Dump the Slump
Good posture is possible even without your mom nagging you. One key is stretching and strengthening the muscles around your shoulder blades.
By Julie Gudmestad
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For many people, proper posture in the shoulders is elusive. On the few occasions when you straighten up, you briefly taste that sweet spot of stability. Most of the time, though, you probably live in slump land-or you go to the opposite extreme and adopt a military posture, pushing your chest forward and up and wrenching your shoulder blades back toward your spine. But when your shoulder blade alignment is just right-when none of the surrounding muscles are short, tense, overstretched, or weak-it feels marvelous.
The difficulty, of course, is in finding and maintaining that posture. But it's worth the effort; not only do you look better when you stand up straight, but you'll also have fewer aches and pains in your neck and back and you'll be able to practice yoga more easily. If you spend too much time looking like a soldier at attention, the tightness in the muscles between your shoulder blades will make it harder to raise your arms overhead, whether you're reaching for a top shelf, pressing back into Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose), or reaching for the sky in Vrksasana (Tree Pose). And if you slump, you probably have a hard time doing backbends and have a limited range of movement in your shoulders.
Firm Foundation
Along with their role in posture, the scapulae (shoulder blades) act as the foundation for the arms. The stability and mobility of your shoulder blades depend almost entirely on the muscles that attach to them. That's because each scapula contacts the rest of the skeleton only in a small joint at the clavicle (collarbone). Fifteen muscles attach to each scapula, and their actions are complicated, so we'll focus on just two opposing muscle groups that are crucial for both good posture and complete shoulder function: the adductors, which pull your shoulder blades toward your spine, and the abductors, which draw them away from it.
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