BodyMind Fitness

UPPER:July 31- Aug 2: 
Revolution of Hand-Scapula & Shoulders

• Friday:     UPPER Overview and Anatomical Info: Rib cage, Shoulder Girdle and Arms
• Saturday:     Body fitness class and seminar Sat: Ribs, Forearms and Hands
• Sunday:     Scapula Revolution: Hand-scapula Relationship
• Monday:     Assessment, Feedback and more Applications including business and marketing

Each workshop weekend $450

Friday: 5:30-8:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Monday 9:30 AM-3:00 PM
To register

SHOULDER WORKSHOP: 
Scapular Revolution

with Lesley Powell
Time:  
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Sunday August 1 9:00 AM- 4 PM $200
PMA Approved

The arms connect to the torso through the shoulder girdle, shoulder blades, clavicles and humerus bones. Each bone moves in different degrees of rotation and timing. The timing and the control of these motions are essential to a healthy shoulder. This “scapular-humeral rhythm” is like a symphony—each bone is an instrument playing a different variation of a melody.
When the shoulder girdle moves correctly, great function is invited.  Each bone of the shoulder girdle; the clavicles, the scapulae and the humerus bone, have a unique rhythm of movement to facilitate the arm moving in space.
A great scapular-humeral rhythm will invite the correct phrasing of the arm and core muscles. When you get a client to better use her shoulder girdle, her arm strength, posture and connection to the core will improve. Learn how this rhythm works and how to help your clients improve theirs.

To register and more information

Many are pressing the shoulders down from the wrong place.  This is compressing the ribs and the spine down as well as locking the scapulae.  Sometimes teachers see the shoulders are up and try to solve shoulders pressing down.  The real source of the problem could be somewhere else.

This last weekend Lisa Love had this wonderful cue about the first rib.

Feel the first rib lift in the front and slide down in the back.

The placement of the ribs will influence the spine.  Here is a picture of the ribs being dropped because of the spine having scoliosis. How the ribs and spine can affect the placement of the shoulder girdle.  Slump and feel where the shoulder blade comes.  Pressing the shoulders down from the wrong place could make your posture worse.

Lift the first rib up and now slide the back of the rib down.  Feel how lifting the first rib changes the other ribs.  With the change of the ribs, observe how it changes your shoulder girdle.  Lift your arms up and feel the ease.

Go back to back version with the ribs compresses and lift the arms.  The arms lifting do not have the same ease.

My image is the first rib is a necklace, diamonds of course.  I want to place the necklace on a horizontal plane over my pelvic floor. Practice this image throughout your workout.  Especially in plank pose, see how you use your core and arms differently.

]]> http://movementsafootblog.com/2010/06/14/change-the-spine-change-the-shoulders/feed/ 0 Body thinker uprotation First rib down w. scoliosis First rib up with spine Diamond ribs. http://movementsafootblog.com/2010/04/28/dr-oz-promotes-pilates/ http://movementsafootblog.com/2010/04/28/dr-oz-promotes-pilates/#comments Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:12:09 +0000 Body thinker http://movementsafootblog.com/?p=1493 Read more]]> Dr. Oz promotes Pilates

by Lesley Powell

I have had the great fortune to start my Pilates career in a physical therapy practice.  We had clients with Repetitive Stress Injuries (reporters injured from the work on  the computer), back, knee and shoulder injuries.  Pilates works on the entire body, not just the injured place on the body.

As with the journalists, Pilates worked on improving their posture and the foundations of support.  When you have poor posture, it changes how you use your shoulders and arms.  Try it. Slump and lift your arms up.  Stand tall and feel how different your arms feel.

Franklin Method:

Beautiful Mind Beautiful body.

at Movements Afoot

Revitalize, Soften and Flow your shoulders, neck and upper back.

With Laura Hames, Franklin Method Teacher

March 31 6- 8:30 PM  $60 Dancer $50 (call in to register for this rate)

• Are you carrying the weight of the city on your shoulders? Liberate yourself by transforming your experience to one of ease, flow and weightlessness.
• When you embody the body’s natural support structure, ‘you’ don’t have to ‘work so hard’ to stay upright and moving forward in a world of ‘stress’. By using touch, feedback, movement and imagery that supports the body’s brilliant design, you can discover the flow and ease that exists within you.
• Lengthen and balance shoulder and neck musculature to dance through life with free healthy shoulders, a liberated neck and a dynamic supportive spine.  In this workshop, you will learn simple and profound ways to catapult your shoulder experience to a beautiful new awareness and then integrate this magical sensation into your daily life movements.
• Use this every day and embody easeful shoulders and an easeful life. This workshop is highly recommended for dancers, movers, shakers, yogis, desk sitters, children, grown up kids, sky divers, swimmers and anyone who carries a bag.

