The Shoulder: Complex doesn't mean Complicated

As you may know I am a big fan of simplifying our explanations, assessment and management of what we do as therapists. But many mistake the idea of simplifying as 'dumbing down' or being lazy or not using our training and knowledge. I argue that this could not be further from the truth. As Steve Jobs once said…

And I agree, its damn hard to do simple, to sift through the evidence and knowledge, figure out what is relevant and pertinent, what helps and what doesn't, anyone can make things sound complicated, and usually those that do, do it to either sound clever or intelligent or to hide some obvious flaw or even that perhaps they don't understand it well enough themselves.

As Albert Einstein famously said…

Now the shoulder has a reputation for being a complex and complicated joint to assess and treat, and over the years I have worked with a wide variety of shoulder injuries and problems, with a vast and diverse patient group, from professional athletes, to office workers, to self confessed couch potatoes. But during these years I have come to realise that the management and treatment of the shoulder just doesn't need to be complicated.

So I have designed a weekend workshop that looks at how to simplify the assessment and management of the shoulder, using an evidenced based approach.

Now I love working with shoulders and it has turned into an area of special interest of mine working as an upper limb specialist for well over seven years, working closely with some of the country's best shoulder specialists in the shoulder unit at the Spire Bushey Hospital and Perform its sports and exercise medicine service.

I have found that by simplifying my assessment and management of the shoulder for all I see, be it a professional athlete or a coach potato, it makes it far easier for me to priortise my treatment options, and so produces more reliable, effective and ultimately successful results. It's not a perfect or infallible method and I'm certainly not claiming it can help everybody or everything, but it does make life much simpler and easier!

The workshop does cover a lot of information over the two days as it needs to cut through the research and show what is useful and more importantly what is not, but it is full of handy, helpful hints that you can take away and implement into your practice immediately.

The weekend is also used to dispel some common myths that surround the shoulder that drive me a little crazy whenever I hear them! Things such as, what is the best way to measure and assess shoulder movement and what does this tells us? How exactly does the rotator cuff work, and what is the best way to assess its capacity and function?

So if you fancy a fun, relaxed and informal weekend looking at simplifying the shoulder then I am pleased to announce that dates for 2015 are well under way, and confimed weekends are already up and running in Manchester, Newcastle, Crewe, London and even Chicago USA, with plans for Dublin, Aberdeen, Derbyshire and Chichester hopefully soon to be finalised.

There are also a few spaces still available for this years workshops in Brighton and Shrewsbury

If you would like to attend one of my weekends please just click on the links above or drop me an email at [email protected]

As always thanks for reading, keep it simple, honest and evidence based!

Cheers

Adam