Shoulder pain is preventable and treatable!
The Healthy Shoulder Program will help those suffering from shoulder pain treat the foundation of their pain by restoring your ability to function from neutral spine alignment. If you stand or sit in collapsed upper back posture and you have shoulder pain, we can help you get on a path for long-term injury management and prevention. Schedule a Posture Screen today to confirm our Healthy Shoulder Program perfectly matches your needs and goals.
What Causes Most Shoulder Pain?
Collapsed Upper Back Posture. Technology has us spending a majority of our day in collapsed upper back posture. Collapsed upper back posture (kyphosis) is the main culprit for chronic shoulder pain. It pulls the shoulder blade (scapulae) off its neutral position on the rib cage. The socked of the shoulder sits at the edge of the scapulae. Any faulty positioning of the scapulae can result in misalignment at the shoulder. Restoring healthy upper back posture and healthy shoulder mechanics takes 3 months and cost as little as $600.
Path to Chronic Neck Pain:
- Collapsed Upper Back Posture
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When your upper back collapses the shoulder blades forced off their neutral position on the rib cage.
This changes the position of the shoulder socket and sets you up for impingement.
2. Winged Shoulder Blade (scapulae)
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The muscles of that are designed to move and stabilize the scapulae against the rib cage now have to suspend it off the rib cage. They are not designed for this stress.
The humerus gets pulled anteriorly in the shoulder socket.
3. Joint Misalignment and Pain
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You can experience pain from any of the following sources;
- supraspinatus impingement
- trigger point of the levator scapulae
- rotator cuff tendonitis
Don’t let your shoulder pain turn into a medical diagnosis!
Winged Scapulae Shoulder Pain Cycle
Collapsed upper back posture caused forward head posture, forward head posture progressed into head tilt posture. Head tilt posture caused tension in the upper traps and levator scapulae on the side of the tilt. This elevates the scapulae on that side off its neutral position on the rib cage. This results in mechanical overload and joint misalignment at the shoulder joint. We refer to this as the winged scapulae shoulder pain cycle. You rest the shoulder and symptoms calm down, but you did not address the foundation of the problem. When you try and return to fitness, sport and recreational activities your pain returns. The Healthy Posture System™ combines joint correction techniques with 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning to break this cycle by conditioning you to sit, stand, walk and function from healthy posture.
The HPC applies Reverse Engineering:
1. Neutral Spine Conditioning
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If joint misalignment is the foundation of the problem, let’s start there. Your first month of the HPC will restore your ability to get into neutral spine alignment.
We will also teach you joint clearing techniques to make sure your cervical spine and shoulder are in neutral before you start strengthening exercises.
2. Lifestyle Modifications
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Then we will discuss how to change your work and home environment to help you perform your home and work activities from neutral spine alignment.
We may suggest the following;
▪ Wedge Cushion – to help you sit upright without back support.
▪ Monitor Riser – to elevate your monitor 4 to 6″
▪ Body Pillow – to help you sleep in neutral spine alignment.
▪ Heel Wedge – to bring the floor up to you in sitting.
3. Functional Fitness Exercises
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Now that you are functioning from healthy posture, it’s appropriate to progress your strengthening program to meet your fitness, sport and recreation needs.
Conditioning yourself to perform your fitness, sport and recreational activities establishes a foundation for long-term injury management and prevention.
We will never progress you to the next level of the program until you demonstrate the ability to maintain neutral spine with every exercise at your current level of conditioning for 8 repetitions with a 3 second tempo of control.
That is what makes the us special. The science of the program makes us different.
Knowledge is Power!
Neutral Spine Alignment (NSA)
What is NSA?
Neutral Spine Alignment is when your pelvis, rib cage and skull are in alignment with each other in each plane of motion. All your vertebrae are aligned in a way that allow loads to transfer through each vertebra in a healthy way. Movement through the shoulders, hips and knees are mechanically efficient when performed from neutral spine alignment.
Neutral spine alignment is healthy posture.
Neutral spine conditioning is any fitness program that challenges your ability to perform every repetition of every exercise from neutral spine alignment. Read more about neutral spine conditioning in the next section.
Why is NSA so Important?
Function from collapsed posture is like driving your car with a flat tire. Things are going to breakdown prematurely. If you do not have healthy posture, you are wearing down your joints at an accelerated rate. Restoring your ability to functional from NSA restores your musculoskeletal system to its factory settings. No energy gets wasted, all your spinal vertebrae are involved in support and load transfer.
Every workout conditions you to move efficiently and meets your joint stability needs as well as your fitness needs.
- Every walk lubricates your hips and knees instead of breaking down one side more than the other.
- Every squat and lunge strengthen the low back symmetrically instead of reinforcing a faulty load that caused joint misalignments that overload a disc at one segment.
