Mike Stella ATC

If you came up as a coach or clinician in the 2000s,
you might not realize how lucky you were.
And your also probably an amazing provider...

Before the algorithm decided who was worth listening to,
clout in this industry was earned.

It came from years in the trenches, building something real, putting your ideas on paper and letting the community stress-test them, and showing up courses/seminars...
to rooms full of people who were there for one reason...
to get better at helping people get better.

I remember sitting in seminars next to therapists and coaches who drove hours and spent money they didn't have, just to be in the room and learn.

Nobody was filming it for content.
Nobody was positioning themselves.
We were learning.
And the energy in those rooms was something I genuinely miss.

Now we have trainer/physio influencers telling young clinicians not to take courses because "skills aren't scalable."
Read that again.

Or not to open a facility because of the overhead and working in person will make you less money.

Im sorry...Some of us actually LOVE what we do, and LOVE helping people.

The new generation that stood on the shoulders of giants...
is now telling the next wave that learning the craft is a waste of time.

That a systematic review, ring light, and a 15 sec hot take or slick edit is enough.

And I feel for young coaches.
Because the noise is so loud, and the signal is getting harder to find.

The most competent providers I know are heads down doing the work,
while some of the loudest voices online actually have the fewest real world reps.

I hope I'm wrong.
But I fear the best days of this industry are behind us...and we traded them in for clout, content, and a comment section full of people who've never treated aperson in real life.

The craft deserves better.
Your clients deserve better.

I miss the industry where being curious and learning was cool...
Not being a contrarian.

Why didn't someone tell us that was peak industry at the time?

Big shout out to some 🐐s in the comments...and thank you all for the decades of wisdom, coaching, mentorship, and critical thinking.

Some of us still appreciate you.

Someone asked me...is stretching better before or after rehab?

My actual answer... neither matters as much as you think.
In fact, I think this is the wrong question...

Stretching is one of the most overrated tools in the rehab and fitness toolkit.

There I said it.
I know that stings...But hear me out...

Its not because it doesn't have a time and place
in the rehab --> fitness continuum...
Or that there aren't use cases where it's helped someone.
Or that flexibility isn't a worthwhile goal.

It's more that from what I've seen in thousands of people who have come see me for a pain/movement problem...

All have tried stretching and gotten nowhere...
They come see me and say...
"But I've been doing my stretches, and it just won't get better..."

and that it almost never addresses the actual reason they're stiff, in pain, or not recovering.

Muscle tightness isn't a diagnosis or condition...

It's the end result of a nervous system whose sum of all the available perceptual evidence is that you're unsafe.

It's the nervous system protecting a joint it just doesn't trust to move with precision...

Or protecting a stressed system on the edge of failure...

Passive stretching doesn't do a particularly good job at addressing any of these issues from an adaptations standpoint...

it's just turning down the volume k**b for a few minutes on the noisy safety net of pain and tightness...

What actually changes it?

Load.
Movement.
Strength through range.
Re-writing the broken narratives in your head.
Showing your nervous system that the range is safe and controllable...not just possible.

Static stretching before rehab can temporarily reduce force production for a short period of time...
not a huge deal as it'll return but could impact the session...
I prefer dynamic warm ups, and isometric work instead...

After rehab it's relatively benign...
but still mostly theater if it's not connected to a specific goal.

Before or after isn't the question.
"Why" is the question.

Follow for more evidence-informed takes on rehab and performance, that give it to you straight with no fluff and biased only towards getting great results for my athletes.

"Your posture is terrible. That's why you're in pain."

I've heard some version of that sentence more times than I can count.
It's said by well-meaning physical therapists, personal trainers, coaches, and parents...
usually while pointing at someone's forward head, rounded shoulders, or lumbar curve like it's a crime scene.

Here's the truth: posture isn't the problem.
Or at least, it's almost never the problem.

Think about it this way.

Posture is a screenshot of a video.
It gives you a single frame — a data point about where someone's body prefers to hang out at rest.
But it tells you almost nothing about the full story.
And pain lives in the video, not the screenshot.

What I'm actually interested in when I evaluate someone isn't how they stand or sit.
It's how well they can deviate from that position.

Can they move in and out of their resting posture freely and efficiently?
Does their body have the variability to handle the demands being placed on it — the sport, the training, the job, the lifestyle?

Because here's the thing about "bad posture"... the body adapts to what it does most.

