Daily Maestroism
DM #139
Sunday, October 9th, 2016
DM #139: The shoulder bone’s connected to the…scapula. The scapula resides along the…ribcage. The ribcage is connected to the…thoracic spine.
We champion that upright torso when it comes to squatting, while everyone loves to focus on the role of the hips and ankles, we can’t forget about the thoracic spine. If the thoracic spine can’t fully extend, there’s no way you're keeping your torso upright and maintaining that superman chest.
So where does the shoulder fit into all of this? Well, find yourself lacking external rotation and suddenly it becomes extremely difficult to maintain that thoracic spine extension. Lose enough external rotation and simply gripping the bar while it’s behind your neck will become quite the task.
When we lose external rotation at the glenohumeral joint our position of comfort becomes that of a more internally rotated position. With internal rotation we get more anterior tilting of the scapula, which pairs nicely with thoracic flexion…exactly what we don’t want while squatting. Try to keep your shoulder in an internally rotated position while maintaining thoracic extension…with your shoulders pulled back (horizontally abducted) enough to actually be able to grab and hold on to the bar…no easy feat and not such an optimal position. For those folks who do manage to get into that position, they may then find themselves pulling downward on the bar while trying to stand out of the hole as they fight their own body to gain thoracic extension. Again, not so ideal.
Additionally, for the person with long femurs and a short torso, maintaining an upright torso while squatting is in and of itself a more difficult task. Combine this with poor shoulder external rotation that wants to force you into more thoracic flexion and maintaining a good position during the back squat becomes that much more difficult.
Take home message: it’s all connected. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
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