them drop take a few steps and press back up into table top. Ideally you will have fingers pointing toward your feet. This stabilizes the shoulder with internal rotation. If you’re missing that you can let the hands turn out a little but keep working on it.

 

 Ape walk–  Bend over, touch your hands to the ground, then drop your hips all the way down and try to posture your torso up until the weight is about 80% on the feet 20% on the hands. The shoulders are going to reach forward a little here. Suck the shoulder in and keep the lats turned on to keep it stable. It seems to work best if you keep the pattern foot, hand, hand, foot.

 

Sandbag bear-hug walk – After I get the bag into position I prefer to grab the bag with closed fists and focus on pulling the weight into my body with the shoulders. You have a couple options with bag position:  1) you can keep it vertical and hug the bag with your arms in the center or 2) start to challenge yourself with a horizontal bag and use over-the-top grasp. If you have to start bending your legs to support the weight from underneath, you either need a lighter weight or a stronger grip position.

 

Farmer walk– Few things hammer posture and rotator cuff stability better than a farmer walk. Pull your shoulders back just slightly and grab the weight just a little off center to the back so it tips forward a few inches. Flex your triceps and you’ll get a fantastic stretch in the biceps to undo some of those preacher curls while you’re at it. I’m fortunate enough to have some farmer walk handles but a couple of big dumbbells or kettlebells will work just fine.

 

Overhead walk– Pure stabilization of flexion and external rotation here kids. If you don’t have a good overhead position then this may not be for you for a while. If you can’t do two weights overhead try one sided overhead walks. If you want to make it harder do a one side overhead in combination with a heavy farmer carry in the other hand.

Putting it together

On the experimental trial I did 30 minutes of this in the back yard which is about 50’ fence to fence.

Prowler push down, Bear Crawl back

Farmer Carry down, Crab Walk Back

Ape walk down, sandbag bear-hug walk back

Overhead walk down start over with prowler push and repeat until the timer says stop.

And that’s pretty much it. The day after doing this my shoulders felt strong so I gave it a try and crushed a personal best on a strict kettlebell shoulder press. Maybe that was coincidence but probably not.

You can modify according to the implements you have and your ability to get into any of the shapes. I’ll only judge you a tiny bit if you don’t have a bag of sand, kettlebells, a prowler and some farmers walk handles available in your garage or gym. Experiment with it and try new movements.

 Q: Should you do the animal moves forward or backward?

A: Yes and maybe even laterally or not at all if necessary.

 You’ll reap benefit from variety here. I’ll use the crab walk to explain why. When crab walking feet first you see that you load the shoulder in less extension and use the movement of your body to bias it into more extension. If you move head first you’ll see that you have to use active shoulder extension to move your arm back and stabilize before receiving the load of your bodyweight. If you want to go laterally you can apply the same ideas to some horizontal abduction and adduction. Even vary which hand or foot you lead off with will make a subtle difference as you grind this one out.

If you find that you absolutely cannot get into a shape and move then get in the best version you can and perform a static hold. When you’ve had enough, walk down and move on to the next movement. Take your time and do it right. What happens when the bomb squad goes fast and screws up? BOOM!

If you fear this workout is beyond your physical ability just alternate some downward dog and Crab/table top static holds for about 10 minutes a couple of times a week to get started. Work them into walks and start adding everything else.

 

 

 Final thoughts 

This thing is great for the shoulders but I can’t ignore the other pieces this workout hits. This post is getting long so here are the bullet points of some of the other benefits.

• Spending time with your hands on the ground hits wrist flexibility.
• The various forms of crawling challenge hip and ankle mobility and motor control.
• The farmers carry works on grip strength and posture mechanics.
• The sandbag bear hug walk challenges posture and breathing mechanics.
• Pretty much everything can be used to challenge reflexive trunk stability.

It’s time to start reintroducing full range of motion to your shoulders. Take your time and whatever you do don’t force or rush any part of it. Your body can take months to adapt, and you’ve got a ways to go. Keeping that in mind this is not a one and done experiment. Work it in about once a week or so for a few months and defuse that bomb. You’ll be stronger, able to trainer harder and safer for your efforts.

 

We have all done it. We pull the steering wheel with our left hand, press off the passenger seat with the right and twist… twist…. twist until pop. Sweet sweet release in the low back. The action itself may not be bad. I’ve heard it argued both ways: 1) you will die a slow and painful death by degenerating the joint, and 2) the contrary being that it’s probably not a big deal as long as it’s not super habitual, which might result in some damage to the joint capsule.

What happens when you “pop” a joint?

The gist of what my simple brain can understand is this

• Your joint has a capsule full of fluid and gas.
• When you pop a joint you are releasing the gas, which is the audible noise you hear.
• Also during the popping you have a release of endorphins that provides a near instant mechanism for localized pain relief —part of the reason popping your back feels so good.
• The other reason it feels good is that it’s believed the pop stimulates the golgi tendon (which is a nerve bundle that helps regulate the tension of a muscle) and the nearby muscles relax a little.

So what’s the big deal?

