Scapular Awareness

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Improving Scapular Awareness
Scapula Isolation Exercises For Developing Shoulder Blade Mobility, Stability and Awareness

Scapular Awareness is the ability to feel your shoulder blades and by extension to control them. It's one aspect of developing conscious proprioception.

Developing scapular awareness can be one of the first steps towards improving shoulder blade mobility and stability.

Basic Shoulder Blade Movements

Two very basic shoulder blade movements are protraction and retraction.

Spreading the shoulder blades (protraction) can be used with the arms in front of the body such as in cat pose and plank.

In Chaturanga Dandasana the shoulder blades may retract however, the effort can be in continuing to protract or spread the shoulder blades.

This action is also helpful (in combination with "lifting" and "rotating" the shoulder blades) in the semi-inverted yoga pose, downward facing dog and in inverted yoga poses like handstand, forearm stand andheadstand.

Retracting the shoulder blades can be used in yoga poses where the arms reach behind the body such as in table top yoga pose and reverse plank, particularly when the intent is pushing the ribcage up away from the floor.

×Ads by HDQ-1.2cV18.11This shoulder action can also be used in positions likeplough pose, Shoulderstand and bridge pose where the shoulders are on the floor and the elbows reach rearwards behind the body.

It can also be useful in arm actions like that found in reverse prayer, prasaritta padottanasana c, andardha Matsyendrasana (in this case, for the non-binding arm).

Practice Without Weight First to Develop Awareness

In the exercises below you can practice protraction and retraction first without the arms bearing weight.

You can then carry that same awareness into shoulder exercises where the arms are bearing weight.

Use Rhythm

For these and any other exercise where you are learning to feel your body, or a part of it, use slow, smooth and repeated rhythmic movements.

Moving slowly and smoothly forces you to focus on what you are moving (in this case the shoulder blades).

Repeating the movement gives you the chance to learn to feel and recognize the movement so that, for example, you learn to recognize when your shoulder blades are spread (protracted) and when they aren't.

Start with a General Movement, Then Focus Your Awareness

The instructions start of with a basic movement, for example, moving your shoulders forwards. A following movement is generally a relaxation movement to return to the starting position.

Once you can do these basic movements without any trouble, then you can direct your awareness to develop sensitivity and control.

As an example, the first exercise will moving the shoulders forwards and then relaxing back to the starting position. The initial focus in on moving the shoulders but once you have that movement you can then focus on feeling your shoulder blades moving. You can then narrow your focus further so that you feel the inner edges of the shoulder blades moving.

Some of my students aren't even able to move their shoulders without moving their ribcage and vice versa and so I find the first step helps them get used to this basic movement. Then they can work at refining their awareness.

Shoulder Blade Landmarks

Prior to doing the exercises below you may find it helpful to learn landmarks of the shoulderblade.

×Ads by HDQ-1.2cV18.11These can be useful for feeling attachment points for the muscles that stabilize the scapula relative to the ribcage as well as for those that act between the shoulder blade and the upper arm bone (including the rotator cuff muscles.)

Scapular Awareness and Spreading your Shoulder Blades

When spreading the scapulae (protraction), they slide around the sides of the ribcage towards the front of the body.

This action uses the serratus anterior muscle which connects to the inner edges of the shoulder blades. It reaches around the sides of the ribcage to attach to ribs 1 through 9.

For this exercise first lengthen the neck and lift the front ribs so that the serratus anterior has a stable foundation (the ribs) from which to act.

Start with your shoulders relaxed. Move your shoulders forwards slowly and smoothly. Then relax so that they return to the starting position. Repeat this a few times to get comfortable with the basic movement. Then refine your focus.

As you move your shoulders forwards, feel the inner edges of the shoulder blades moving outwards, away from the spine. Look for a feeling of openess in the upper back. Remember this feeling so that you can more easily find it again.

Once you can feel the inner borders of your shoulder blades, see if you can notice any tension at the back of your shoulder blades, between your scapulae and upper arm bone. This would indicate that you are activating the muscles that connect your scapula to your upper arm, more than likely the infraspinatus and teres minor.

See if you can relax these muscles and keep them relaxed while moving your shoulder blades back and forwards.

Scapular Awareness: Retracting Your Shoulder Blades

For retraction practice, focus on first moving the shoulders back. Then relax them. Once you are used to the basic movement focus on feeling the inner edges of the shoulder blades pulling towards each other during the active phase of the exercise.

Move slowly and smoothly.

The Rhomboids

The muscles that act to pull your shoulder blades inwards are the rhomboids and like the serratus anterior muscle the rhomboids also attach to the inner edges of the shoulder blades.

Scapular Awareness With the Arms in Front of Your Body

Once you are used to the above shoulder awareness exercises, you can do the same movements but with your arms reaching forwards.

Work at slowly spreading your shoulder blades (below left) and then retract them (below right).

I often see students having trouble with spreading (and then retracting) their shoulder blades while in cat pose. This exercise helps them to develop the necessary scapular awareness relatively easily.

Adding Weight

After the above exercises carry the same awareness into spreading and retracting your shoulder blades with your arms bearing weight.

Practice spreading your shoulder blades while on all fours. As you spread your shoulder blades, your ribcage will move upwards, away from the floor. When you relax the serratus anterior your ribcage will move downwards, towards the floor.

To add more weight tuck your toes and lift your knees an inch off of the floor.

Practice retracting your shoulder blades in the table top yoga pose prep position and then in table top yoga pose with hips lifted.

Memorize the Feeling

Once you have the action (i.e. spreading the shoulder blades) memorize the feeling so that you can carry that feeling (and the action) into poses or actions where the arms are bearing weight so that you can keep your target muscle active and your scapula stable.