The Dumbbell Row

The Dumbbell Row has got to be one of the few good exercises bodybuilding has given us. At my gym it still carries a certain amount of stigma; however, as a tool for developing balanced strength across the shoulder girdle, it is invaluable. Most people are much stronger at 'pushing' or 'pressing' than they are at 'pulling'. Coupled with poor posture throughout the day, this leads to tight, strong pectorals and other large internal rotators of the shoulder, coupled with long, weak scapular retractors such as the middle and low fibres of trapezius.

Correctly performed Rows involve retraction and some depression of the scapula, followed immediately by humeral extension to bring the dumbbell (or kettlebell, 3 litre bottle of milk, etc) toward the lower chest and abdomen. It's important to emphasise the shoulder blade should be pulled back and down; if you are shrugging the scapula up and hyperextending the humerus, you won't recruit the lower fibres of trapezius. The elbow will not travel far behind the torso if done right. In fact, the degree the arm moves doesn't actually matter. It just allows people to get a bit of momentum going, allowing training of scapular retraction with heavier weights.

Do this exercise right and load it up. Sets of 10-20 with 40kg or more will build excellent strength in the lower traps and correct imbalances across the shoulder girdle. If it's good enough for the ridiculously successful Chinese weightlifting team, it's good enough for you.

Exercises for Scapula Movement

Here's a few more exercises that you can add to your warm-up, after training or even load them up and use them in your workout. They all have in common the aim of developing your ability to control the movement of the scapulae in isolation, in the process strengthening the muscles responsible and hopefully as a by-product preventing shoulder pain and injury. As with the other exercises I described in the last post, it helps to try and 'feel' these as much as possible. What I mean by this is concentrating on which muscles are working, how your scapulae move and how you can alter the movement by moving the scapulae into different places.

Scap Dips

Scap Pullups

Scap Protraction

Scap Retraction 

Band Protractions 

See how with each of these exercises, scapula movement occurs with minimal movement at other joints. The exception is the band protraction. I included this one because it combines protraction of the scapulae, strengthening serratus anterior, with a nice stretch of pectoralis major and other humeral flexors when the arms are behind the body. Efforts should to emphasise scapular protraction over humeral transverse flexion in this exercise to minimise the contribution of pec major; the stretch should assist this.

The Overhead Position, part 1

The overhead position is seen in numerous sports, such as weightlifting, swimming, tennis and gymnastics, to name but a few. In simple terms it involves maximal flexion of the shoulder, varying degrees of scapula elevation and upward rotation, and, depending on the sport, varying degrees of humeral rotation.

Common to these sports, as well as any others that make extensive use of the overhead position, are shoulder injuries. The reason for this will be explored in more detail in a later post. What I want to discuss first is how a proper overhead position is achieved.

Firstly, the humerus must be maximally flexed. The muscles primarily responsible for this are the anterior and lateral fibres of the deltoid. The anatomy of the scapula means that the humerus alone can only flex to just pass parallel with the ground. To raise the hand further requires the scapula itself to move, to allow the humerus to effectively flex further.
The image above shows the left scapula. The head of the humerus sits on the glenoid fossa, with the coracoid process anteriorly and medial to it and the acromion process rising above it, to meet the end of the clavicle (collarbone).
We can see, looking from the front and from the side, that the coracoid process does not obstruct humeral flexion. The acromion, however, will eventually get in the way and unless the whole complex of scapula and humerus moves, no further raising of the arm overhead will be possible. This process is known as Subacromial Impingement, which may lead to impingement syndrome, a common complaint in overhead athletes. The movement of the scapula required is upward rotation and posterior tilting.
This effectively moves the acromion out of the way, so the humerus can achieve proper overhead position. The muscles chiefly responsible for these movements of the scapula are the lower and upper fibres of the Trapezius (lower fibres in red) and the Serratus Anterior.

Together, these muscles rotate the scapula to point the glenoid towards the sky, clearing the acromion process from above the humerus and allowing the overhead position to be reached. The following video demonstrates the movement of the overhead press, which exemplifies to movements of humerus and scapula necessary to achieve the overhead position. Notice the rotation of the scapula and contractions of trapezius (from the back) and serratus (from the side) that occur. Failure of these muscles to contract in an organised fashion will result in faulty elevation of the arm and often contribute to subacromial impingement.



A common finding is that these muscles are shut down as a result of poor posture, poor training habits and inflexibilities and/or overdominance of muscles elsewhere. For example, the lower fibres of the trapezius are typically weak and inhibited. As we know, the upper fibres on their own can achieve scapular elevation, whereas the lower fibres on their own will depress and retract the scapulae. It is only together that they achieve upward rotation.

The upper traps are typically active at a low level almost all of the time; whenever we sit badly with our shoulders shrugged, or when we are carrying heavy shopping. Over time they become more dominant, and the lower traps become inhibited to prevent stretching of the tight, short upper traps. Now the lower traps don't contract as they should and upward rotation of the scapulae is compromised. The upper traps contract as normal, but without the firing of the lower traps, the scapulae just elevate rather than rotate upwards. This fails to clear the acromion process from the path of the humerus, and the head of the humerus thus impinges under the acromion.

The Shoulder

I plan to do a series of posts on the anatomy, physiology and common pathologies of the athlete's shoulder. This first one will cover the articulations, or movements, that the shoulder is capable of. First it is necessary to cover briefly the anatomy of the shoulder complex, as this better aids us in understanding how different movements are accomplised.

The shoulder girdle consists of three bones: the scapula (shoulder blade), the clavicle (collarbone) and the humerus (long bone of the upper arm).

The scapula and the humerus articulate at the glenohumeral joint. The clavicle meets the acromion process of the scapula at the acromioclavicular joint, above the glenohumeral joint. The medial end of the clavicle forms the only bony connection of the shoulder girdle with the body, meeting the sternum at the sternoclavicular joint. Posteriorly, the scapula overlies the thorax, forming the scapulothoracic joint. There is no direct relation of the scapula to the ribcage, the scapula instead gliding over the surface of the body wall suspended by a complex network on muscles.

The anatomy of the shoulder girdle makes the broadest range of movements possible, at the expense of stability (compare with the hip, where the pelvic girdle bones are fused and capable of only very limited movement). The glenohumeral joint has been likened to a golf ball sitting on a golf tee, making the support of various muscles critical to the effective functioning of the joint. Similarly, the scapula can move extensively across the body wall to further the range in which the arm can move. The images above and below illustrate the relationships of the bones which make up the shoulder girdle.

The movements of the shoulder can be subdivided into movements of the humerus and movements of the scapula and clavicle. It must be borne in mind that most movements that we perform in the gym and in daily life involve a combination of both humeral and scapula movement. Indeed, effective functioning requires the two to move together effectively, a phenomenon known as scapulohumeral rhythm. Scapular dyskinesis, faulty scapulohumeral rhythm, may be responsible for common shoulder overuse injuries.


This first video shows the isolated movements of the Scapulae. In order, these are:

• Elevation
• Depression
• Protraction
• Retraction
• Upward rotation
• Downward rotation

The final two, upward and downward rotation, are difficult to demonstrate without moving the humerus as well. They may also at first glance appear identical to Elevation and Depression, but as the image shows, the scapula in fact rotates to point the glenoid upwards.



The next video shows the movements of the humerus at the glenohumeral joint. These are in order:

• Flexion
• Extension
• Abduction (aB)
  
• Adduction (aD)
• External rotation in adduction
• Internal rotation in adduction
• External rotation in abduction
• Internal rotation in abduction

The rotation of the humerus was shown in both adduction and abduction, as this can be a difficult concept to grasp. Combinations of these movements can create effectively new ones, such as transverse flexion (moving from an abducted position to a flexed position). Since this is a combination rather than a true articulation, it is not included. This is the movement seen in a dumbbell flye, for example.



Combinations of scapular and humeral movements accomplish the movements that we use in the gym. For example, the overhead press involves scapula upward rotation, some protraction and elevation, and humeral flexion and some external rotation. Looking at the images and videos above can aid in understanding how this happens. Another is example is a horizontal row, which involves scapula retraction, depression and humeral extension.

The best way to understand these movements and understand your body better, is to attempt these movements in isolation yourself. It is a subject for another article, but failure of proper synchronous contraction of various muscles during different scapular and humeral movements can result in some common and frustrating shoulder problems. Just learning how to accomplish the various different movements, focusing on the different muscles contracting in each one, can go a surprisingly long way to improving shoulder issues.

In the next article, I will deal more with the muscles that accomplish the articulations described above. Common dysfunctions and their remedies will follow.