14/03/2026
This post is prompted by a new client who had been training at a gym and had developed shoulder pain and tightness.
Shoulders are such tricky things. What drives me nuts is when people are cued at the gym or poorly trained yoga or Pilates instructors to pull their shoulder back and down, fixing them in place. Or pinch them back squeezing shoulder blades together. Or push them down when lifting overhead. NO, No, no, noooo!
They need to move!
If you lift your arm overhead the shoulder blade MUST move up and out, to allow the humerus (upper arm bone) to not hit or impinge on the shoulder joint. It needs space to move.
Shoulders are incredibly complex, they have a large range of movement and not necessarily much stability.
They need to get the stability from an orchestration of 19 muscles with the right balance of strength and flexibility.
When exercising the shoulder or any muscles that attach into the shoulder, forming part of the shoulder girdle, it’s important to have good placement of the shoulder blade, arm, spine and rib cage.
For instance if you are standing and lift you arm overhead the upper spine and rib cage MUST bend backwards. Not a huge amount, but just enough to allow the scapular to move freely.
If your posture is hunched this can be really difficult, so in the studio I ALWAYS make sure your ribs and spine can move easily before we do any shoulder work.
When you have pain in the shoulder, often there is an imbalance in strength with even just one of these muscles.
These issues will have built up overtime and therefore are not necessarily a quick fix and in the studio I look at the whole body, including the ribs to help with shoulder issues.
Shoulders also vary from person to person, some are very tight, some are very flexible, everyone is different and this is why I like tailored Pilates in the studio, especially if you have an injury.
If you would like to help your shoulders please contact me, check link in bio.
