Articles and Education

Low back pain (LBP) is a widespread phenomena that is estimated to effect roughly 85% of individuals at some point in their life (1). In fact, globally LBP is the leading cause of disability (2). Considering the prevalence of LBP it’s important to gain a better understanding of the complex mechanisms and potential avenues for successful treatment and prevention. This article is neither diagnostic or a recommendation for treatment protocol. It’s simply here to inform you on the various intricacies of the subject so when you seek out professional help from a qualified physical therapist (which is the course of action I recommend) you are better equipped to be an active participant in your own treatment.

Part two is going to start laying down a theoretical framework for why anything is effective at all when helping someone come back from an injury. If you are at all involved in the world of training and/or rehabilitation, you are well aware there are a million ways to spend your money on some kind of device or tool. You will also notice there are a million more ways to work on how you move and even more people you can make an appointment with to work you over and tell you all sorts of things about your current situation (only some of which is likely to be true).

I recently saw an exchange on Twitter between two professionals in the rehabilitation world. The original tweet mentioned a patient who had started deadlifting because they had a herniated lumbar disc. The first response was from a different professional questioning this course of action. He said something along the lines of, “Hmmmm, was this when he was symptomatic or asymptomatic?” To put this in more context, the person who posted the original tweet is not the person who started the deadlift program. The original person thought it was great this patient had decided to take action into his own hands instead of falling victim to the system. The second person was questioning whether a person with a herniated disc should be deadlifting. I hope you are not confused, because we are going to dive deep into the rabbit hole.

It is a piece to help you develop strong, healthy, and powerful shoulders that can deliver tremendous power while reducing risk of injury in such a complex joint. This top 5 is for developing functional strength movements for the shoulders. Yes, I said the dreaded word ‘functional’. But I’m not talking namby-pamby soda can exercises, I’m talking real movements that develop strength while helping improve the operating mechanics of the shoulders. If you’re not familiar with my background or approach I am certainly a coach and athlete interested in real-world results and believe that stronger is better, so you won’t find remedial PT exercises promoted by me. While I am best known as coach and movement specialist these days, I’ve been (or am, depending on your outlook) one of the best pure strength athletes in the world. This top 5 list contains exercises that I employ in the fields I consult in and will help you achieve what they do:

Call it whatever you like. Flossing, voodoo wrapping, compressing, blood flow restriction; you name it. There are a lot of terms floating around that describe a similar activity. We have gotten to a point where you can find compression bands just about anywhere. There is a reason it’s becoming more popular, it works. What most people don’t realize is there are a lot of different ways to use deep compression and a lot of different reasons someone may do it in certain situations.

It has now been twelve and eighteen months, respectively, since I had hemicap surgery on my left and right shoulders. Performed by Dr. Anthony Miniaci at the Cleveland Clinic, the shoulder surgeries have performed better than I had hoped. In reviewing the introductory article I wrote in June of 2016, my goal then was to rehab the right shoulder ahead of the October surgery on the left, and to get back on the platform by the spring of 2017.

In this video, Chris Duffin and Brad Cox from Acumobility are at Titan Barbell in Medford, MA working with Strongman Semaj.  Semaj had sustained a right shoulder injury that has been negatively impacting his overhead mobility. During assessments, we found that he has poor internal rotation of the shoulder with limited overhead range of motion and restricted trap and pec muscles. Our goal is to provide some corrective strategies to improve end range of motion and stability in the shoulder girdle. We accomplish this through the following progression:

I’m sure people have noticed my shoeless attire in all my lifting video’s this last year.  There is a reason for this and it ties directly to how we both coach and asses the lifts.  No I’m not going to sell you on going shoeless yourself.  Well, at least not all the time, as you may try it for some information gathering or assessment after this.

Rudy Kadlub (the writer) is Co-Owner and CEO of Kabuki Strength and is an active competitive powerlifter. Since beginning his powerlifting career twelve years ago at age 55 he has set 25 American and 24 World records.

After eleven years as a competitive powerlifter (24 World and 25 American titles), my shoulder joints have been reduced to bone on bone. Osteoarthritis is defined as the wearing away of the cartilage which cushions the joint. Most people over 60 years of age with this condition are subjected to shoulder replacement surgery, which is an invasive procedure involving the removal of the head of the humerus and the installation of a titanium rod with a titanium ball on top, into the bone marrow of the humerus itself. I was told a number of years ago by my orthopedic surgeon that I would not be able to lift heavy ever again if I undertook such an operation. Therefore, I continued to train with severe pain rather than end my career. My training partner, John Hare, has literally had to shove me under the bar for the last four years in order to get into position to squat-a very painful movement.

On occasion, I refer to a formative patient I had in my chiropractic practice many years ago. I call him Carl. Carl was a big strong guy that had lifted heavy and played hard for most of his life. While his prior activity was apparent in his physical frame as he sat in front of me, it was juxtaposed by his emotional state. Carl was crying…and not just a trace tear on the cheek, either. This grown man was sobbing and fortunately for me, it was tears of joy. He had suffered a disc injury while lifting, and subsequently re—injured it several times. He’d seen a handful of chiropractors who painfully bounced on him to try to get some magic crack, but made him feel worse about as often as it made him feel better. He’d had more needles stuck into him than his mother’s pin cushion. He’d seen many physicians and surgeons who had all given some sort of advice that resembled “Stop lifting” or “These opioids should take the edge off” or “We can cut you open and snip that out”. He’d heard about poor surgical outcomes and was leery of going that route. His fear of surgery was rivaled by his fear of lifting which had now bled from his sport life into other, more personal facets, including lifting his child, lifting the garbage and lifting his socks from the floor. Carl felt like he was waiting on the edge of something worse, and he was incredibly frustrated that his source of solace-­‐lifting-­‐could have seemingly turned on him like a traitorous friend. But he wept at that moment because of what we had just done in the clinic.