The Obstinate Pec Minor (PMI) can produce a hailstorm of problems throughout the body especially in the shoulders, arm, neck and respiration. Working with it effectively goes a long way in helping you help your clients with neck and shoulder issues, breathing restrictions and even wrist and elbow pain. If the iliopsoas is the hidden prankster of low back pain (Travell and Simons), the PMI is the hidden trickster of the shoulder girdle.  

Imagine three long fingers extending on an inferior and medial diagonal path from the coracoid process to ribs 3-5 (attachments have been found on ribs 2 and 6 on some folks). This multitasking stabilizer connects the shoulder girdle (scapula and clavicle) to the thorax. The PMI seems to glory in pulling the coracoid process towards the ribs (whether it needs it or not) causing a profusion of myofascial and bio-mechanical distortions. PMI drags the glenohumeral (GH) joint with it as it pulls the coracoid process towards the ribs. 

This stalwart muscle may be super small but it’s super strong: Despite being a relatively small muscle, the supraspinatus is crucial in maintaining shoulder stability. It helps keep the head of your humerus properly aligned in the glenoid fossa.

It's the most commonly injured rotator cuff muscle: Out of all the muscles in the rotator cuff, the supraspinatus is the most commonly injured, especially in activities like throwing, lifting, or repetitive overhead motions. It's also a key culprit in shoulder pains.

It’s an abductor of the humerus – just think how many times a day you raise your arm to the side every day. This muscle is constantly multi-tasking!

The supraspinatus often becomes constricted, tightly gripping the humerus head. In this video I demonstrate a crucial strategy - the Pin and Move method, also known as the Active Release Technique on the belly of supraspinatus. This approach helps to relax the tissue, enabling it to function more effortlessly.

The infraspinatus and teres minor may not always get the spotlight, but they’re the unsung heroes of the rotator cuff!

These two little muscles do an amazing job keeping your shoulder stable. In fact, they’re the only external rotators of the shoulder joint, which means they work extra hard to balance out the stronger internal rotators like the pec major, lats, teres major, anterior deltoid, and subscapularis.

When working with these muscles, a great technique to try is called "goading." This just means using strokes from the outside (lateral) to the inside (medial) to help them shorten and become more contractible.

PS- Instead of creating more strength in the internal rotators encourage your clients to do some simple exercises which strengthen the posterior thoracic and scapular stabilizers

Subscap can be a tricky muscle to palpate and is an essential skill to have in treating shoulders. Watch the video and learn a fool-proof way of finding it!

Recently, I was speaking with one of my coaching clients about raising her rates, and she was worried about running her clients off, driving them away.

I think everybody, including me, can identify with those worries.

If you're thinking about raising your rates, use a strategy I learned years ago from Sharon Desjarlais. It's called a Gratitude Sandwich.

Here's five steps that will get the job done to raise your rates without losing your clients or your integrity.

Step 1: Be intentional and decide on the exact date. Get it on your calendar. That way you won’t forget or be tempted to let it slide.

Step 2: Measure the value of your work accurately. Most therapists make a big mistake: They believe their value is in the time they spend with a client.

But your worth is never about the time. It's about the transformation. It's about the outcomes your clients get and how those results change their lives. Take about ten minutes and write down all the benefits that your clients get from th...

As bodyworkers we all treat people in pain and most of the time successfully. But what if your client has had pain for more than 3-6 months and is not responding to your or any other treatments?

It’s possible that it’s neuroplastic pain (also known as neural circuit pain, central sensitization, TMS (tension myoneural syndrome)

Neuroplastic pain results from the brain misinterpreting safe messages from the body as if they were dangerous. In other words, neuroplastic pain is a false alarm. Though the pain can be addressed through various practices, this does not imply that the pain is imaginary. The pain is REAL!

“The relationship between pain and the state of the tissues becomes weaker as pain persists”  Dr. Lorimer Moseley

In other words the longer the pain persists the higher the chance it’s being caused by the brain and nervous system. Without the brain there is no pain.

Neuroplastic pain is caused by a brain/nervous system which has gotten stuck in sympathetic arousal – fight, ...

My client, Nancy came in the other day and was concerned about her left arm and left hand. She'd been doing bicep curls with her trainer sitting at a machine, using  a 15 pound bar and she experienced pain and lack of strength in her left arm/hand.

She has a history of an ulnar nerve injury in that arm and experiences flare ups now and then.

Her personality type is one that pushes herself hard, a high achiever and sets very high standards for herself.

I just completed my Movement Specialist Certification and there were some really handy tools in there including a  Movement Threat Screen Assessment.

I asked Nancy to visualize doing the exercise the same way she had just done it with her trainer and asked her if that caused her any worry, fear, or pain.  She reported that it did and was amazed that a visualization could produce the same experience.

But as we all know, the brain really doesn't know the difference between past, present, or future. It's always in the now.

We then we d...

A new client came in recently, we’ll call her Glenda. She complained of pain in her lower right rib area from a car accident about 5 years ago. “It feels as if it pops out of place” she said.

 As I explored and palpated the area and verified where she felt the pain she anxiously asked, “Is there inflammation there?”

Instead of answering her directly I said “Your body is really protective of this area.”

It was beautiful to see and feel her response. She took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, that makes sense.” Here whole being relaxed and her exquisite parasympathetic system came on board.

These are the moments I treasure – I call them hallelujah moments.

Using the phrase “Your body is really protective of this area.” is a tip I got from the marvelous pain researcher Lorimer Moseley. Lorimer was a recent guest on the Thinking Practitioner podcast.

Lorimer is one of the most well respected pain researchers in the world. An Australian he is a former physiotherapist (PT to those of us i...

Recently I heard an interesting story from a PT (let’s call him Tom). In the clinic Tom worked in there was one PT (let’s call her Amy)  who always got the best outcomes. Tom was really curious about this since they had equal skill sets and training. Tom asked to sit in on one of Amy’s sessions. Tom observed that Amy constantly reassured her patients with statements like: “You go this!” “You are improving every day!” “The body is resilient and knows how to heal” Amy also did a through intake which included addressing the the psycho-social factors such as social support, loneliness, marriage status, social disruption, bereavement, work environment, social status, and social integration.

That was a light bulb moment for Tom and since then he's incorporated his "lessons from Amy" and seen his outcomes improve.

 Pain (both chronic and acute) often causes the amygdala to go on high alert, arousing sympathetic arousal.
Pain can be disabling, upsetting, and scary!
“The amygdala plays an impor...

This is one of my favorite exercises to help calm the nervous system by directly affecting the vagus nerve and lower tension in the neck and shoulders  and increase neck mobility.

You can easily do this with your clients in the supine position and teach it to them as a self-care technique.

 Feel free to share this video with your clients!