Lecture Part Two: Building on our foundation: Scapulohumeral rhythm, and scapular glide, in postures

Rough Transcript from class (Expect Typos)

Building on our foundation: Scapulohumeral rhythm, and scapular glide, in postures

  1. Bringing it all together: Up until this point we have worked with the core musculature surrounding the scapula itself, the rotator cuff, as well as bridging up to the more functional movers of the scapula, the lower trapezius and serratus anterior. We took time to visualize the movement of the scapula as a surfboard on the cresting wave of the rib cage, and mapped this movement with our hands in order to better visualize the scapular glide. We also worked with the train barrier crossing arm visualization in order to better understand how this scapular movement relates to the movement of the humerus (arm), the dance of scapulohumeral rhythm that must be present for the shoulders to achieve optimal function. Now we will take that thorough foundation and introduction to movement in the shoulder and apply it to various angles and weight bearing positions of our postures.

  2. Scapula and Shoulder movement and Posture workshop: The actions of the scapula are relatively simple, they move up and down (elevation and depression), out and in (protraction and retraction), and they also rotate up and down (upward and downward rotation. Those actions alone are helpful to see, but they are rarely performed in isolation. That’s why its important to also see how the scapulas glide and surf over the ribs as you move the arm through its range of motion, as well as what problems might occur for individuals, and how you can address those problems as you teach:

      1. Shoulder flexion, lifting your arm up in front of you, elevates and upwardly rotates your scapula.

        1. Example of this action in yoga: Lifting arms overhead in a variety of postures, table, plank, AMS, Handstand, Bhakasana

        2. Problems we might encounter with this action: with tight upper traps from stress,  head forward, postural imbalance this action will come from the upper traps only causing them to get tighter.

        3. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student: Relax the shoulders before you move and ‘scoop’ the air up in front of you to allow the scapulas to upwardly rotate.

        4. Cheetahs

      2. Shoulder extension, reaching your arm back behind you, depresses and downwardly rotates your scapula

        1. let’s do reverse table series, unfurling purvottanasana

        2. Example of this action in yoga: interlacing hands behind back in parsvo or rabbit, reverse table/ plank, crab

        3. Problems we might encounter with this action: sagging or over depressing

        4. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student: let the ribcage lift into the shoulders, make sure the scapula have room to move in both directions- in rabbit- reach knuckles to sky (scapula continue to depress instead of letting them drop overhead)

        5. crab walks

      3. Shoulder Abduction, lifting your arm up to the side of your body, upwardly rotates your scapula

        1. Example of this action in yoga:

          1. open circuit: Virabhadrasana 2

          2. closed circuit: side plank, wild thing

        2. Problems we might encounter with this action: similar to shoulder flexion,  the upper traps can do most of the work, we can sink into shoulder joint in weight bearing

        3. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student:

          1. non weight- bearing: float the arms to T, squeeze the arms into the body and then let them float.

          2. For weight bearing-push down into the arm to lift the neck away from the shoulder (this person might also need more support like knees down)

        4. Forearm side plank hip raises

      4. Shoulder Adduction (Eagle arms), bringing your shoulder back down from the side, or towards mid line, downwardly rotates your scapula

        1. let’s do eagle arms

        2. Example of this action in yoga: eagle arms, vasistasasana with the top arm alongside the body

        3. Problems we might encounter with this action: going to far

        4. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student:

      5. Shoulder Internal Rotation (Dolphin), with elbow bent and in next to the body, the act of bringing the palm of your hand across mid line towards other arm, protracts the scapula.

        1. Example of this action in yoga: anjali mudra, cow face arms (bottom arm), Headstand, Dolphin, wide push up,

        2. Problems we might encounter with this action: going too far, not enough support and awareness on the back of the arm and back of the body.

        3. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student: avoid creating pressure on the front of the shoulder joint, more weight on the pinky side, bend the elbow, try to support your shoulder from the back

      6. Shoulder external rotation, from the same bent elbow position, bringing the back side of the hand towards the space behind you, retracts the scapula.

        1. Example of this action in yoga: goal post arms, top arm in cow face

        2. Problems we might encounter with this action: tight pecs

        3. How we can cue the shoulder and arms to support the student:

        4. Wild Thing

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