Movement through the shoulders, hips and knees are mechanically efficient when performed from neutral spine alignment. Your muscles strengthen symmetrically when fitness is performed from healthy posture. You maintain the joint integrity that allows for healthy aging.
NSA is a free fountain of youth that will not just keep you in the game, but it will have you performing like a champion throughout your life physically. You will also save tens of thousands of dollars because you suffered less injuries and needed fewer medical procedures.
How Do I Get Into NSA?
There are 4 principles of neutral spine alignment that you must learn to get into healthy posture. They are very precise and subtle movements that your nervous system needs time and supervision to properly integrate into movement. We could not explain its nuance in a video or paragraph.
We suggest you purchase a movement screen to get started on this powerful journey to healthy posture and symmetrical movement.
How Can a HPC Membership Help?
The HPC virtually guides you through 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning in combination with individually prescribed joint clearing techniques to restore your ability to function from neutral spine alignment. We will explore every aspect of your daily routine and get you on the path to healthy aging physically. If you have a shoulder pain condition you will be guided through the program by a physical therapist.
Here is what you will accomplish.
————— Get Started Membership —————
- Month 1: Functional Mobility Phase – This usually requires a month of functional mobility exercises and joint clearing techniques to help you start each day with access to neutral spine alignment. During this first month we will look at every aspect of your day and identify what lifestyle modification are needed to help you break your collapsed posture behaviors.
- Month 2: Neutral Spine Conditioning Phase – now that you can get into neutral spine alignment, we start challenging your ability to maintain it during daily activities.
- Month 3: Functional Conditioning Phase – we add resistances and modifications to each exercise to safely return you to your fitness program.
————– Maintenance Membership ————–
- Month 4+5: Functional Fitness Phase
- Month 6: Healthy Sport and Recreational Activities Phase
Neutral Spine Conditioning (NSC)
What is NSC?
Neutral Spine Conditioning (NSC) is when you condition yourself to perform 100% of your fitness, sport and recreational activities from neutral spine alignment. At this level of neutral spine conditioning your workouts and sports are no longer driving faulty loading patterns. This is the goal you want to reach for long term injury management, injury prevention and healthy aging.
Can NSC Prevent Injury?
Yes. When you can maintain neutral spine alignment during fitness and sport you have reached the pinacol of physical wellness. Your nervous system is now wired to function from neutral at a level that far exceeds your daily tasks.
You have broken the collapsed posture and joint misalignment cycle!
Conditioning yourself to perform your fitness, sport and recreational activities from healthy posture establishes a foundation for long-term injury management and prevention.
NSC is a free fountain of youth that will not just keep you in the game, but it will have you performing like a champion throughout your life physically. You will also save tens of thousands of dollars because you suffered less injuries and needed fewer medical procedures.
Can NSC Reduce Shoulder Pain?
Yes. If joint misalignment is the foundation of your shoulder pain. We must restore healthy posture and condition you to perform your daily activities from neutral spine alignment before we progress to strengthening and fitness.
If you are receiving massage therapy or manual therapy to treat the misalignment but not addressing the factors that are causing the collapsed posture, you may be spinning your wheels. A HPC membership is the perfect complement to treatment protocols that focus on pain management/reduction.
If you are doing exercises to address shoulder pain but did not improve your posture, you may be strengthening the faulty loading patterns that are causing your pain.
How Do I Know if I Need NSC?
You could benefit from Neutral Spine Conditioning if;
- When you stand in front of the mirror your head is tilted
- If you cannot lift an arm overhead without pain
- Your shoulder blade hikes up when you lift your arm overhead
- You cannot place both hands behind your head
- You cannot lay on your back comfortably without head support
- You cross one leg habitually over the other in sitting
- You stand with your feet pointing outward
- You cannot squat to pick something off the floor without balance support
- You cannot go up or down stairs without balance support
- You cannot stand on one foot for more than 10 seconds
How Can a HPC Membership Help?
The HPC virtually guides you through 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning in combination with individually prescribed joint clearing techniques to restore your ability to function from neutral spine alignment. We will explore every aspect of your daily routine and get you on the path to healthy aging physically. If you have an active shoulder pain condition you will be guided through the program by a physical therapist.
Here is what you will accomplish.
————— Get Started Membership —————
- Month 1: Functional Mobility Phase – This usually requires a month of functional mobility exercises and joint clearing techniques to help you start each day with access to neutral spine alignment. During this first month we will look at every aspect of your day and identify what lifestyle modification are needed to help you break your collapsed posture behaviors.
- Month 2: Neutral Spine Conditioning Phase – now that you can get into neutral spine alignment, we start challenging your ability to maintain it during daily activities.
- Month 3: Functional Conditioning Phase – we add resistances and modifications to each exercise to safely return you to your fitness program.
————– Maintenance Membership ————–
- Month 4+5: Functional Fitness Phase
- Month 6: Healthy Sport and Recreational Activities Phase
