Neutral-Stable Shoulder Blades

A common "posture fix" is to pull your shoulders back. It's true that it's preferable, in general, to have your shoulders aligned with your torso so they're not slouching forward. However, often the cue to pull the shoulders back ends up contracting (also known as retracting) your shoulder blades toward the spine. The effects of this are a decrease in stability in your neck and upper spine and a probably tendency to move your shoulder blade more and your actual shoulder joint less.

In this class, we'll define a neutral shoulder blade in a position that helps keep both the joints of the shoulders and the upper spine more stable, and then we'll explore both how to strengthen that position of the scapula, while developing a better coordination of moving the arm so that you utilize more of the shoulder joint itself.