Empty Can and Full can tests

The ‘empty can’ (EC) and ‘full can’ (FC) tests have been promoted as being able to isolate activity to supraspinatus and are therefore diagnostic of supraspinatus dysfunction. While both EC and FC tests activated supraspinatus to levels approximately 90%, eight other shoulder muscles tested including other rotator cuff... muscles (infraspinatus and upper subscapularis), scapular positioning muscles (upper, middle and lower trapezius, and serratus anterior), and abduction torque producing muscles (anterior and middle deltoid) were activated to similarly high levels. In addition, supraspinatus and posterior deltoid were activated to similarly high levels in the EC test. Therefore, these tests should not be interpreted as definitive tests for the clinical diagnosis of supraspinatus pathology > from Boettcher et al.; Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 12 (2009) 435–439