A pitcher who throws 150 balls in practice develops asymmetries.
A lineman who fires out of a three-point stance develops a specific hip and spinal pattern.
A desk worker develops a flexion bias.
None of those are inherently problems.

They become problems when the body loses the capacity to move beyond that pattern...
when the deviation is gone and the screenshot becomes the only frame available.

The best posture isn't perfect alignment.
It's adaptable alignment.
A body that can move well from wherever it rests, respond to what the environment demands, and do it without restriction.

That's what we assess. That's what we train. That's what we treat.

Stop chasing perfect posture. Start chasing better variability.

The Movement Underground | Seaford, Long Island, NY

Have you ever been told your posture was causing your pain? What did they say? Drop it in the comments — I'd love to address it.

That viral scapular mobilization technique you keep seeing?

You know...the one where the therapist grabs the medial border and cranks the scap off the rib cage like he's opening a clam?

Yeah, that one.
It's stupid.

And not because manual therapy can't be helpful.
It's just that its hard for me to unlearn what I know.

So, in an honest attempt to help you all out...
patients and clinicans alike,
i'm gonna put you on some game.

Scap game.

The scapulothoracic joint isn't a true joint.
There's no joint capsule, no synovial fluid, no anatomical reason to treat it like something that needs to be "opened."

I honestly never understood why this maneuver was done, although admittedly performing the very technique in question for years, despite my inner nerd raging inside that it made no sense.

The scapula glides on the thorax through a layer of loose connective tissue and the serratus anterior...
and that glide is neurologically governed, and rarely structurally restricted.

When you forcibly pry the scap off the rib cage, you're not mobilizing a joint.

You're creating a mechanical lever on a bone that has no bony articulation to mobilize.

What actually drives better scapular mobility?

Working through the tissue in prone with the scapula flush against the thorax.

Addressing the posterior capsule, the periscapular musculature, and the thoracic mobility that governs how freely the scap can move.

S**t, I'd rather someone lay on a foam roller and breathe for 5 minutes, and would improve their scap mobility more than that BS.

But as always, techniques are meaningless unless you get the change to lock in, and the only way to do that is to train it.

So the absolute best way to get this done is to follow any treatment up with active movement and training.

Less invasive. More tissue-specific. More neurologically honest.

Looks less impressive on camera.
Works better in real life.

“Your glutes don’t just forget how to fire…” 🔥

For the love of God, please don’t listen to ANY trainer who thinks muscles can turn “on or off”, have memory, or store your old hurt feelings...

Not a day goes by I don't have to gently untangle the web of bu****it a well intentioned trainer or therapist left with a patient.

So let's get this one straight...

Muscles contract in response to the position of joints. Period.

Neurologically speaking, joint position sense…
aka proprioception precedes tissue stretch or load sensation when it comes to movement control.

Thats science talk for...

Your brain isn’t guessing when it comes to movement. It’s perceiving, planning, then confirming/denying if the movement plan was executed.

It’s constantly choosing the path of least resistance based on the information it’s getting from your joints first, then your tissues.

If your pelvis is in a bad position, through habits, poor mobility, or just fatigue and form break down...

your glutes aren’t suddenly “dysfunctional”…
They’re just out-leveraged.

So what do we do with that “tight” low back?

We don’t just “release” it.

We shift the tone by repositioning the joints to give other muscles, like your glutes, the mechanical advantage to do their job.

This isn’t guesswork. It’s sensory hierarchy.

Joint > Tissue

So if your client can connect to a muscle, check their joint mobility. It’s missing somewhere. 😉

Riemann, B. L., & Lephart, S. M. (2002). The Sensorimotor System, Part I: The Physiologic Basis of Functional Joint Stability. Journal of Athletic Training, 37(1), 71–79.

This paper outlines how articular afferents provide critical information for initiating motor responses before muscular or cutaneous feedback kicks in.

I'm all for trying to help people make more sense of their body..IF THEY ARE INTERESTED...but always remember the words you choose have impact, direct or indirect.

The words manual therapists use in the clinic aren't just communication.
They're part of the treatment.
And so many clinicians say things that move the conversation forward, but stop patients dead in their tracks.

These are some of the most common ones, that definitely need a reframe.
We can be honest about what hands on care does, and doesn't do, and create an environment for healing and growth...

Don't fall into these word traps!\
"Breaking up scar tissue" creates a mental image of damage that needs an expert to fix.

"Body out of alignment" makes someone feel structurally broken until they come back.

"You must return" builds dependency, not confidence.

