Calm.Steady.Strong: Your Shoulder Blades

Tip Number 2: Exploring Your Shoulder Blades

Tissue of all sorts, no matter if it is muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve, etc, can be impacted by surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. This, in turn, can impact the movement of all aspects of your body. For surgeries around the rib cage, neck, or shoulder we often limitations in arm movement which can impact shaving the face, head or armpits; washing or drying/styling hair; putting on a necklace, a bra; lifting up a child, a pet, or putting plates or cups up on a shelf, etc.

These movements require, in part, the movement of your shoulder blades which can get frozen or stuck as a result of treatment and/or surgery. Scar tissue can limit the movement, as can irradiated tissue. The good news is that change can happen, and your shoulder blades can improve their movement enabling you to be able to move your arms in a variety of directions.


Your Exercise: Exploring the Shoulder Blades

This is a simple exercise to explore the movement of your shoulder blades.

Set Up: In standing or sitting.
Action:
1. As you inhale, raise your shoulders to your ears.
2. As you exhale, pull your shoulder blades back and gently release them down.
3. Repeat.
Considerations to keep in mind:
1. Keep the rib cage quiet.
2. Move in a range of motion that doesn’t increase your pain or ache.

This video walks you through the steps above. Enjoy!

Playback Quality : High

Until next week,

Susi