To register

Irmgard Bartenieff had a great concept about understanding the shoulder, the hand-scapula relationship.  The scapula is the lever to lift the hand and arm.   When the shoulder girdle moves correctly, great function is invited.  Each bone of the shoulder girdle; the cravicles, the scapulae and the humerus bone, have a unique rhythm of movement to facilitate the arm moving in space.

A great scapular-humeral rhythm will invite the correct phrasing of the arm and core muscles. When you get a client to better use her shoulder girdle, her arm strength, posture and connection to the core will improve. Read on to learn how this rhythm works and how to help your clients improve theirs.

The arms connect to the torso through the shoulder girdle, shoulder blades, clavicles and humerus bones. Each bone moves in different degrees of rotation and timing. The timing and the control of these motions are essential to a healthy shoulder. This “scapular-humeral rhythm” is like a symphony—each bone is an instrument playing a different variation of a melody.

The rotator cuff muscles assist in centering the humeral head in the shoulder socket during the range of motion of the arm. This graded rotation allows the arm to rise and the humeral head to stay in the socket and not get jammed towards the acromium process.  The correct interaction between the deltoids and the rotator cuff muscles centers the head of the humerus bone in the glenoid cavity, the shoulder socket. As the arm rises from 0-150 degrees of flexion, there is a dance of the muscles around the humeral head. The first degrees of flexion of the shoulder, the deltoid and the supraspinatus pull the humeral head up in the glenoid cavity.

As the arm rises, the subscapularis, infraspinatus and the teres minor pull the humeral head into the socket and then down. Optimal centering of the bone in the socket is key with the timing of the movement of the humeral head.

Muscles responsible for the medial rotation of humerus bone are the Latissimus dorsi, Teres minor, Subscapularis and Pectoris major. The lateral rotators of humerus bone are the Infraspinatus and Teres minor.  When one set of rotator cuff muscles are tight and/or weak, the humeral head is pulled unequally in the socket.  This will affect the scapula-humeral rhythm.

The scapula humeral rhythm is the optimal combination of the rotation of the shoulder blade and the humerus bone in the glenoid fossa, the shoulder socket.  The port de bra of ballet is a great example of good use of rotation.  These positions of the arms allow the shoulder girdle, scapula and humerus bone in socket to work at the most efficient level.

Imagine the lifting of the arms is of levers responding to the rolling and gliding of the bones of the shoulder complex.  When one part of the machine is stuck, it will affect the entire movement.

Scapular Humeral Rhythm
To start

1. Lie on your right side with your right arm placed underneath your head.  There should be a plumb line between your head and tail.
2. Your left hand is resting on your left shoulder.   The palm of your left hand is facing towards your left shoulder. Your left humerus bone is in slight internal rotation.
3. Imagine the tip of the shoulder blade being connected by a string to your left elbow.

The movement

1. Begin to raise your left elbow to the ceiling, feel the shoulder blade gliding wider on the ribcage.  Gradually rotate the humerus bone outward so the entire left arm bent is now facing the wall in front of you.  Reach the left elbow to the ceiling to help abduct the scapula more.
2. Glide the scapula in more upper rotation and gently increase the outer rotation of the humerus bone to bring the left elbow over your head.  The arm stays in the same plane as the scapula and gradually rotates more outward.  For most, this will bring your elbow in front of your ears.  (To get the elbow in line with the torso, one has to improve the mobility and the mechanics of the scapula).
3. As if you were running the film backwards, return the arm back to your hip paying attention to the gradual rotation of the arm and the scapula.  When the arm returns to the hip, the arm is slightly inwardly rotated.
4. Repeat 4 more times
5. Reverse to the other side and other arm

Observation
Were you able to maintain the length of your head-tail?

Full arm Port de bra
To start

1. Lie on your right side with your right arm placed underneath your head.
2. Your left arm is resting on your left hip.   The palm of your left hand is on your left hip. Your left humerus bone is in slight internal rotation.

The movement

1. Abduct the tip of the scapula towards the ceiling to lift the left hand to the ceiling.  The scapula is abducting as well as the arm.  The arm gradually rotates so the left palm is facing the wall in front of you.  Feel the string gently lengthen the connection from your scapula through your elbow to your little pinky finger in the use of space.
2. Simultaneous glide your shoulder blade in upper rotation as you twirl the humerus bone gently in more outward rotation.  Your arm probably is in front of your left ear.
3. Reverse the movements to bring the left arm back to the left hip.  You are tracing back the same pattern as the lift of the arm over head.
4. Repeat 4 more times
5. Change to the other side

Observation
Were you able to make the movement smooth?  Did you maintain the length of your spine throughout the entire movement?

Full arm circles

The movement

1. Reach your left hand in backspace until the left arm is in line with the left shoulder.  This will glide your left shoulder blade towards your spine.   The arm is gradually rotating outward.  As the arm moves in line with the shoulder, the rotation of the palm should be facing towards the ceiling.
2. Glide the scapula around the ribcage with the humerus bone still gently turning in outward rotation.  This will bring your shoulder blade in upper rotation.  Your palm will gradually face towards the floor.
3. Circle the left arm towards the ceiling.  Your hand is facing front.
4. As the arm travels back to your side, the humerus bone gradually rotates back to a slight inward rotation.  The palm of your left hand can rest on your left hip.
5. Repeat three more circles
6. Reverse to the other side.

Observation
Were you able to do a full arm circle from moving the bones of the scapula and the humerus bone?  What part of the arm circle lost its connection to the scapula?  Did old habits as pulling down the armpit with your Lats or firing the deltoids get in the way of the flow of the exercise?

“I am looking for some advice- I have a client coming in with upper cross syndrome due to large breasts and poor posture. Can you talk about what exercises would be beneficial for this client?” Teacher

New Posture

When trying to improve alignment, you need to observe what is tight and weak.  Put yourself into the posture of your client.  What joints/body parts feel shorten in space and muscle length?  What muscles did you stop using in that posture?

Depending on your client;

• Stretching tight muscles can help the client get to the muscles needed to work.
• Strengthening the weak muscles can help release the tight muscles.

Upper Cross Syndrome is a client with a forward head and round shoulders.

Stretch

• Pec-major and minor. This could be pulling the shoulders forward
• Upper trapezius- Lifting the scapula up
• Levator Scapulae-Lifting the scapula up
• Sternocleidomastoid- Locking the head on the neck
• Scalenes- Pulling the head forward and rounding the back
• Subscapularis- affecting the shouder blades in having round shoulders
• Lats- Short, tight Lats could be rounding the back and bringing the scapula in downward rotation
• Mobility of the spine in all planes especially extension
• Work on mobility of the scapula such as arm circles

Strengthen

• strengthen back extensors of the neck & back
• MIddle & lower traps- helps with shoulder stability and placement
• Anterior serraus- helps with shoulder stability and placement
• Rhomboid- helps with shoulder stability and placement
• Rotator cuff- helps with shoulder stability and placement
• How are legs affecting posture
• Strengthen core especially in relationship to neutral spine and extension

 Freeing the shoulder Pilates Pro-An article about the shoulder by Lesley Powell

Upper and downward rotation of the scapula can be a confusing anatomical term.
The term is about the placement of shoulder blade on the ribs in movement. Upper rotation is the healthy movement of the scapula following the lift of the arm in the front sagittal plane. The tip of the scapula will follow the direction of the hand moving up in space. The inferior border of the scapula (the lower tip of the shoulder blade) moves forward to the armpits and then up around to the front ribs. Downward rotation of the shoulder blade follows the movement of the arm sagittal back in extension of the shoulder. The superior border of the scapula moves up over the shoulder when the arm extends backwards.

HUMERUS-SCAPULA PUSHUP
To start

1. Lie prone with a foam roll or a prop (bolster, blocks, books, etc.) under your thighbones.
2. Your weight is on your forearms parallel with the humerus bone right under your shoulder socket. If you have a tendency to use your Lats too much, place the elbow slightly in front of your shoulders.

The movement

1. Allow the shoulder blades to come together. You will feel slumped. Keep your head in line with your spine. Remember this is about the scapula moving not the spine.
2. Press down on the forearms. Feel how the lateral border of each scapula revolves around the armpit towards your front ribs. The tip of your scapula moves towards your elbow. Observe how the clavicle is rolling over your shoulder. The length between your armpit and hips remain the same.
3. Repeat three more sets

Observation

1. Were you able to maintain your spine in neutral as your scapulae gliding together and apart? Did the clavicle remain wide the entire time? Were the ribs under the clavicle and the armpit remain the same distance apart?

Level II Scapula – full extension of the arm

The movement

1. With weight on your parallel forearms, Allow the shoulder blades to come together maintaining a good head-tail connection
2. Press the forearms into the floor. Feel the tips of each of your shoulder blades reach to your elbows. The space between your scapulas is wide with your spine in neutral.



3. Lift your elbows off the floor while maintaining the stability of the scapula on the ribs. Keep the reaching of the connection of the tips of the shoulder blades to the elbow. You want to feel a line of reach from the tip of your scapula to your elbow to the hand. This is the hand scapula relationship.



4. (Optional – if you were able to maintain the upper rotation of the scapula with straightening your arms, try this) Lift of your right hand off the floor by reaching the tip of the scapula more in upper rotation. Both shoulder blades should remain wide on the back ribs.
5. Place your right hand back to the floor. Maintain the shoulder blades adhering gently around the ribs.
6. Repeat to the other side.

Observation
As you improved the scapular connection, did you feel how it changed the length of your ribs? How did your ribs changed when you fully extended the elbow?