Round Shoulders

[johnny4nuthin]

Hi

I have recently started a VTCT in Swedish Massage and am stuck on my latest assignment.

I have to devise an exercise to correct 'Round Shoulders', and identify the muscles that would require strengthening and those wich are likely to be too tense.

As I have Level III in Anatomy and Physiology I am aware of the muscle groups and would really like some hints on the round shoulders aspect.

Any help would be great [:-]

Love & Light, Abbs.

 

[Laura Robinett]

Hi Abbs

As skeletal muscles work in opposing pairs of groups, you need to look at the chest and the upper back - both of which work with/against each other to keep the shoulders in the correct place. I would advise exercising both and stretching both, personally, but to answer the question, it's likely the chest is too tight (so needs stretching)and the shoulders/upper back too weak (so need exercising)...

So the muscle names:

Chest:
Pectorialis Major
Pectorialis Minor
Subclavius

Upperback/shoulders
Trapezius
Rhomboideus muscles
Levator scapulae
If you want to get complicated, you could look at all the muscles that move the shoulder blade, eg. the rotator cuff muscles, but I think for your assignment the 3 above is probably enough.

Exercises: (find some pictures on the internet for your assingment)
Shoulders/upperback:
Prone rowing with hand weights (ie lie face down, with arm off the couch, with a dumbell, pull the hand away from the floor, up to chest level)
Seated rowing - on a rowing machine/dynaband/weights machine
Seated shoulder press (lifting weights above head)
Seated lateral raise (elbows at right angles, against sides, then raise out to sides)
Chest:
Press-ups, on floor or against the wall
Inclined chest flies
Inclined dumbell press

Stretches: (find some pictures on the internet for your assigment)
Shoulders/upperback:
[ul][*]Interlock fingers with straight arms, push down, looking at the top of your hands, chin on chest, get a really good stretch to your upper back.[*]Hold your head with one hand and opposite shoulder with the other hand on the same side, pull your ear to shoulder. Good stretch for neck, Repeat both sides. Repeat this tilting the head forward and to the side, to get a good stretch to the Levator Scapulae.[*]Use a doorway to hold your arm in place, turn the body and get a good strecth to the back shoulder area.[/ul]
Chest:
[ul][*]Repeat stretch 3 above for the chest, turning the otherway.[*]Link hands behind, raise chin, to give a good stretch to the whole front upper torso.[*]Walk through a door way with both arms open to the sides, lean forward as the arms get stuck behind to give the chest a good stretch. Repeat this with arms at different heights to stretch the full pecs major.[/ul]
Hope that helps a bit...

 

[Jody B]

Hi Avalon Dove

Thank you so much for your reply !

It covers what I need brilliantly and so I'll now get on and finished my coursework.......... what's more it's better than the answer I had from a friend which was "join National Service, that'll sort it out" !!

Thanks again,

Love & Light, Abbs.

 

[thoughts]

Abbs, an interesting site is [link=http://www.exrx.net]www.exrx.net[/link]. ExRx.net (Exercise Prescription on the Net) is a free resource for the exercise professional, coach, or fitness enthusiast."But it is also areally good resource for massageand bodywork therapists. Some excellent material on muscles and articulations - with some nice animations and video clips

They also have a really good exercise instruction - so if you want to exercise/stretch a particular muscle then you can look that up and they show various ways to work that specific muscle. Under Exercise and Muscle Directory [link=http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html]http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html[/link]

Obviously this is a bodybuilders site not a therapist site so cautions apply, but I find it really useful. I used it when I was training to help learn all that A&P stuff. NowI actually use it more for figuring out passive movements than exercise -and I do sometimes refer clients to it.

Great for visual learners and best of all, its free!

Hope that helps,

In Touch

 

[Doodlebugjim]

Hi In Touch

Thanks very much for those links and info.

It is a very useful site and a link I shall be able to pass on to my colleagues at college.

Once again, thanks !!

Abbs.