Shoulder Blade Movement And Meet My Coach

Hi folks,

Every time I turn around someone is telling me to loosen up my shoulder blades, which are pretty stiff. I must admit that they were essentially ‘stuck to my back.’ Several years of massage, Gyrotonic, Pilates, Feldenkrais, and recently Continuum, have improved them a great deal. I now include thoughts about my shoulder blade motion into my training and dancing, to good effect. I made a short movie today, during my Feldenkrais session with Karen, to show you what I mean.

Whether you are a serious endurance athlete or undertaking exercise for better health, keep working on those shoulders. A common cause of shoulder immobility is tight pectorals (chest muscles) due to riding on a bike that is too long or with a poor position, causing you to have to stretch forward. Bench press to build up your pectoral muscles at the gym, to have a nice manly chest, whilst ignoring the opposing muscle groups on your back – the usual out of sight out of mind problem with back muscles- and failing to stretch out these upper body muscle groups can also lock up your shoulder blades. The exercise ‘running like a waiter’ in Dave Scott’s short running video, is a great way to loosen those shoulder blades and get them to float over your back. This really is worth the effort, if only for good posture. And now I want you to meet my coach, Chris Haute of AIMP, who really knows how to swim. He was disappointed in a 55 min Hawaii swim, because he expected 54 min. Have you any idea how fast that is?

Keep training!

-k Your Medical Mind