Scaption and Shoulder Impingement

Today I would like to talk about scaption.

The question is based on a Facebook message I got from a reader.

Thanks so much, Steve.

Thank you to everyone who follows me on Facebook and sends me questions.

I have a tough time calling myself an expert, but thanks.

The debates about shoulder pressing, hmmm.

This is my take on it.

#1 – The Afraid Physical Therapist

I wouldn’t say I like generalizations. Some people throw me into the pool of dumb personal trainers even though I have two degrees, numerous publications, trained thousands of people, and have been doing this for a few years.

I can’t generalize all physical therapists because I hate being generalized.

Numerous personal trainers tell their clients not to press overhead, which I think is wrong.

Let’s start with not generalizing. If I look back at what I did when I began training or even last year, I shake my head at it.

#2 – What is the Big Deal About Shoulder Pressing?

The statement of not pressing over the head being wrong has been around for a while.

I think people feel that everyone who has shoulder presses could run the risk of shoulder impingement.

This is another wrong generalization. Most clients will not have shoulder impingement with pressing and must be doing overhead movements.

Plus, avoiding something is not always the best answer. It is more important to look at why it hurts and what can be done to move it out of pain because not addressing it could lead to other issues.

#3 – What to Do About the Fear of Overhead Pressing?

If you are a geek and like reading journals like me, you would know that you can move the overhead press exercise into the scapular plane.

If you don’t know what the scapular plane is or scaption, let me explain what scaption is:

What is Scaption?

Let me go back to the research thing. When I did my master’s project, a lot of the research had test protocols that moved the subjects out of pure abduction and into the scaption. They did this to do the best they could to eliminate impingement being a factor in the study.

Let me go through an exercise example.

For example, with the traditional shoulder press with dumbbells. When you press overhead, you traditionally bring the ends of the dumbbells together at the top of the movement.

You can move the elbows, so they are not only in the frontal plane (abduction). You carry them about 30 degrees in front of the frontal plane. Then you perform the shoulder press movement. This puts the shoulder in a happier position and is less likely to pinch. Instead of hitting the ends of the dumbbell at the top of the action, you would hit the corners of the dumbbells.