The day after I got back home from Greece, I was out on a long walk on a dirt road in Northern California (poor me, haha), and got preoccupied with how much my shoulder blades were moving as my arms swung, and how I couldn't really be sure what my own bones were doing unless I was monitoring the area with my own hand. (You do need to cultivate a certain amount of self-absorption for this kind of learning!) * |
Because of tight and short tissues in the front of our shoulders (pectoralis muscles, internal rotators, etc.), we tend to hunch up, thrust our ribs forward, twist around, and squeeze our shoulder blades back when reaching or swinging an arm back.** Would you like to check and see if you can align your shoulders better as you bring your arm back (aka shoulder extension)? Real shoulder extension is glenohumeral joint extension, and it means that the head of the humerus pivots in the glenoid fossa, and the scapula has to stay still while the arm moves back.
So I was trying to swing my humeri while stabilizing the scapulae, because I was chasing that delicious feeling you get when long-dormant muscle fibers wake up, look around and grin with delight. "Look! I'm finally aligned and breathing! Yay!" say the long-neglected muscle fibers. You know that feeling, right? (I'm not kidding here: I do own the url ALIGNMENTBLISS.COM, though I haven't utilized it. Yet.)
Small digression before I tell you about the little shoulder thrill move:
When we are walking, our legs should be pushing back to propel us forward (see Jillian Nicol's very funny blog post). So should our arms (on the opposite side). Our forward propulsion power should come from hip extension (leg going back), and our reciprocal arm swing effort should come from shoulder extension, with hip and shoulder flexion (the forward swing) coming mostly from momentum. What most of us chair-sitters tend to do is to lift the forward leg or arm (effort on the flexion), and then just kind of let the hind limb trail back until it's time to lift it forward again. Lots more on that later, or in the meantime you could browse hip extension gait alignment bowman…
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So I was trying to swing my humeri while stabilizing the scapulae, because I was chasing that delicious feeling you get when long-dormant muscle fibers wake up, look around and grin with delight. "Look! I'm finally aligned and breathing! Yay!" say the long-neglected muscle fibers. You know that feeling, right? (I'm not kidding here: I do own the url ALIGNMENTBLISS.COM, though I haven't utilized it. Yet.)
Small digression before I tell you about the little shoulder thrill move:
When we are walking, our legs should be pushing back to propel us forward (see Jillian Nicol's very funny blog post). So should our arms (on the opposite side). Our forward propulsion power should come from hip extension (leg going back), and our reciprocal arm swing effort should come from shoulder extension, with hip and shoulder flexion (the forward swing) coming mostly from momentum. What most of us chair-sitters tend to do is to lift the forward leg or arm (effort on the flexion), and then just kind of let the hind limb trail back until it's time to lift it forward again. Lots more on that later, or in the meantime you could browse hip extension gait alignment bowman…
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Here's what I entertained myself with on my walk, but for the photos and for practice
it's best to just stand (weight in heels, neutral pelvis and ribs) and try this:
it's best to just stand (weight in heels, neutral pelvis and ribs) and try this: