Unilateral weight-bearing palpation and the Year of the Shoulder
First, I’ll follow up on my last post, from September: yes, it turns out to be much easier to teach A/P shoulder assessment UNILATERALLY, as noted there. But there’s more…as of December, I’m now teaching a similar unilateral strategy in the entire lower body. What’s the general procedure? One hand above the relevant joint, one below. Counter-shift in the A/P plane to evaluate relative balance. It’s so much easier to teach! Bilateral weight-bearing evaluation is still interesting to me, but now it can be a counterpoint to unilateral assessment.
Meanwhile, it has turned out to be the Year of the Shoulder. I feel much clearer about sensing the poise, or lack thereof, of the girdle atop the ribcage. The unilateral evaluation described in the 9/14 post was the key. The most common feature that I see more clearly is the combination of posterior shift and anterior tilt in a scapula…usually, the right one.
The next time I lead a shoulder class (April, in Port Townsend) should be fun.