Scapular retraction in various exercises

[JoshuaL]

From previous training(Pilates and Yoga), I have always been taught to keep the shoulder blades down and 'packed.'

I was performing this movement of the shoulder blades even while doing handstands. However, I read through coach's old posts, and it sounded like he has his gymnasts protract their scapulae and push their shoulders down towards the ground while in handstands. Now, I could be totally misunderstanding something he said, and if so I apologize, but my question is, where should my shoulders be while doing different exercises?

Reading over some other threads, it sounds like for pullups the scapula should be retracted. What about push ups? Dips? What about shoulder stands?

Is there some kind of rule to follow here? Are the scapula always retracted, and simply protracted in handstands, or did I get that piece wrong as well?

What about reverse planks? German hangs? Side levers?

Also, on technique, should I be holding them back with lots of force, or holding them more neutrally?

[Cole Dano]

This is something i've been fighting in yoga for a while now. There is never an always in life or movement. Being told to do that eventually wrecked my shoulders. Thankfully i started listening to myself and researching. Eventually i found this community and took a more holistic view on the topic.

There is a very important concept known as scapular-humeral rhythm. As the arms go over head the scapula MUST respond and move. Now while raising the arms, the inner upper edge of the shoulder blade will move down (pack) as the scapuar rotates, so the shoulder blade doesn't (necessarily) raise. BUT one the arm is up we can lift the shoulder blade to our hearts content. In fact this is exactly what we want to do in a handstand, unpack and lift up.

Handbalancer described the feeling very well when he said you sit on your traps, they feel like golf ball between your shoulders and ears. You sit on these golfballs.

Obviously you ask about a number of other movements. Search around the forum for more answers, this is a fairly common topic. Try to absorb them a while and then ask some more specific questions.

More than likely someone else will add to this anyway.

[JoshuaL]

Thanks for the excellent start Mr Brady. I see where my logic has been flawed, there is no one size fits all here.

From reading, it seems like the key issue here is shoulder abduction. If the angle is less than 45 degrees or so, then we want to keep our scapula retracted and do all the work in the humerus.

So dips, and pushups we want to keep the scapula retracted.

Handstands make total sense, as the arms go up, let the scapula rotate.

So for pull ups here the arms ARE over the head. I read in this forum we should still try to keep the scapula retracted while doing pullups(maybe I am just misremembering). Seems counter intuitive, and indeed, I am seeing other fitness professionals saying to allow the scapula to rotate. However, it looks from my studies, if I do not allow the scapula to rotate as the arms go over head for a pullup, then the shoulder joint has to over-rotate to compensate for decreased mobility in the scapula. Is my understanding of the movement correct?

What about for german hangs and the reverse plank? My gut is telling me, allow the scapula to rotate for the german hang, but in the reverse plank we might want to retract the scapula because we have not taken the arms over the head.

[Cole Dano]

Here is a nice illustration of the scapula and humerus and the relative positions while lifting the arm overhead.

The confusion you are having with pull ups (and this is also true for overhead pressing) is that we can combine the movements.

So the scapula can rotate but also depress, so at any given point in the rotation it is also pulling down in general. This is the part that lots of yoga people misunderstand, you can do both.

When doing power movements, the scapula needs to be connected to the body, hence it pulls down even while rotating. This is a big part of packing.

However when fully extended you can also lift the shoulder as a unit up to the ears. This happens for example at the end of a pull up, which is why its called a dead hang. As you initiate the pull up the first thing is to depress the scapula again and get connected to the body.

In a handstand due to the balanced nature of the position, it is also possible to press up off the shoulder blades.

In general when in a 'stretched' position the scapula can 'disconnect' and when doing something that takes strength the scapula connect.

The nature of the connection will depend on where the arms are, but will usually involve depression along with either protraction or retraction.

When doing German Hangs, Reverse Plank etc the dynamic is essentially the exact opposite. We let the shoulder blades elevate and roll over the top of the rib cage. The scapula rotate in the opposite direction as lifting the arms. Playing with dislocates will help you figure this out, but you need to be careful if you aren't sure of the movement, it can't be forced.

Coach Sommer has a nice little essay on dislocates which are an essential element of many gymnastic skills.

One common yoga pose this same movement is done in is shoulderstand, where a common misunderstanding is to try to depress the shoulder blades when they should be freely allowed to roll under instead.