When I worked at Retirement Community as Fitness Program Coordinator and trained residents who lived their almost 70-80% of residents had some sort of shoulder issues. Even compared to knees and hip issues shoulders problems were higher. Shoulder issues may be more visible because we use arms to pick up things, grab things and so on.
As a trainer, the question comes why shoulders having so much issues?
Understanding Of Shoulder Mechanics
Picture to the left is an anatomy of the shoulder from WebMD website. When you look at the structure, you will find that arm or humerus is attached to scapula by muscles, tendons and ligaments. Arm is usually about 8 lb. But scapula, which is supporting 8 lb arm is only supported by one bone structure, clavicle, which is not a very big support.
So how is scapula being supported?
Importance of Trapezius
When you look at the picture to the right, you will notice that only muscle that is actually supporting the scapula is trapezius. Notice how much surface area the trapezius is covering. It covers from bottom part of the neck to all the way down to middle of the back. Other muscles, such as Latissimus dorsi, rhomboid, and deltoid are all pulling on shoulder blade or scapula.
So what does this has to do with shoulder health?
Well, let's say that your trapezius is weak and not able to support the weight of the scapula. Immediately, the pressure goes to your neck because the scapula is now just hanging. So what do most of the people do? Slouch so the weight of the arm and scapula can be carried on their back.
Use Trapezius For Overhead Exercise
When exercising with resistance above our head, such as overhead press, push press, skull crushers and so on, we need the support of the trapezius for the movement of scapula. When you look at the picture to the left from physioworks.com, you can see that when you move your shoulder upward without moving the scapula, the top of the humerus call greater tuberosity hits the acromion.
Now the second picture shows that there is a muscle called supraspinatus, which is one of your rotator cuffs, connects to that from front part of humerus or arm bone then attached to blade portion of the scapula.
Therefore, if you have a tendency to keep your scapula or shoulder down to not use your trapezius to do shoulder press, you will most likely be damaging your shoulder especially one of your rotator cuffs. In other words, it is safer and healthier to use your trapezius to move your scapula while you doing your overhead exercise is extremely important.
What Happens If You Do Not Strengthen Trapezius?
Many times people avoid exercising the trapezius because they don't want to look like a bodybuilder having a huge lumps on top of their shoulders or strain their neck. But that does not happen with just exercising. To get massive traps, you need an extreme work, which most people won't do.
However, consequence of not having strong trapezius can affect your lifestyle.
First, as mentioned before that scapula, along with your arm is supported mainly by trapezius. Remember, trapezius is connected from bottom part of the neck. So weak trapezius would lead to hanging of the scapula which cause neck issues.
Second, because scapula cannot move because of weak trapezius, shoulder will have limited range of motion. However, you will still need to reach above your head to grab object which will eventually lead to shoulder issues such as tear of suparpinatus, frozen shoulders and so on.
Third issue is postural. Reason why people have poor posture is partially due to tightness of the chest muscles but also weakness in trapezius. Weaker the trapezius is more roundness you will have in posture because to eliminate burden on the neck from weight of arms and scapula.
Fourth issue is related to third. When the posture become more round weight bearing shift from middle of the foot to the toes which put more pressure on the knees and lower back.
So just by having weakness in one muscle can cause so much trouble. Add some exercises to strengthen your traps like face pull, upright rows, band pull apart and so on.
I do hear from clients that they are not allowed to work on trapezius because of neck issues suggested by their doctor, physical therapists, and massage therapist. Well, I don't think they understand the main issue or what is causing the problem. Yes, you should manage the current issue but you will also need to take care of the main cause in the case of this topic, trapezius.
Start working on your trapezius little by little so you can have better neck and shoulder health along with better posture.
Kota Shimada
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