The “empty can” is performed with the thumbs pointed towards the ground (as if pouring liquid out from a can). The “full can” is performed in the opposite manner with the thumbs pointed towards the sky. . While the “empty can” is often used as a clinically as a test by medical professionals to rule in or out a shoulder impingement injury, suggestions to use the “empty can” as an exercise can be traced back as far as the early 1980’s. While this exercise may activate the supraspinatus just as muc

EMPTY CAN FOR SUBACROMIAL PAIN SYNDROME AND ISOLATED SUPRASPINATUS TESTING? The empty can (EC) test have been promoted as being able to isolate activity to supraspinatus and are therefore diagnostic of supraspinatus dysfunction. However, Boettcher et al. (2009) examined the EMG activity of 13 muscles in 15 normal subjects and found that the EC test also equally activated nine other shoulder muscles: On the other hand, Jain et al. (2017) have evaluated this test with the goal of diagnosing rotato