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Shoulder injuries are very common in the sport of climbing.
In this article, Alistair walks us through the importance of scapula stability, common problems and tips on how to prevent shoulder injuries through exercising your scapula stabilisers.

What are the Scapula Stabilisers?

Your shoulder blades (scapula) are attached to your ribcage by several muscles.

These muscles all pull in different directions to help keep your shoulder blades stable on your rib cage while your arms move and take load; these are known as your scapula stabilisers.

Scapula Stabiliser Muscles

Why is Scapula Stability Important?

Normal shoulder function requires coordinated movement to occur between your shoulder blades and shoulder joints.

Scapula and Shoulder Joint

The scapula stabilisers control the amount of movement occurring at the shoulder blades while also keeping them stable on the ribcage.

Scapula Movement on Shoulder Blades

Scapulohumeral Rhythm
For every degree of movement at the shoulder blade there is approximately 2 degrees of movement occurring at the shoulder joint.

Studies have demonstrated that abnormal movement patterns and imbalances in the scapula stabilisers can contribute to the development of shoulder injuries (i.e. shoulder impingement, rotator cuff strains, labral tears).

Shoulder Impingement

Shoulder Impingement
Pain as the arm is raised above shoulder height

To appreciate this, try standing tall then slowly raise your arms above your head. Next, try this again but this time let your shoulders slump. You may notice how much more difficult (and uncomfortable) it is to raise your arms to the same height when in a slumped position.

Slumped Vs Tall Posture

Common Problems

Some common issues include:

Hitching. This refers to abnormal hunching of your shoulder as you start to raise your arm.

Shoulder Hitching

Winging. This refers to the lifting off of the inner border your scapula. This often becomes more obvious as your arm is loaded during a push up motion.

Shoulder Winging

Rounded shoulders. This refers to rolling in of your shoulder blades giving you a slumped appearance. In these cases, the lower angle of your shoulder blades often becomes more prominent as you lower your arms from an overhead position.

Rounded Shoulders

Causes

The issues above are often due to muscle imbalances in the scapula stabilisers.

Weakness

We often see weakness in the muscles, which:

Depress the shoulder blades in a downwards direction.

Shoulder Weakness
The fibres of the lower trapezius muscle assist with this action.

Pinch the shoulder blades together.

Shoulder Blades Pinching

Prevent lifting off of the inner boarder of the shoulder blades.

Normal and Weak Shoulders The inner boarders of your shoulder blades are mainly anchored down by your serratus anterior muscle

Tightness

We often see tightness in the muscles which help to:

Elevate the shoulder blades in an upwards direction.

Shoulder Shrug The fibres of the upper trapezuius often become excessively tight

Pull the shoulders forward.

Tight Shoulder Muscles

Exercises to Improve Scapula Stability

Your scapula stability can be improved by performing specific exercises. We have compiled a list of helpful exercises to get you started:

STRENGTHENING

It is important to try and keep your shoulder blades down and back while performing these exercises.

Strengthening Shoulder Muscles

Pushups

Triceps Extensions

Rows

Rowing Reverse Fly

Reverse Fly

Lat Pull Downs

STRETCHES

Upper Trapezius Stretches

Pectoral Corner Stretch

Thoracic Extension Stretch

Please keep in mind that the information provided is general in nature and should not be used as a substitute to consulting your treating health professional.

Alistair Choie

Alistair Choie is the practice principal of MyFamily Physio in Mona Vale, NSW. He has been both a physio and climber for over 15 years. His areas of interest include musculoskeletal injuries and exercise rehabilitation. www.myfamilyphysio.com.au

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Climbing Scapula Stability

Shoulder injuries are very common in the sport of climbing. In this article, Alistair walks us through the importance of scapula stability, common problems and tips on how to prevent shoulder injuries through exercising your scapula stabilisers.

What are the Scapula Stabilisers?

Why is Scapula Stability Important?

Common Problems

Causes

Exercises to Improve Scapula Stability

STRENGTHENING

STRETCHES

Alistair Choie

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Shoulder injuries are very common in the sport of climbing.
In this article, Alistair walks us through the importance of scapula stability, common problems and tips on how to prevent shoulder injuries through exercising your scapula stabilisers.