Just Hanging Out: Another Skill We Shoulder Never Lose

By Dr. Adam Carter DPT, CF-L2, CSCS

In a world that typically revolves around cell phones and desk jobs, we rarely spend time with our arms overhead, let alone bearing weight with them overhead. Another issue I see as we age is a loss in the ability to do things in the overhead position. Not to mention the dreaded “hump back” that many of our elders develop in the later years of their life which further decreases our ability to go overhead. A simple fix for both of these issues would be to spend some time daily hanging from something like a branch or bar to “unglue” the positions in which we spend most of our time (i.e. sitting with our arms by our side in a rounded upper back position.) Now I know everyone doesn't have a bar or a tree to swing from on a daily basis so don't be afraid to stop by the playground and play on the monkey bars for a minute or two as your passing by. Don't worry, the kids love seeing old people trying to act young. I have included a vidoe of me doing exactly that . The video below demo’s a few ways to progress or regress hanging around and stretching out those shoulder and stiff upper back. As always drop us a line if you have any issues with going overhead.

Until then...

KEEP IT MOVING!!!

AC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDPJG4VQWys&t=32s

https://escholarship.org/content/qt0x0815tn/qt0x0815tn.pdf