Anatomically, 18 muscles attach to the shoulder blades (“scapulae”), yet most people aren’t even aware of how to manipulate the shoulder blades! These scapular shrugs are an excellent mobility drill for loosening and strengthening up the musculature around the upper back and will increase your awareness of your shoulder blades. It’s one of my favorite things to do before the start of every, single, workout!
To recap the variations shown:
- Scapular shrugs on all fours
- Scapular shrugs from plank
- Scapular shrugs with a band
And if you can’t get on the ground for whatever reason, put your hands against the wall and do them against a wall. Against the wall is very low intensity, but it still works to loosen the area up and I do it often whenever I feel like it.
Coach Sommer (bless his egotistical heart) says in this podcast that people don’t just have little mobility: They have absolutely NONE and most peoples scaps are frozen in place! You might have even heard Ido Portal says time and time and time again: People don’t lack core strength, they lack scapular strength. And if you want to build scapular strength, at least you gotta start here by loosening them with this exercise! This is just one of MANY mobility drills you’ll find in my floreio project.