Today is exercise day. No easy day to finish out the week. We have been working on the sides of the neck and down to the shoulder this week, focusing on pulling those shoulders back to decrease risk for compression injury and to help fight postural alteration. The next thing to do is to exercise those structures to help activate those weak and tired muscles around the shoulder.
The stronger the muscles of the shoulder are and the better your posture is, the easier it is for us to maintain the correct working postures for the day. The scapula or shoulder blade, is a moveable bone on the back with a physiologic joint space with the back of the rib cage. This bone should move in all directions when different muscles around the shoulder are activated. When this doesn't happen several conditions of the shoulder are likely to occur.
Our goal today is to move contract the large muscles attaching to the scapula to get it to move and to strengthen those muscles. This one can be somewhat tricky to perform, so be patient. I have had some people that were so tight here it took them some time to get things to start moving well again.
To perform this: Stand in front of a wall with the arms outstretched, hands about shoulder width apart and lean in to the wall. Keep the elbows straight. Start by pinching your shoulder blades together and hold the position for 1 breath. Come back to the starting position. Next, push the arm into the wall to bring the trunk back, separating the shoulder blades and hold for 1 breath. Repeat the process for 2 sets of 10.
*The goal here is to activate the muscle to stimulate healing. Over time this will help improve stamina in the muscle and decrease fatigue through the day. If you have pain while doing this modify it to be pain free or skip it.
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