Stabilize you shoulder girdle

Have you been in a Pilates lesson and been told to "stabilize you shoulder girdle"? What does this really mean?

Well the shoulder girdle or pectoral girdle is a verbal reference used to describe the bones of the shoulder. The shoulder bones are amazing because they support all sorts of movement in all directions in the shoulder and the arms. Yet the three bones are only connect to the main boney structure of the body at one point, the top of the sternum (breast bone).

Your shoulder girdle on each side of the body consists of a:

clavicle - also know as the collar bone and you can feel this through your skin along the collar of your shirt. It is the clavicle that connects to the top of the sternum (breast bone).
scapula - you may know this as the shoulder blade. It is a triangular shaped bone that is often visible on the back of the body. It is good to remember the at the scapula is free floating above the bony rib structure.
humerus - the large bone of the upper arm, the connection between the scapula and the humerus make the ball and socket (glenohumeral) joint of the shoulder.

So when in Pilates you are asked to stabilize your shoulders we are asking you to use the muscles of your shoulders to hold the your shoulder structure in place above your torso. As I am sitting at my computer my shoulders are quite still and stable. However if I stop typing I can role my shoulders around and try to make them feel as if they are moving away from my body. In times of physical stress for instance if you are working in an all fours position your shoulders may pull away and apart. When this happens and your teacher asks "stabilize you shoulders" you should try to pull the should back to a neutral "together" position.

The stabilization of the shoulder girdle is another part of Pilates where, (like the pelvis) keeping the shoulder engaged towards the body is harder than allowing them to move.

If you have any should stabilization questions, just see me before or after class or drop me an email.

Comments

When I stretch my hip flexor muscles I feel it in the front of my thighs. Is this right?

The short answer is yes! In my first post I talked about the movement of hip flexion and listed the hip flexors. We have already covered the iliopsoas the main flexor of the hip. Today I am going to talk about the rectus femoris muscle which also assist with hip flexion. The rectus femoris is the large muscles at the front of your upper thigh. If you sit down with a tray on your lap, the tray would be resting on your rectus femoris. It is part of the quadriceps, four muscles on the front of the leg between the pelvis and the knee. Rectus femoris is the only quadricep that reaches over the hip joint as it originates on the front of the pelvis. In class I often reference your ASIS ( A nterior S uperior I lliac S pine), you have two and they are the nobly bones you can feel through your skin at the front of your pelvis. Well you also have two AIIS ( A nterior I nferior I lliac S pine) this is another nobly part of the pelvic bon...

What is my rotator cuff?

We all have two rotator cuffs which are very important to our shoulder operation, one inside each shoulder. Your rotator cuff is made of four muscles that provide joint security (I love this term, a tiny little police force living in your shoulder making sure that the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint remains functioning). Why does your shoulder need a police force? Well the ball and socket joint of the shoulder is a bit rubbish (and also very good *). It is not like a caravan and car ball and socket joint where you have a deep strong connection (a bit like the hip). It is more like a scallop shell and a stick with a bulbus end. It fits ok, but really needs lots of tape and string to keep it together. Your rotator cuff muscles are the police, the tape and the string that hold this amazing joint together. The next part is only for reading if you are super interested in the names and actions of the muscles. The four muscles of ...

Pilates key principles: Breathing

Breathing, or the way you breathe is an important part of the development of your Pilates practice. As a Pilates teacher I meet lots of clients, all at different stages of their Pilates journey. When your journey starts, your focus is on core activation and generally just getting through a lesson trying to understand and translate the instructions from your teacher into movement. Once your core strength begins to develop and all your concentration is not used up in surviving your Pilates class, it is time to start thinking about your breathing. In Pilates we use a technique called lateral breathing. When you take in a breath to power movement we ask that you breathe into your ribs raising your chest up and out. But why? To take a large breath in you can either breathe into your tummy, or breathe into your ribs expanding them up and out. It is very difficult (possibly impossible) to breathe into your tummy and engage your ...

Katie Leaver Pilates

Search This Blog