Lower trapezius weakness is a common finding with many of the clients we assess at IFAST.  Even in our strongest athletes, we’ll find relative weakness that may affect their abilities to perform the heavier, maximal strength upper body exercises.

The now common scapular exercises such as I’s, L’s, Y’s, T’s, and W’s are good selections to start to resolve scapular muscle weakness.  This post will focus on the Y exercise, AKA, lower trap raise.

A few keys to success:

1.  The arms should come up to angle of about 135 degrees of abduction (45 degrees above the “T” position).

2.  Turn the thumb side of your hand  upward to externally rotate the shoulder.  The “Y” also promotes high levels of activity of the shoulder external rotators.

3.  Lead the movement with the scapula.  The arrow shown on the photo above shows the direction to drive the scapula.  Too often, clients will abbreviate the exercise due to a lack of scapular movement.  If you’re a trainer or coach, a simple tactile cue of a light fingertip touch on the lower trap and a verbal cue to “pull the shoulder blade to my finger” will go a long way to getting a much more complete movement.

Bill

In the Assess and Correct DVD it`s demonstrated testing hip and knee flexion with the hands under the lower back. In the leg raise test in FMS I think, if I remember correctly, that this is not done. Is this because of trying to minimize posterior tilt, or what?

I can’t speak for the FMS, but your thought process is correct.  In the Assess and Correct DVD’s, we’re using an approximation of neutral spinal alignment during testing and exercise performance.  Placing your hand behind the lower back allows you to monitor your lumbar lordosis to prevent substituting pelvic tilt/lumbar motion for hip motion.  Without monitoring, you may get a false positive or false negative for your hip testing.

The general rule is that you should be able to slide your hand under the lower back to your knuckles (metacarpophalangeal joint).  If you can’t get your fingers under the lower back, you’re flattening the lumbar spine too much.  If your hand slides under too far, your lumbar lordosis is excessive.

Bill

We were showing the interns how to teach pulling exercises like the various forms of rows.  Thought it would be of interest.

Assess and Correct is the most useful physical evaluation tool I’ve ever seen. It’s like having instant access to the knowledge that Hartman, Robertson, and Cressey have gained through years of experience studying anatomy and human movement, and working with real people. But most important, it’s presented in a way that you can put it to use immediately. In fact, the design of the manual is genius because you’re given a series of simple tests to identify postural and movement problems, followed by smart exercise progressions–which you can tailor to a client’s ability—to correct any issues. So it’s a powerful tool that will help any coach create more effective training plans, customized to an individual’s true NEEDS. The upshot: Assess and Correct will make any fitness professional better at what he or she does. One other note: Because I’m a fitness journalist, the authors offered me a free manual for review (common in the industry), but I had already purchased it. When they tried to refund my money, I requested that they not. The reason: I found the material to be so valuable that I felt like I SHOULD pay for it. I’m not sure there’s any testimonial I could give that’s better than that.

Adam Campbell
Fitness Director, Men’s Health

The following came to me via a comment on a recent post on thoracic mobility.  I found it to be quite interesting and felt is deserved to be a answered in the blog rather than in the comments section.  Read this question with great caution as it’s pretty scary:

Mr. Hartman,

When you talk about Thoracic spine mobility are you referring to the flexibility in the musculature or the mobility of the vertebrae themselves. I recall a few weeks back in one of my graduate classes my professor was very clear in stressing the point because the thoracic vertebrae were attached to the sternum, via the ribs, that there was no measurable movement within these joints. He then demonstrated with a model that the only freely movable vertebrae were in the cervical and lumbar regions. Just want to be sure I’m understanding what you mean exactly by mobility. Thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

I am very concerned over your question.  I am hoping that it’s a misinterpretation of what your professor explained rather than a true representation of what you’re being taught at a graduate level.  Let’s review a little bit about thoracic spine mobility.

If your statement in regard to your professor’s comments is true, then I’m afraid your professor is dead wrong.

While it is true that thoracic spine mobility is restricted by the ribcage (one of the reasons why <1% of disc herniations occur in the t-spine is because the ribcage does a good job of limiting spinal flexion), it is far from immobile.

The upper thoracic spine

The zygapophyseal joints of the upper thoracic spine are orientated toward the frontal plane.  This limits spinal flexion to about four degrees per segment from T1-T6, but it allows about 8 degrees of rotation per segment from T1 to T8.  From T1 to T10 you’ve got roughly 6 degrees of lateral flexion per segment.

 The Lower Thoracic Spine

Because the zygapophyseal joints change orientation to a more sagittal plane alignment in the lower t-spine, the ability to flex increases from about five to about 12 degrees per segment as you work your way down from T6-7 to T12-L1.  The orientation of the joints also limits rotation to about 2 degrees per segment below T10.

So you can see that while movement is restrained by the anatomy, the thoracic spine does move quite a bit.  In fact a loss of mobility in the the thoracic spine can lead to neck, shoulder, lower back, and even lower extremity dysfunction and pathology.  This is one of reasons we spend so much time working mobility drills from Inside-Out and Assess and Correct in my clinic and at IFAST.

I would suggest that you research spinal mobility yourself and challenge your professor to prove or clarify his point.  Also, seek out resources that show how a reduction in thoracic spine mobility reduces shoulder range of motion and shoulder girdle posture.  At worst, you’ll get the correct information, and at best, you’re professor may learn something and change his tune a bit.

Best of Luck.

Bill