None of these are malicious.
Most therapists who say them believe them.

But the the evidence is pretty clear...how we frame a patient's pain directly shapes how they experience it, recover from it, and whether they feel capable of managing it themselves.

The biggest knock on manual therapy is that it creates over-reliance on the therapist.
And honestly?
That's the easiest thing in the world to fix — with honest communication and transparency about what hands-on work actually does.

It changes the brain's opinion of a sensitive area.
It creates a window. Exercise locks the change in.

That's not a lesser explanation. It's just the more accurate one.

Save this. Send it to a clinician you trust.

Follow for sports rehab and manual therapy content that respects both the evidence and the patient.

Most mobility work is random.
Junk Volume.
A time pit.

Pick a stretch. Hold it forever. Feel a little looser.
Do it again tomorrow. Seemingly no progress from last time.
And then wonder why nothing changes.

What you're watching here is different.
This is the Underground Assessment process in action...
and it starts before we touch anything.

We look at the whole athlete.
What sport. What position. The injuries. The goals.
What movements are demanding the most from their body.
Where the gap is between what their body is currently adapted for and what the game actually requires.

Then we test.
I this case...Hip mobility,specifically rotational capacity and competency... as this baseball pitcher was plagued with back pain after throwing, and knew something in his delivery was off...

The mobility work we prescribe isn't random.
It's targeted to the exact constraint that's limiting performance or driving pain.

We test it. We treat it. We retest it....
so we know it moved the needle before we send them home with a plan.

Random mobility work is a time waster.
Strategic mobility work is a force multiplier.

Save this if you've been stretching the same things for months with nothing to show for it.

Follow for sports rehab and performance content built on process, not guesswork.

Shoulder hurts when you press?

You don't need to skip chest day.
Maybe just a few tweaks to your program.

Most shoulder pain during pressing comes down to one thing... the context of the load relative to where you're currently sensitive.

The flat barbell bench puts your shoulder in its most exposed position — arm flared, scapula pinned to the bench, movement fixed between two solid implement... For a shoulder that's already sensitized, that's a stacked deck that may just need a break.

Here are 3 pressing variations that keep the stimulus high and the shoulder stress low:

1. Floor Press — Eliminates the bottom range, but preserves much of the classic pressing pattern, without the irritation end range bit...for now.
Still loads the chest and triceps where it counts.

2. Half-Kneeling Landmine Press — The arced path of the bar allows the shoulder and shoulder blade to work together, unfixed from a bench.
Unilateral. Core demanded. Scap free. A solid shoulder friendly pressing option.

3. Cable Press / Push — Continuous tension, arm stays in front of the body, scapula gets to move around the rib cage...
One of the most underrated shoulder-friendly pressing tools in the building.

Shoulder pain isn't a stop sign.
It's a reroute.

Save this for your next upper body day and don't leave the gym if your shoulder is flared up. Modify and KEEP GOING!

Follow for training and rehab content that keeps you in the game.

In 20 years of working with athletes, I've noticed something that has nothing to do with the injury itself.

It has to do with the decision that gets made in the first 48 hours after it happens.
There are two types of people.

The first type treats the injury like a verdict.
They go home, rest too long, spiral into worst-case thinking, and slowly let the setback become their story.
They cancel commitments.
They stop training the things they can train.
They talk about what they used to be able to do.

The injury becomes a reason — for everything.
Why they can't compete. Why they can't commit.
Why they can't get back to who they were before.
Underneath it all, the injury gave them something they were already looking for: an exit ramp.

The second type treats the injury like information.
It hurts. It's real. They're not in denial.
But almost immediately, they start asking different questions.
What do I still have? What can I improve right now?
What was this trying to tell me that I ignored?

They come back from the forced break stronger in the ways that can't be measured — more focused, more patient, more dangerous. The injury didn't break their identity.
It sharpened it.

I've been both, at different points in my life.
I know which one I choose now.
And I know which one I build this place for.

The Movement Underground exists for people who use adversity as fuel.
Athletes and active adults who aren't looking for a reason to stop — they're looking for the right team to help them keep going.

If that's you, welcome.

If you're looking for someone to validate the exit ramp — this isn't your page, and that's okay.

🎙️ From my episode of What Are You Made Of with Mikey C-Roc.
Full episode linked in comments.

The Movement Underground | Seaford, Long Island, NY

Drop a 🔥 if you're Type 2. And tag someone who came back from an injury better than before.