The Sports Physical Therapy Podcast · Mike Reinold

Testing the Athletic Shoulder with Ben Ashworth - Episode 41

·49 min·3 clips

Ben says, 'I didn't go to Arsenal for shoulder injuries. I went there for the money.'

1. The Sports Physical Therapy Podcast episode focuses on Ben Ashworth and the ash test for athletic shoulder testing. 2. Mike Reinald hosts Ben Ashworth, who is a physiotherapy practitioner, athletic shoulder consultant, and founder of athletic shoulder limited. 3. The episode asks what the ash test is for, how it was built, and how shoulder force testing fits return to play. 4. Ben traces his path from professional rugby in 2002 to Olympic sports, then Arsenal, then Sparta Prague. 5. He says his shoulder focus started in judo in 2009, where 23% of time-loss injuries were shoulders and 24% were knees. 6. Ben says repeated labral rehabs, strength and conditioning exposure, and conversations with people like Eric Cressy and Kelly Starrett shaped his approach. 7. Mike frames the work as a response to the gap in upper-extremity functional testing compared with lower-extremity testing. 8. Ben says the ash test came from combining hamstring isometric monitoring ideas with rugby contact problems at Saracens. 9. He describes the goal as measuring long levers and force production when the arm is away from the body. 10. The original reliability paper for the ash test was published in 2018. 11. The test places the athlete prone and asks for a maximal three-second push into force plates. 12. The three test positions are I, Y, and T, with the hand behind the back in the Y and T positions. 13. Ben says the Y and T positions create more trunk and pelvis stability demands than the I position. 14. He says the I position is usually 100%, the Y about 85%, and the T about 75% of I force. 15. Ben says limited overhead range can block the test entirely, especially in athletes with thoracic kyphosis or restricted motion. 16. He says asymmetry around 15% is a useful starting point for discussion, while 20% or more starts to raise concern. 17. When force plates are unavailable, Ben mentions blood pressure cuffs, dynamometers, and dumbbell holds as lower-tech options. 18. He prefers peak force and 100-millisecond rate of force development, because very short windows are too variable and longer windows become more reliable. 19. The conversation has an interview tone with detailed back-and-forth clinical discussion and frequent examples from rugby, judo, and overhead sport. 20. Listeners who coach or rehab shoulders and overhead athletes will get the most from this episode, while people wanting a general sports interview may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical shoulder-testing conversation that turns asymmetry into a usable clinical question.

Mike Reinald and Ben Ashworth work through a very practical shoulder-performance question: how to check force, range, and symmetry, and where movement that looks clean may no longer be clean enough.

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Why you'd press play

A practical shoulder-testing deep dive for clinicians looking for a line in the sand.

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