Studies on habitual joint popping which focus on degeneration on the joint don’t outright prove its a a problem. Here’s my real issue with it: Gray Cook, a really smart physical therapist and strength coach, drives home the point time and time again that if you do something to change position and movement you have to challenge it so the body will learn to be stable in new positions and ranges of motion. It’s like hitting save on the word document. If you make adjustments or change to your body your next position and the load on that position are really important. As mentioned above, when you do the twisty back cracky thing you stimulate the golgi tendon and trigger a release in muscle tension which opens up some new range of motion.

Sooooo…. what is your next position? Probably more sitting in the car hanging the end ranges of your soft tissues and bony structure in a crappy position.

What is your low back not doing while sitting in a squad car in uniform? Stabilizing in good position.

What are you reinforcing?

Absolute best case scenario that I can see (Which by the way I don’t think is the case); you’re doing nothing. You’re just doing it again in every 20 minutes because it does feel good and you’re chasing the high (You freaking junkie).

More than likely You pop your back, and you prime the region for input for input and learning. Now you’re further normalizing sitting in the car in a crappy position.

Furthermore, while we know positional load is important for shaping our bodies, we also know that repetition is a good teacher as well. If you’re cracking your back in your car all the time you’ll probably gain some rotational capacity. This might at first glance seem okay until you consider that you can’t do this well both ways. Next thing you know you’re making confessions to your shift partner like Derek Zoolander and you have asymmetrical rotation that happens to be unstable which can be a powerful combination for injury.

 

I know I’m getting long winded here but let me add in one more knowledge bomb from Gray from his thinking on the joint by joint approach

The lumbar and sacral region has a tendency toward sloppiness and therefore could benefit from greater amounts of stability and motor control. This region sits at the crossroads of mechanical stress, and lack of motor control is often replaced with generalized stiffness as a survival strategy.

Do you see where I’m going here? There’s a pretty good chance you’re setting up for catastrophe. While the joint popping itself might not be so bad, it’s easy to see how you were setup for that back injury you got scrapping with the drunk on the side of the road. The good news is that your body is pretty good at trying to avoid catastrophic injury. If you’re lucky you end up with a little back tweak while picking your kid up that only puts your back on lock down for a few days so you learn to make a better decision. By the way, when it’s half healed you know what feels really good? Doing the twisty back cracky thing in the car.

While we’re on this path of thinking.

A chiropractor or physical therapist they should be using the same principle of reinforcing change. If they don’t it’s kind of like getting home from the grocery store and pitching half of your groceries immediately into the garbage. Have you ever gotten adjusted and feel great until you get back in the car and drive home? All of a sudden it’s not as quite as good as when you left the office or even like you never went? … Weird (This is also due in part to the endorphins wearing off).  A lot of practitioners skip this step because let’s face it time is money and that back cracking degree wasn’t free. The dirty little secret that they don’t tell prospective practitioners before they take out student loans is that paying them off with insurance company’s reimbursement rates isn’t as easy as they think. Don’t get me wrong they can still make positive improvement with adjustments but the guys that take the extra step seem to see me fewer times for whatever issue I have.

It turns out that a good physical therapy or chiropractic session might look something like a solid yoga session.

First you make a change (stretching). Then you challenge position within the new range of motion (static and balancing postures). Rinse and repeat. Finish up by taking a little time with deep diaphragmatic breathing in a good posture. Usually standing tall (mountain pose /Tadasana) lying down (corpse pose /Savasana) or some variation of sitting cross-legged (easy pose /sukhasana or lotus Padmasana).

 Note: This isn’t necessary a universal principal in all yoga practices, but I see it a lot. I really don’t think the similarities are a fluke.

If you like your back cracking professional but they skip this step, that’s fine. Just be aware of the issue and take some ownership of your body. It’s not rocket surgery. Get yourself into a good position, and find a way to challenge it. A good hard style plank, a Cook hip lift or two and maybe loaded carry will work great. At a minimum practice some neutral spine bracing and diaphragmatic breathing while you walk around for a few minutes. Whatever you do don’t just go directly to your car and sit in a compromised position for the next half hour while you drive home. If you can walk to and from your appointment do that too. You can do great things with a little bit of knowledge and a pinch of effort.

That’s just my basic understanding. It’s also easy to go much more in depth with these ideas and build some really good ways to hit save on your movement practice.  Gray Cook is better at that than me so I’ll let his video give you a good example.

 

Final thoughts.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a blog post about not cracking your back in the squad car then go sit in a squad car and not crack your back? Probably about as hard as reading the same post and not go crack your back in the squad car. As a way to combat the urge try this for a nifty low back massage from the inside out.

NOTE: Don’t do this if you have a known hart condition.

1. Sit as upright as you can. (Think sit tall).
2. Exhale all the air that you can. When you think your out start making the “SSS” sound to get the last little bit out. You should feel your abs get tight your rib cage tilt down during this which helps align your diaphragm and pelvic bowl.
3. Keep your belly tight and breath in and out into your gut. Try to keep your belly firm and in place so your breath pushes into your low back.
4. Just hang out and try this for a few minutes.

AAAAANNNNNDDDD you’re welcome. Ironically enough the first time I did this I got an amazing clunk deep in my sacraliliac joint. It wasn’t the same as the air bubble pop. It was more like something slipping back into place and my hips felt great the rest of the night. If you get that you’re double welcome.