Many of my students and clients have rounded shoulders to one degree or another, but Alicia is probably the most extreme example. She came to her first yoga class with me, which was also her very first yoga class, describing the upper back and neck issues that she always experienced and how she hoped that yoga would help.
I reminded her that in yoga, you always start where you are (how could you do otherwise) and do the best we can. Listening to her body, Alicia started to stretch the chest muscles that had become short and tight (a condition known as adaptive shortening) and kept her shoulders rounded forward. One pose she practiced is Standing Bridge Arms, which is also included in the Yoga Tune Up® Quickfix Shoulder video. In this pose, Alicia extended both arms behind her, stretching her pectoralis minor muscles, and opening her shoulders.
Alicia held onto a strap to support and increase the stretch, which was limited by the tightness of her chest muscles. I suggested that she hold the pose for a few minutes to increase the benefits of the stretch.
As Alicia continues with her practice, she and I are noticing the changes in her posture as her pectoralis muscles allow her to maintain an improved posture, which has led to less pain in the neck, shoulders, and upper back!
It is a good tip because a lot of people have this posture and need to make changes. thanks
Standing Bridge Arms is a pose that confounds me a little. I get my arms extended only so far, and then a teacher can come over and lift my arms another 6 inches or so. It seems I have the flexibility, but not the strength going in that direction? Another body blind spot to be examined.
I was unaware that adaptive shortening existed, but I guess I should not be since we do so much damage to our delicate bodies. It makes sense that standing bridge arms would be the beginning of a remedy for this condition. And I agree with Bo, I can get my arms much higher when I bend over.
Very true. The pectoralis muscles that are short in the sides of the chest translate themselves into the rounded shoulders. Taking the shoulders through all directions of the movement, which is so effectively demonstrated and taught at the YTU training not only relieves the shoulder tightness, but many other pains associated with neck and upper back and the lower back.
I am a physical therapist that does a considerable amount of hands-on manual therapy. I am a big believer of yoga and pilates and regularly refer patients in this direction. I am not sure, however, that adaptive shortening can explain Alicia’s situation. I used to prescribe to the concept of adaptive shortening largely because the body does not waste energy on building tissue when it is not necessary. It’s the law of conservation of energy and it occurs on a cellular level. Having said that, adaptive shortening suggests that tissue adapts to it’s new “set length”. If that were the case, the body would always shorten a muscle to adapt to it’s optimal contractile length and this would occur through a physilogical process of removing actual sacromeres from a muscle (law of conservation).
The example given above (Alicia) is a great example of what I see on a daily basis. Patients with rounded and depressed shoulders typically also have limited shoulder mobility reaching overhead and weakness at end range of motion which is regularly attributed to adaptive shortening. It has been my experience on a daily basis that correcting the mechanical faults in the shoulder complex and retraining the muscles that work together to do what they are supposed to do is enough to gain as much as 40-50 degrees of shoulder mobility and normal strength in less than one treatment session. Many of these patients have had significant limitations for several years. Relative to the length of time they’ve had mobility limitations, the immediate improvement they experience cannot be accounted for by adaptive shortening. These patients didn’t spend several weeks in the gym rebuilding muscles that were supposedly adaptively shortened. Adding the additional sacrcomeres necessary to allow for the improved shoulder mobility that a patient might gain in one treatment session is physiologcially impossible.
If not adaptive shortening, then what is the explanation? It’s possible that these muscles weren’t shortened or weak to begin with. It’s possible that the pectoral muscles were hypertonic possibly due to job duties (computer work), or due to mechanical fault(s) (ie. hypomobile collar bone, shoulder blade, or rib dysfunction causing the shoulder blade to round down. There are 101 different things that could result in the posture that Alicia found herself with, but adaptive shortening probably isn’t on that list.
I’m glad to hear that Alicia has made steady progress and I hope she continues to. There are many more Alicia’s that need assistance. Keep up the good work!
Alicia’s posture is a good example of cross patterned muscle groups. The pecs become short and tight while mid and lower trapezius muscles become elongated; shortening of suboccipitals and SCM ( to name a couple of muscles) extend the upper cervical spine and flex the lower cervical spine losing normal lordosis. She is just beginning to embark on her journey where she will need to increase pec flexibility, increase strength of mid and lower trapezius; strengthening deep neck flexors and releasing suboccipitals (tune up balls are great here).