Dr Jeremy Lewis knows a thing or two about the shoulder. He is a Consultant Physiotherapist, Professor of Musculoskeletal Research, Sonographer and Independent Prescriber. He works at the London Shoulder Clinic.
The shoulder is the fastest joint in the body with the greatest range of movement.
Some Baseball Pitchers have been able to generate speeds of 106 mph, that’s 170 km/h!
During which the shoulder moves 80 degrees in only 30 milliseconds!
It relies mostly on the muscle that surrounds it to keep it stable whilst it is moving at speed and in all its potential ranges.
The evolutionary advantage of this fast and mobile joint is that we can throw stuff, like rocks and spears. Chimpanzees can’t throw at the same speed we can. However, Chimpanzees and other primates can do something called “Brachiate,” which means to swing from tree to tree using only your arms. During brachiation, the body is alternately supported under each forelimb.
Some traits that allow primates to brachiate include a short spine (particularity the lumbar spine), short fingernails (instead of claws), long curved fingers, reduced thumbs, long forelimbs and freely rotating wrists.
Modern humans retain many physical characteristics that suggest a brachiator ancestor, including flexible shoulder joints and fingers well-suited for grasping.
In lesser apes, these characteristics were adaptations for brachiation. Although great apes do not normally brachiate (with the exception of orangutans), our human anatomy suggests that brachiation may be an exaptation to bipedalism, and healthy modern humans are still capable of brachiating.
At this year’s CrossFit Games we saw the return of the assault course. Some athletes struggled with the monkey bars because they didn’t practice their brachiating skills.
While our evolution over the last 2 millions years has specialized us more for bipedal walking and running, the configuration of the human shoulder developed for hanging and swinging in trees, and the ability to climb and swing remains a major part of human movement play worldwide, and is an important part of hunting and gathering where climbing abilities are used to get honey and fruit and to scout and ambush game.
The evidence indicates that swinging, hanging and climbing remain important for the proper development of the shoulder. We should all make it a part of our movement practice to help Bulletproof our shoulders.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJY58PdbjBDzmewy9SFsNGQ
