Grasping your Brains Control

We have been receiving a lot of questions lately in the clinic regarding grip and how we help improve grip strength to help affect the shoulder. I have been calculating the grip strength (with a grip dynamometer) of many different patients over the past 5 years and I have found people that have a limitation in grip will often times have issues with their shoulder and also the neck. Now I get it, many people do frequent the chiropractor for neck and upper back issues in general and that may be skewing my case studies, I am well aware. Now with this new clinic gym hybrid (7 weeks into it) I get to not only test injured people but also normal functioning ones as well. My theory is still holding true, so far!

When we talk of shoulder stability input I don’t like to overload the brains ability to handle a certain amount of instability so I have a progression of movements and adding in points of contact and taking out points of contact in order to have the ideal amount of input to have the best output. To translate I will make things easier or harder based on that person’s ability at that time so safety is achieved and movement can be performed. 

Safety in joint motion is what the brain uses to let it move or to restrict its movement. If we can train safety at a multitude of joint angles the brain will unlock the motion. 

The shoulder is very complex and is very mobile, most of the time we do NOT need more mobility of that joint in particular but let us look into the thoracic and cervical spine for mobility issues. 

This leads me back to the grip talk and its brain connection. The primitive palmar grasping reflex is demonstrated early in our development and lasts until 5-6 months and is our start to pulling, hanging and climbing.  We must grip and develop that strength before we start the complex movements of the upper extremities. 

Motion is the lotion, keep moving my friends. 

Dr. Schroeder