Lazy Scapula

Hey people, hope you are all doing something much more exciting than me for Spring Break! I have to work this weekend and we are just bumming around Michigan, not exactly a beacon a dazzling warm weather but maybe we will get lucky! My teacher husband is around so no matter what we will have a good week! Today is again Friday weigh-in day and right before I stepped on the scale I had an ominous feeling and said give me anything, give me just one lb! Well you get what you ask for sometimes.  I lost exactly one lb this week. Now I sort of wished I had aimed higher in my plea moments before weigh-in but I guess feeling bloated and yucky and battling chronic illness the way I have been I will be happy with one more lb down!

                

So on to today's topic! Today we are going to be talking about scapula or as you may know them, your shoulder blade.  You remember when we were discussing posture and we looked at this horrible posture:

These girls better have great personalities but I sort of doubt it by the way they carry themselves! And I described to you that the way you correct your posture involves pinching your shoulder blades together to sit up straight, we talked about that here.  One of the ways we get ourselves into the above "position" or get shoulder problems such as rotator cuff (please, please say cuff not cup! thank you!) problems is because we all walk around with lazy weak muscles in the back.  I am talking about these guys:

 I have never in my 6 years working evaluated someone who had full normal strength of all these muscles, usually someone is lacking significantly somewhere in here and that is why shoulder injuries are so prevalent.  Even the strongest weightlifters will come in with weakness because they often neglect to do the necessary exercises that strengthen these muscles that are so crucial for proper mechanics and alignment of the shoulder joint.  So what can we do so we don't have lazy scapula.  Here are some of the best exercises:

Lay over a ball (if you don't have one use an ottoman or something similar in size) bring your arms straight out to the side, palm down and lift up and down.  Focus on squeezing those lazy shoulder blades together. Think fly like a birdy! Repeat 10-15x.  If you have no pain and really good form and it seems to easy you can add 2# wts (or a can of soup) to each hand.



Then for the next one all you do is rotate your arms so your thumbs point up. Again arms up and down bird style and do 10-15 reps, with weight if too easy.

Next switch your arms to out in front of you like Superman (Superwoman!) position, do the same thing, 10-15x up and down now focusing on squeezing shoulder blades down and together.  Add weight if possible. 

  

 

 Lastly, you would never have guessed it, but you turn thumbs up and do one final set! 10-15x up and down now focusing on squeezing shoulder blades down and together.  Add weight if possible.  If you don't have a ball or an ottoman you can do one arm at a time off the side of the bed but it is more time consuming obviously. 

                     

  

  Before I show you some more exercises I want to point out that I often use my children as an excuse, albeit lame, for not exercising.  They don't exactly make things easier though and I can prove it, my handsome model had a little bit of trouble for the short duration of this photo shoot due to this sad child:

                                 

So now maybe you see I do have a bit of problem at times! But I know, I know, no excuses.  Back to the task at hand, non-lazy shoulders.  A few more great ideas for shoulder blade strengthening are rowing exercises and lat pull downs.  I usually recommend using a stretchy exercise band for these.  You can take your band and put a knot in the middle and then shut the knot in the door and you have it anchored for rowing.  I discovered a door that latches is really hard to come by in a really old, oh I mean, "Charming" house such as mine but we found one that worked. 

 

The first exercise your elbows are down, palms in, pull back and squeeze the shoulder blades together.  Again perform 10-15 reps. Make sure you keep your shoulders down (don't let them creep up to your ears) and keep the turtle position!

Next your elbows are out and your palms are down, you pull back and squeeze but now more the top of the shoulder blades.  Again perform 10-15 reps. And you still make sure you keep your shoulders down (don't let them creep up to your ears) and keep the turtle position!

                                

  

Lastly remove your knot from the doorway and move it to the top of the door for lat pull downs.  Stand close to the door, elbows out, pull back and down squeezing the shoulder blades down and together.  10-15 reps. (Just don't look up like my model, look straight ahead, turtle style, thanks, it was hard to correct his positioning and take pictures at the same time!)

                           

OK everyone, now I have equipped you with the sneaky tricks that will give you strong backs and shoulders and hopefully prevent you from having any future shoulder injuries.  If you currently have shoulder pain you probably need to do these all the more but if it hurts to do them it may be too soon.  As always here is my disclaimer: here. Can't wait to hear about you all conquering your lazy scapula! Good luck!