Overhead Mobility Assessment & Corrections

I've always been a big fan of having options for improving movement.  While I cannot say definitively what any type of self mobilization, soft tissue mobilization, etc is doing, I do believe it has value.  Whether it is neurophysiological or just patient/client preference, I do include them in my programming and rehabilitation when I feel they are lacking mobility or flexibility (again, this is where clinical reasoning happens).  

In this article and video, Dan Pope gives us some extra ways to improve overhead movement.  I really liked some of his ideas and while I have seen a good chunk of them, there were many that I have not.  No matter what your views are on what manual or self manual work does, it's always good to have options to help improve your athlete's movement patterns.  Screening is one component, corrections (or whatever you like to call them), is the other part.  However, remember that you must always seek out the source of the problem.  What make look like a mobility problem may be a motor control problem or stability problem.  And just because one has the range of motion does not mean they will use it during a movement.  Determine what and why before implementing a treatment.  

- Brian 

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