Carlson on the shoulder:
One of the most oft-injured, miss/de-trained, misunderstood (and down right frustrating!) areas of the human body is the shoulder. The number of reoccurrences of shoulder injuries is dramatic to the point that I had to consider whether I was being a “symptomist” or a “casuist”. That is, with shoulder injuries, was I dealing with just treating the symptoms, the effects, or was I truly looking at finding and treating the cause; was I truly being functional in my approach?

I have been fortunate to work with many athletes of varying levels of experience and skill.  Regardless of the skill levels there is a very common issue, especially for “overhead athletes”.  That issue is shoulder dysfunction.  Conventional wisdom has always pointed to rotator cuff strengthening and scapular stability, however, I believe we need to look beyond this immediate area to solve this issue; we need to go looking in our functional tool kit to find answers.

This has led me to the realization that a shoulder just wants to be a shoulder and not something else and doesn’t want to do un-shoulder like things and therefore needs help from elsewhere to be just a shoulder.

I hope, in my session today to discuss various factors that will help solve the functional mystery of the shoulder.

Bio: Jamie Carlson

A former collegiate wrestler, Jamie is a certified athletic therapist who has been the Head Athletic Therapist at Sir Wilfred Laurier University (WLU), located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for the past 15 years. Jamie has a wide array both in depth and breadth of elite national and international experience as he has been an accredited athletic therapist for 4 World Championships, 2 Pan American games, 1 Olympic Games and 15 National Championships in the sports of Swimming/Diving, Hockey, Water Polo, Basketball, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Modern Pentathlon and Equestrian Show Jumping.

Prior to coming to WLU, Jamie was an athletic therapist in the NHL’s Vancouver Canuck organization and has been a guest therapist with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

In addition to his responsibilities at WLU, Jamie has gained much notice for his ground-breaking work as the Performance Coach for the WLU women’s Ice-hockey program which has become perennial national CIS contenders under his tutelage. Jamie is also presently the Chief Therapist for the Kitchener-Waterloo based National swim Centre.

…a roll-up the sleeves kind of guy, Jamie, who resides in Waterloo, Ontario, is known internationally for his upbeat, always positive personality and maps his journey to functionality in his own life through his avid golf and adventure racing and by helping his wife Terri, chase after their two children Bailey and Acadia...an adventure race if there ever was one!