1/8/2023 0 Comments Latissimus dorsi stretchGood posture is determined by a free swinging arm. The same restriction occurs when we jam the arms back to “stand up straight” for better posture. Tilt the top of your pelvis forward a bit and see if you feel the hang of the arm. If your pelvis is tucked under the shoulder joint is restricted. This is key to upright posture and especially key to optimal functioning. The arm is meant to hang from the shoulder. All three of these disrespect the amazing freedom the shoulder allows us. This is the essence of what is known as military posture as well as Mom’s classic lament, and unfortunately from my perspective an essential instruction of most yoga teachers. In our minds two main things are restricting this freedom- a tucked pelvis, and the age old instruction “take your shoulders back”. So we have moved from compression to suspension and finally freedom as now the arm hangs from the shoulder, free to move in any and every direction. As creatures evolved and moved up into the trees to swing from branches our entire body was hanging from the arm. When the first creatures slithered out of the primordial muck to move along the earth, arms developed and the full weight of the body sat on the shoulder and “arm”. Let’s go back to evolution and the shoulder. Another way of looking at it is the latissimus dorsi were our swinging from the trees muscle. It can pull the body up for climbing or depress the arm against resistance. It untwists when the arm lifts which increases both its ability to stretch and generate force. Anatomically there is an interesting twist to the latissimus dorsi- the insertion is literally twisted when the arm is down by your side. So while just this one muscle connects the arm to the spine and pelvis, it is enormous (latissimus means broad). The latissimus dorsi are massive muscles that connect all the way down to your pelvis. If you can keep your arms upright your lats are probably ok (pic a), but if they drop forward or your feel stiffness in your back (pic b), you most likely have a lat issue.There is only one muscle connecting the arms to the spine, the latissimus dorsi –also known as the lats. Try and squat as deep as you can, keeping your heels on the ground. Repetitively pulling down with the hands from overhead positionĪn assessment from an experienced Physiotherapist would be the most reliable to determine if you have over-active lat muscles.Ī quick test you can do yourself is a squat with your arms overhead. Wearing tight bras that compress over the muscle Gardening - pressing down to twist out weedsĬycling - gripping on too tightly on the handlebars Over many years of swimming, pulling through the water in freestyle Referred pain may also extend down the back of the shoulder and down the inside of the arm (see picture above). The person with ongoing upper back or neck pain often has tried various unsuccessful treatment methods applied directly to the area of referred pain rather than to its source (in the muscle itself). The pain doesn’t normally kick in until the there is significant tightness in the lat muscle, that generally has built up over many months or years, due to repetitive movement patterns or poor posture. The pain can be felt as an constant, annoying ongoing upper back ache, that in generally unresponsive to stretching or change of position. When overly tight, the lats produce pain in the mid-upper back between the shoulder blades. Often we think of needing to strengthen the lats for good posture, but they can actually pull the shoulders too far down and rotate them forward when imbalanced. Surprisingly, tight lats can contribute to poor posture, as they connect your upper back to the front of your shoulder, causing you to adopt a rounded shoulders position.
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