Winged Scapula Exercises Guide: Part 1

Do you often experience discomfort or notice an abnormal protrusion of your shoulder blade? You might be dealing with a winging scapula, a condition characterized by the outward displacement of the shoulder blade from the back. Whether it’s caused by muscle weakness, poor posture, or other factors, understanding how to address this issue is crucial for improving your overall shoulder health and functionality, especially through specific winged scapula exercises.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the underlying causes of winging scapula and provide practical steps and exercises to help you alleviate discomfort and correct the abnormal positioning of your shoulder blade. From strengthening exercises to posture correction techniques, we’ll explore effective strategies to enhance stability, mobility, and alignment in your shoulder region.

Step 1: Stretch your Lats:

• Reach up with both hands
• Reach to the side as far as you can go
• You should feel the stretch from the upper arm to the torso
• Hold for 30 seconds to a minute.

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Step 2: Stretch your Subscapularis: Winged Scapula Exercise

• Take a broom handle and bring your arm back like you are a baseball pitcher or cricket bowler into external rotation.
• Your elbow should be out to the side and not out in front of your body.
• Stretch for 30 seconds to a minute.
• Be gentle with this exercise
• Don’t do this if you have dislocated your shoulder before.

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Step 3: Stretch Your Pec Minor: Winged Scapula Exercises

1. Bring your arm out to your side with your elbow bent 90 degrees.
2. Move your body forward with your feet. When you feel the stretch on the front of your shoulder bring your arm up higher 3 to 4 inches.
3. Stretch for 30 seconds to one minute.
4. You can rotate your body out if you need more of a stretch but that’s optional.

In the next article, we’ll go over more exercises to help you eliminate that winging scapula by strengthening the serratus anterior.

Hope that these winged scapula exercises help. These exercises are designed to help most people with a shoulder blade that sticks out but they may not apply to your specific situation as you may have other issues that either slow down or entirely prevent you from getting better with these exercises and the follow-up article.

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