scapular instability

[I-mon]

what exercises do people recommend to remedy this?

my shoulders are totally hypermobile and it messes up a lot of things, as well as making me super prone to shoulder injuries whenever i get into serious wrestling.

turkish getups and overhead press with the KB are helping a lot, and now i'm adding resistance band work using a bicycle inner tube to help pull the shoulder back and down into its socket, and an exercise one of my trainers calls the "pushup plus" which is like a plank or pushup position just going up and down with the arms at full extension using the movement of the shoulder blades.

i've had crazy winging of the shoulder blades for a long time and it was never really addressed by my IMA practice (i guess it would have been eventually if i had stuck with a good teacher for long enough - as it was i had and still have all sorts of other physical fuckups which need work as well). i think it's quite a big deal for MA since it means that in most movements even if the body is moving well the arms sort of get left behind and have to catch up, so the power and connection gets lost.

[Ian]

bench press as frequently and with much weight as you can.

haha jk

I used to have this, on one side only, though. I don't have it anymore due to:

-Egoscue's exercise set (chapter 13 in Pain Free). Also various fine-tuning exercises (e.g. sitting scapular contractions, standing against a wall). I can't recommend these enough.
-Static or slow pushups with a mirror to check alignment and ensure that I'm stabilising the joints, not throwing them further out. Also static or slow inverted rows. For both exercises, 2 mintues with elbows at 90 degrees is my current favorite. Make sure your scapulae are back and down.



-Swimming, especially butterfly.

[everything]

It really depends on your particular issue, I think, but I have some issue on the left side. For me: keep shoulders pulled down and back. Do that isometrically different times of day. Push ups against wall. Pulling a band. Some rotator cuff work. Some work on a Pilates reformer - basically holding the shoulder area still while moving the lower body against resistance. Anything similar to that would probably help.

[kshurika]

Get into hatha yoga (Iyengar, of course). Learn to do chatturanga dandasana and do it a lot, holding it for longer and longer periods. Lots of down-dogs, up-dogs and handstands. All of them done correctly.

Winged scapulae can be indications of nerve damage. You should be looked at by an orthopedic surgeon and, depending upon his recommendation, a neurologist.

All the best.

[Brady]

I-mon you can do the capoeira stunts with winged shoulder blades? Impressive.

What motions cause your scaps to wing and do they sit winged at rest?
Imprtant question to answer before good exercises can be suggested I'd think.

[I-mon]

yeah i can do the kidney falls and lower from handstand to headstand and push back up to handstand, backwards walkovers and macacos, etc. my capoeira really isn't about stunts though.

they are slowly but surely getting better with the work i'm doing, especially since i started practicing the svastha yoga system - thanks for the chatturangadandasana tip btw kshurika i haven't been paying enough attention to the scapulae in this posture.

they used to wing a lot in san ti or holding the ball standing postures, now they don't wing at all in those postures, but they still wing a huge amount in plank and pushup postures.

[kshurika]

When you're doing chatturanga, make sure that your elbows are in tight to the ribs, the shoulders are down away from the ears, the shoulder blades are moving down your back towards the tops of your hips (and the tops of the hips are moving towards the heels) and the shoulder blades are moving into the back firmly. The femurs lift up to the ceiling while the sacrum moves down to the floor. "Lock in" by stretching the heels back and, as I said, by keeping those elbows in.

People who practice vinyasa with crap teachers always complain about how they've hurt their shoulders, but that's because they're not paying attention to form. Chatturanga fixes shoulders when it's done right.

Good luck!

[I-mon]

yeah i tried it this morning really focusing on keeping the shoulderblades down and back, it was excellent. thanks.

[Brady]

My suggestion would be start with plank position with hands on a wall, working with scap retraction there (both arms then one arm). Push ups, serratus punches, or any other shoulder blade motion exercise works here. Then slowly increase the angle until you are doing planks on a low bench, then the floor. Shouldn't be more than 1-2 months before you are doing these exercises without winging.

[Bhassler]

The most common cause of scapular winging is weak medial traps. Here's an exercise to add to the pile:

Lie on your front on a bench with your arm hanging off. Rotate your arm so the thump points out to the side. Raise the arm out to the side keeping the rotation (so the thumb will point to the ceiling). Do this both with the arm straight out to the side and 30-45 degrees up towards your head (like a Y). Start with raising and lowering and then you can add pulses. You want to feel the muscles at the inside base of your shoulder blade pulling diagonally in and down towards your spine.

Lots of decent suggestions here, just play until you find what works for you.

[Brady]

The most common cause of scapular winging is weak medial traps. Here's an exercise to add to the pile:

Lie on your front on a bench with your arm hanging off. Rotate your arm so the thump points out to the side. Raise the arm out to the side keeping the rotation (so the thumb will point to the ceiling). Do this both with the arm straight out to the side and 30-45 degrees up towards your head (like a Y). Start with raising and lowering and then you can add pulses. You want to feel the muscles at the inside base of your shoulder blade pulling diagonally in and down towards your spine.

Lots of decent suggestions here, just play until you find what works for you.

Then you can do these from plank position too. Good exercise, but I'd say lower trap/serratus anterior are the weak muscles I usually see.

[Bhassler]

Brady,
The exercise I gave would be an isolation, whereas planks would be a co-contraction with the serratus (if we're using it that way). I would start with mine and progress to yours.

As a side note, scapular winging is not in itself a bad thing, it's only problematic when it's uncontrollable and causes excessive instability in the shoulder. Try doing dips where you lower your head and collapse the chest as you drop down, allowing some winging in the scapulae, then when you want to come back up lift the chest and think of sliding the shoulder blades down the back. It's a great way to integrate spine, chest, back, shoulders, and arms all in one easy movement (only $9.95!).

[I-mon]

thanks guys, those tie in with what i've been doing nicely since i started focusing on this area a couple of months ago, basically different versions of the same exercises, shows i'm on the right track. lower/mid traps and serratus anterior are definitely the major players.