Dr. Ben Boudreau: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Double Doc Talk. I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau.
Dr. Clayton Roach: And I’m Dr. Clayton Roach. Today we’re discussing shoulder exercises. But before we get into that, we just want to give everybody a brief overview of the shoulder and how many joints and muscles we’re looking at. So, the shoulder has four joints. We’re going to start with the scapula thoracic. So, your shoulder blade against your mid-spine is not a proper joint, but it provides movement as your arm moves around and shoulders move around. Then there’s the big glenohumeral joint.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: The most dynamic joint in the whole body. Many of you are familiar with the shoulder joint where your humerus sits into your scapula and creates that ball and socket.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Yes, exactly. There’s a hole, and there’s the ball, and then there’s your AC joint and SC joint formed by your clavicle. The collarbone attaches at this end to the acromion and this end to the sternum. So, we want to tell you that the SC joint, the one that attaches to your sternum, is the only joint that connects your arm to the shoulder. So, it’s an important joint.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Yes. And it is very dynamic as well, even though there isn’t a lot of mobility in and around your sternum, which is a very dynamic joint and can release and cohabitate as well.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Yes. So, continue with the rule of four for joints, muscles, rotator cuff muscles, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Teres Minor and the subscapularis, which creates the acronym SITS. So for those of you who are looking to remember that. Right, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and the subscapularis all form that shoulder joint.
Dr. Clayton Roach: How do you keep these muscles healthy, moving, and engaging? We’re going to go through three of those stretches today that are very useful. So we’re going to start with external rotation with 90 degrees of abduction. So I’m just going to sit over here. We’re going to use a tubing that you got to choose this tubing so that you’re able to go through these repetitions. We’re going to do ten, three times.
So if you have difficulty going through those exercises, the exercise band is probably too much for you. So we’re just going to unroll it, we’re going to hold it, and then you’re going to sit up nice and tall holding it down. And we’re bringing the arm through external rotation, and it’s an excellent controlled movement, and we’re doing this ten times, three times. So ten repetitions, three sets.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Exactly. And notice how his arm is lifted at the shoulder, 90 degrees, and he’s only rotating 90 degrees. He’s not going beyond that plane. Right? He’s not. And there’s not coming back.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Right. Keep the elbow and shoulder. Everything is stable, and only the forearm is moving.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: So we had mentioned roughly ten reps of that exercise, three sets and three times a day if you can, morning, mid-afternoon and evening to help with that shoulder strength.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Next, you will be on your side. So we’re going to use either your well, it’s hard to use the arm because you’re going to be using it, but you’re going to rest your head here—the same thing. You’re going to be holding this down.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Keeping the arm tucked in here
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Right next to your rib cage. That’s your rib cage.
Dr. Clayton Roach: And you’re going to rotate this way externally.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Now, again, it doesn’t matter how tight your band is. This is tough. It’s tough. And you’re just locking that arm in. And as long as that arm stays down, you will create a lot of tension. So you don’t need an intense band, a very tight band, to do this exercise. You could easily do this with a light band, and it’s just about control.
Dr. Clayton Roach: There is no expensive gym membership here, right?
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Just precisely. And as long as you keep this arm excellent and tucked in and you’re rotating through your elbow and shoulder, you should feel a nice squeeze at the back and that rotator cuff.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Absolutely. So here we’re doing ten, three times. So ten repetitions, three sets.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: That’s right. Three times a day. Morning, afternoon and evening.
Dr. Clayton Roach: We’re going to get rid of this. So we did an external rotation. Now we have to do an internal process. So you can explain maybe a lot of people have a decrease—in internal rotation.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: Yes, most people have decreased internal rotation. Many of us don’t have an increase in the internal process unless we’re baseball players throwing tremendous, and it requires a lot of internal rotation. And so a lot of us are lacking that. So this exercise is meant to help.
Dr. Clayton Roach: With that, more of a stretch. So you’re going to be laying down arms about 90 degrees. You’re going to take the unaffected side hand, and you’re going to push it down on your forearm or wrist. And I can feel that.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: And I bet you can feel it. You should feel it right in the back of your shoulder. And so if I go to the top arm here, you should feel it directly in the back. So just in underneath here, and now that’s a five-second hole. So you’re pushing down and holding this stretch for the capsule at the back for 5 seconds. And you’ll repeat that between three and five times a day to feel the lengthening through the back of that shoulder blade. Now, you can probably really feel that.
Dr. Clayton Roach: Yeah. And the shoulder is essential because it also ties into the neck. So the healthier the shoulder is, the healthier your neck will be and the happier you will be in terms of your quality of life. So any weakness, any pain. These are a great exercises to help you through that. It’s been another episode of Double Doc Talk with myself, Doctor Clayton Roach.
Dr. Ben Boudreau: And I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau, so make sure that you subscribe to us on YouTube to get more great conversations and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more great content. So thanks for tuning in again.
