I remember being told countless times in Pilates classes to “squeeze a pencil between the shoulder blades”during class. I even remember using this popular cue myself when I first started out in the industry. It was supposed to be a way to bring people into better posture by stabilizing their scapulas. However, once I learned more about biomechanics and I began seeing anecdotally over the years the negative results it was creating in my clients, I started to question whether or not it was a worth while cue. These days you'll rarely hear me using it (if ever) in my online studio KORE | KINECT and here's why.
The shoulder girdle is a complex structure that relies on equal distribution of forces between the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint, the clavicles, the scapulas, and the attached muscles that work to both stabilize and mobilize the bones. Muscle imbalances in the upper body can become a biomechanics nightmare and lead to things like acute injuries, shoulder impingement, and chronic neck pain.
The teachings of Tom Myer’s with myofascial meridians show that there is a fascial connection between the rhomboids and the seratus anterior muscles. The rhomboids help retract and downwardly rotate the scapula, whereas the seratus anterior muscles protract and upwardly rotate the scapula.
When we squeeze the shoulder blades together, the idea is that the scapulas will simply retract or get closer together. But, what usually happens is that the rhomboids (and upper traps by association) end up pulling the scapulas both in and UP (notice the diagonal direction of muscle fibers in the image to the left). Try squeezing your shoulder blades together now and see how it feels. This position isn’t inherently bad, but when a majority of us tend to hunch over during the day, we are already stuck in a downwardly rotated position of the shoulder blades and therefore have more dominant rhomboids and weaker seratus anterior muscles (ever seen someone’s should blades “winging” off their rib cage?) Too much downward rotation of the scapula is the least stable position for the shoulder blade and, as mentioned earlier, can cause issues like shoulder impingement and chronic pain.
Because there is rotation involved in all joint actions of the shoulder girdle and the attached muscles, a cue that uses some element of rotation would make much more sense than simply thinking about squeezing something between the blades. So, to help your brain understand what posteriorly tilting your shoulder girdle and upwardly rotating your scapulas feels like, let's use this analogy taught to me by my former teacher Milla Nova. Locate your clavicles (ie collar bones). Now, imagine those bones are two keys inserting into a lock at the top of your sternum (breastbone). Then imagine turning those keys backwards inside of the lock and then pulling them out laterally. When you do that, you should feel the chest widening to create more space in the front of your shoulders (without having to squeeze anything) and a subtle engagement of the seratus anterior muscles anchoring your wing bones onto your ribcage.
So, for exercises that require scapular retraction (see example in the images below), instead of thinking about "squeezing the shoulder blades together", imagine widening the collar bones and lifting the sternum AS you open the forearms. Then, you can achieve the benefits of retraction WITHOUT the unwanted build up of neck and shoulder tension in the process. You can find a full video demonstration of what this looks like in the body HERE.
As always, train smarter, not harder.
Love,
Kourtney
Ps. Please let me know if this was helpful in the comments below.
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