Here’s a hint: it isn’t dorsiflexion, diastasis, disc herniation, or a density issue. It also isn’t deload, DOMS, or the dorsal talonavicular ligament. The real D word I wish more fitness pros would use less is dysfunction.
Stop it. Stop it right now.
Too often, trainers use the first session to show just how dysfunctional a client seems. They might say, “After everything we’ve done, it looks like you have an internally rotated right shoulder, a bit of anterior pelvic tilt, upper back rounding, limited rotation on your left, and one eye a bit lower. We’ve got some work to do.”
I’m not saying I was perfect. I’ve done it. And looking back, I can’t imagine how much business I lost by making new clients feel broken on day one.
There’s a natural growth in a fitness professional who learns to assess movement and figure out what will help someone reach their goals, given their history and abilities. But one of the worst things you can do is highlight dysfunction and make people feel broken from the start.
Take scapular winging as an example—when the shoulder blade isn’t flush with the rib cage. Is that really a dysfunction? The image can look pretty extreme.
True scapular winging is a medical diagnosis where the long thoracic nerve isn’t properly innervating the Serratus Anterior. No amount of Prone Trap Raises or Forearm Wall Slides will fix that on their own. It would require careful manual therapy and a clinician with a strong neurology sense to address it.
Most people, however, don’t have true scapular winging. In fact, most people’s long thoracic nerve works fine and they aren’t truly dysfunctional.
You can often improve scapular winging fairly quickly by adding load and by training. Load helps guide better positioning, and training helps people not fear their posture. There are many ways to do this.
There are a number of methods to achieve this.
In a short video, I share some of these ideas and keep the language clear.
