functional exercise: training of the shoulder blade elevators

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Training of the shoulder blade elevators


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last update: 30.10.2023
Level: A

Instructions

  1. Stand upright and hold a dumbbell in each hand with an outstretched arm.
  2. Slowly raise your shoulder blades with your arms and dumbbell and lower your shoulder blades again a little more slowly than you raised them.

Details

  1. The principle of this exercise is to strengthen the shoulder blade elevators, which is intended to make them more resilient to the work they have to do every day. On the one hand, this work consists of holding the shoulder blades in position, as they rest on the posterior thorax in a purely muscle-led manner. Apart from the largely transverse clavicle, which articulates with the acromion of the shoulder blade in the ACG, the shoulder blades have no articular connection to other bones that would hold or guide them. Support and movement on the back is provided by two muscles that lie between the scapula and thorax: the subscapularis and serratus anterior. These two form the so-called scapulothoracic gliding bearing. The second load to which the scapulothoracic elevators can be exposed are postures and movements in which the arms are stretched upwards away from the trunk, for example to stroke a ceiling or change a light bulb in a ceiling lamp, but also the arm pulls in crawl swimming or writing overhead on a blackboard. During such movements, the shoulder blade is often elevated in order to reach the object better. In addition, when the arm is raised by about 90°, the shoulder blades are externally rotated, especially sideways, and to a lesser extent forwards, i.e. the trapezius in particular pulls the upper outer edge of the spina scapulae medially and thus rotates the lower shoulder blade outwards in a virtual pivot point. The trapezius with its pars descendens is significantly involved in both movements, elevation and external rotation, so that this muscle area in particular quickly assumes an excessive tone under these activities. Another cause of partially elevated shoulder blades is very common: it is psychogenic and is based on tension, the desire to hide, the feeling of coldness or sometimes in adolescent young women as the desire to hide the increasingly prominent breasts, then often associated with a protraction of the shoulder blades. These postures of the shoulder blades are often held with few interruptions over many hours of the day, which usually leads to chronic tension and shortening. No strengthening exercise is able to compensate for the damaging effect of the incorrect posture mentioned; only posture awareness and a better and more consistent posture can help here. Nonetheless, strengthening the trapezius can improve resilience compared to the consciously undertaken and sometimes unintentionally prolonged elevations of the shoulder blades and, in the case of chronic poor posture, at least provide relief.
  2. The speed of raising (elevating) and lowering (depressing) the shoulder blades and the time spent in the elevated and depressed position can be varied. The dwell time has an influence on the development of the tone of the scapular elevators. If the elevated position is held for longer, this would tend to increase the tone; if the depressed position is held for longer, the tone would tend to decrease. The dumbbell walk (farmer’s walk) is also based on this. Also in the action of raising and lowering, the areas of greater sarcomere length, i.e. the area near the depression, tend to lower the tone, while the area near the elevation increases the tone.
  3. The two most important muscles that lift (elevate) the scapula are the trapezius with its pars descendens and the levator scapulae. Both lift the scapula, whereby the latter, unlike the former, is not involved in the external rotation of the scapula, but would rather cancel it out and is usually less affected when overhead work tenses the muscles.
  4. Similar to the dumbbell walk (farmer’s walk), the grip strength can also limit the execution before the trapezius itself becomes fatigued.