Your Shoulder Girdle

The shoulder girdle’s mobility is a study in functional architecture. It was designed to help us climb, hang from trees, and occasionally even crawl. These days, however, most of us tend to move the shoulder joint in one direction only—out in front of us. Think about it: We spend the vast majority of our time on computer keyboards, cell phones, holding the steering wheel, or pushing a shopping cart. The result? We don’t take our shoulders through their full range of motion on a regular basis, and this repetition of forward-reaching tasks overtightens certain muscles in the shoulder joint while weakening others. Over time, this creates chronic misalignments of multiple muscles in the shoulder complex and eventually leads to pain and injury—particularly when we start weight-bearing on this joint on the yoga mat.

Anatomy of the Shoulder

The shoulder is made up of more than a dozen muscles, as well as the following four joints:

Acromioclavicular (AC) Joint

Where the shoulder blade (scapula) attaches to the collarbone

Glenohumeral (GH) Joint

Where the upper arm bone (the humerus) fits into the shallow ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder blade

Scapulocostal (SCC) Joint

Connects the rib cage to the shoulder blade

Sternoclavicular (SC) Joint

Connects the collarbone to your sternum

Top Shoulder Injuries

Unfortunately, the rotator cuff (see below) has become synonymous with “injury.” Here are two of the most common shoulder injuries and why they occur:

Rotator Cuff Bursitis/Impingement

This typically refers to inflammation caused by excessive irritation of the supraspinatus tendon, which passes directly underneath the AC joint. If the shoulders are out of alignment repeatedly in weight-bearing poses like Down Dog, Upward-Facing Dog, and Chaturanga, the supraspinatus tendon and its bursa (a fluid-filled sack that cushions the tendon) can become impinged in the narrow, bony tunnel underneath the AC joint. The result? Pain.

Biceps Tendinitis

Two tendons attach to the biceps: One connects over the humeral head into the shallow GH joint on the scapula; the other attaches to the coracoid process, a bony protrusion on the scapula. When students complain of pain in the front of the shoulder, it can mean one or both of these biceps tendons are irritated. A likely culprit is poor alignment of the shoulders in Chaturanga. When lowering, the biceps tendons can easily become overstretched and even tear.

The rotator cuff, explained

Surrounding the glenohumeral joint is the rotator cuff, a group of four muscles that help negotiate the position of the humeral head within its socket. These muscles originate from different landmarks on the scapula and latch onto the head of the humerus. They are:

Subscapularis (not shown)

Located on the front side of the scapula; helps you internally rotate the arm

Supraspinatus

Located on the top side of the scapula; initiates abduction, or the lifting of your arm out to the side

Infraspinatus

The bigger muscle on the back surface of the scapula; externally rotates the arm bone and stabilizes the shoulder joint

Teres Minor

The smaller muscle on the back surface of the scapula; externally rotates the shoulder

To keep the rotator cuff muscles injury-free, it’s crucial to stabilize the entire shoulder girdle when you place weight on your hands—like in Plank Pose, for example. In an efficient Plank, the body recruits multiple muscles to stabilize the shoulder girdle. Two key muscles that stabilize the scapulae against your rib cage at the ScC joints are the serratus anterior muscles (which protract the shoulder blades, pulling them away from the spine) and the rhomboids (which retract the shoulder blades, pulling them toward the spine). While the serratus anterior and rhomboids have opposing actions, they work together to help keep your scapulae from winging off your back and wreaking havoc on the rest of your shoulder joints and muscles.