Alternative Title: Why You Can’t Just Pin Your Shoulder Blades Down and Back for Ever and Always
Alternative-Alternative Title: Your Shoulders are Meant to Move, Dummy!
Performing a body weight or bent over row? Cue: “Shoulders down and back!”
Setting up a clean or deadlift?” Cue: “Shoulders down and back!”
Carrying groceries? Cue: “Shoulders down and back!”
Want to earn double your current salary while working from home (but also never working another day in your life)? You should probably sit leisurely while typing on your non-work computer with your shoulders down and back.
This cue is effectively the golden rule of exercise, aside from remembering to “lift with your legs, not your back” (I believe whoever popularized this doesn’t understand anatomy, but what do I know?).
While I theorize that the prevalence of this phrase comes from trainers and physiotherapists seeing a litany of clients exhibit excessive thoracic kyphosis (rounding of the upper back, or hunchback), scapular winging, egregious levels of upper trap and levator scapulae (aka neck muscles) engagement coupled with zero or minimal rhomboid function, and the like. For these dysfunctions of the upper back and shoulders, getting people out of a chest-closed, back-disengaged position is a clear priority.
But…
The shoulder blades, as part of a ball and socket joint, are meant to move! In so many ways:
1) Protraction vs. Retraction (abduction vs. adduction or towards and away from the spine)
2) Elevation vs. Depression (up and down)
3) Upward Rotation vs. Downward Rotation (imagine circular arrows going opposite directions)
4) Anterior vs. Posterior Tilt (think of a water bucket tipping forward vs. backward)
5) Internal vs. External Rotation (with elbow at 90 degrees by your side, forearm moves toward mid line, then away)
Often times these movements do not happen in isolation of each other outside of a clinical environment - especially in an athletic setting, the shoulder blades are moving in many ways at once. When hanging on a bar, for instance, the shoulder blades upwardly rotate, protract and elevate to bring the arms into position overhead. When contracting the lower traps, lats and rhomboids to begin a pull-up, the shoulder blades reverse that movement - depressing, abducting and rotating downward to initiate raising your torso towards the bar.
All of this to say: For us to focus on only two of ten possible independent movement patterns, even if well intentioned from the perspective of counteracting the most typical scapular dysfunction, creates an oversimplified, broad brush-stroke approach that results in an equal-and-opposite reaction landing us at the other end of the spectrum.
The key is to understand when it is important to keep the shoulder blades pinned down and back, versus the exercises for which allowing the shoulder blades to move about the rib is necessary to realize their full benefit: When deadlifting and squatting, keeping the shoulder blades in place is necessary because the hips are the primary movers in that exercise. While the hips and knees move from flexion into extension (or vis versa), the spine must stay rigid - and the shoulder blades locked into place as a secondary mechanism of reinforcing that rigidity. When performing upper body pulling and pushing movements aside from the bench press (pull ups, push ups, rows and overhead presses), to restrict the shoulder blades from moving away from the spine would be inhibiting the full range of motion of the movement and not allowing the proper muscle groups to effectively contract - a more visually obvious version of this would be to not extend the arms all the way when performing a pull up. You’ll probably notice if someone starts the next rep of their pull up set with the elbows still bent, but you might not notice if the shoulder blades elevate and move away from the spine. Bench press is the most notable exception to this - you definitely want to keep your shoulder blades depressed and retracted when benching, as this creates a necessary stable ‘shelf’ from which to initiate the movement and protect the shoulder capsule and rotator cuff under heavy weight.
I promise I’m going somewhere with this, because we’ve finally made it to… the star of the show, Glenohumeral Rhythm! (Don’t act like you’re not excited; after all, you’ve made it this far.)
Glenohumeral rhythm is the coordinated coupled motion between the scapula and humerus, which is needed for efficient arm movement and allows for glenohumeral alignment in order to maximize joint stability. source 2:1 is the generally accepted ratio for the relationship between glenohumeral elevation and scapular upward rotation. That is to say: when the arm is rotated 180 degrees, 120 degrees occurs from the humerus at the shoulder joint, and 60 degrees from the scapula. Here’s the kicker: Scapular dyskinesis has been reported in 70-100% people with shoulder injuries including glenohumeral instability, rotator cuff abnormalities, and labral tears. source
Wait, what?
Basically, if you repeatedly pin your shoulder blades back while also moving the arm overhead, over time, you will teach your shoulder blades to remain fixed in one of their several natural positions - all of which exist for a functional reason. Especially when doing so under load, this will result in compensatory mechanisms over time (for example, over activation of rhomboids, which exist to retract your shoulder blades, or under utilization of the serratus anterior, which function to rotate the shoulder blades forward and up around the ribcage). While over activation of the scapular retractors may prevent you from resembling the hunchback of notre dame, your serratus anterior may become underutilized.
One of my favorite exercises to build awareness around controlled shoulder protraction is the TRX serratus slide, which I discovered thanks to Meghan Callaway, aka the fitness world’s unofficial Queen of Innovation and Creative Exercise Creation.
Here, she performs them with a single arm, because she is strong and badass with incomparable lumbo-pelvic stability. I suggest beginning with two arms to get the hang of it.
Another exercise to help facilitate serratus activation is the landmine press. I absolutely love using the landmine press for two and a half reasons:
1) As the closest alternative to barbell or dumbbell overhead pressing for angsty shoulders that feel crunchy and/or terrible pressing straight up.
2) As a fantastic way to coach the feeling of the scooping of the shoulder blades upward in a J-shaped pattern with a press, due to the diagonal angle provided by the landmine.
2.5) Because Eric Cressey said so (In case you hadn’t heard, Eric Cressey is always right. If there was a WWECD bracelet, I would wear it).
So, with a couple exercises and perhaps a hair too much anatomy over the desirable amount that should be present in any given blog post, I leave you here. Perhaps the next time you do a scap-push up, row, press or pull-up, your brain will draw some attention to the various positions that your shoulder blades move though. If you begin to notice that your scapulae stay tucked towards your back pockets as a hard and fast rule - no matter what exercise you are performing - I hope that now you have some guidance as to when and why it may be appropriate let them move and groove!
