yogabook / explorations / elevate shoulder blade

Elevate shoulder blade

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last update: 30.5.2003
Name: Elevate shoulder blade

• Classification
• Contraindication
• Diagnostics
• Instructions
• details
• Variants

Instructions

1. Stand in tadasana and let the arms fall loosely beside the body.
2. Pull the shoulder blades upwards as far as possible. Then lower them again. Repeat this until the movement is familiar and the range of movement can be assessed.
3. Extend both arms with maximum exorotation in the shoulder joint as far up as possible in maximum frontal abduction of the shoulder, raising the shoulder blades to the maximum.
4. Allow the shoulder blades to drop to the maximum without changing the alignment of the arms, bending in the elbow joints or changing the rotation in the shoulder joint.
5. Now move the shoulder blades (with the arms) up and down and make sure that the arms only move exactly up and down, i.e. that they are always on the same line, i.e. that apart from their height they do not change their position in space and, if possible, do not change their rotation.
6. In the final step, a supporter can compare the available ROM with the arms raised to that with the arms against the body.

details

1. This exploration is intended to give a feeling for the elevation and depression of the shoulder blades, but also to show whether there is a difference in the elevation abilityof the shoulder blades depending on the position of the arms and if so, how great this difference is.
2. If there is a significant difference, this is mainly due to the tension of the two powerful adductor muscles of the shoulder joint, which originate from the trunk and attach to the upper arm: Latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major. Depending on the shortening of these two muscles, the shoulder blade may be able to be elevated unhindered when the arms are next to the body, but if the arms are moved in frontal abduction, the flexibility of these muscles is no longer sufficient and either the arms cannot be raised completely or the shoulder blade inevitably sinks when an attempt is made to raise them completely. In addition, a lateral deviation of the arm is observed, which corresponds to a reduced lateral abduction, and the arm usually leaves the maximum external rotation.