The shoulder blade position - a contributor to neck pain, back pain and breathing restriction

The shoulder blades…These beautiful blades want to ‘fall down’ our backs. Like waterfalls.
But so often they’re not doing this.

You know when you see someone from the side, and you can see the shoulders going way back? Further back than the hips even.
This is a sure sign, that instead of falling, these shoulder blades are gripping onto the ribs at the back, holding on for dear life.
Because when we hold the shoulder blades this far back, they’ve got no where to fall right? That’s what we’d do too, if we couldn’t fall onto our feet. we’d likely grip on wouldn’t we, to something, anything we could find. The shoulder bladed grip onto the tissue covering the ribs at the back and this can cause pain and effect breathing.

When this shoulder blade gripping is going on there is often neck pain and or some lower back discomfort too. Sometimes the ITB (the strong band of tissue at the side of our thigh) is super tight too (that’s a longer story how this winds up to the ITB).

So what do we do as Rolfers?
We work on the layers of your connective tissue under the shoulder blades, it’s subtle gentle work here, allowing them to let go. We work at the connective tissue of the pelvis, particularly where the thigh bone inserts, because usually the pelvis has been compensating or supporting this shoulder arrangement too, and it needs to change. We work in the neck and the back of the pelvis. And often the hamstrings which have been under a lot of strain trying to ‘catch’ the shoulder blades.

And then we see how you’re doing.
See if you need a hand finding your way in a new arrangement where the shoulders don’t grip on, in standing and walking. And then off you go. Often you can breath better and are in less discomfort or feel more easeful.

#rolfing #shoulders #shoulderblades #shoulderpain #neckpain #ITB #backpain #gripping #pelvis #hamstrings #posture #posturematters #postureawareness #posturesupport