Need Help with Winged Scapula

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
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I have this condition with my winged scapula that’s been here for as long as I could remember. I didn’t even know it was abnormal until someone pointed that out to me. I’ve tried the usual stuff for it. Pec-minor stretching, serratus anterior strengthening, and nothing has worked. I honestly doubt I even have a weak serratus, I’ve been doing plenty of overhead presses/pullovers for the past 5 or so months, and I even threw in the isolations like scap push up plus, etc two months ago. They don’t actually restrict movement/strength in any way as far as I can tell, though.

I thought perhaps it might be an imbalance between my back and chest muscles that was causing this, but I’ve been doing two intense back days a week, and only one chest day (even then only half that time is spent on chest). I also look like I have a slightly rounded forward shoulder, but I suspect this is something brought on by the winged scapula rather than muscle imbalances. My rear deltoids look disproportionately large when flexed in fact.

These are some photos of me when relaxed.

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Seems it’s only letting me post one picture at a time. Here’s one more that shows it from a different angle

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aaand one more side view that shows my shoulders in relation to the rest of my torso too.

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anything at all people? :frowning:

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OK. You need to isolate the muscles that tie you scapulae to the torso.

  1. Lower part of the traps. Sit by the seated pull cable station. Torso vertical, hold bar shoulder width with straight arms. Now pull your shoulders (and only your shoulders) back, pulling your scaps together. Repeat.
  2. Serratus anterior. scap pushups. Pushup position with straight arms. Push shoulders downwards (staright arms!), raising your torso. Then lower your torso. (repeat).
    2b You can add a chaturanga (google it), but only if your shoulders feel stable. Otherwise wait.
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[quote]TQB wrote:
OK. You need to isolate the muscles that tie you scapulae to the torso.

  1. Lower part of the traps. Sit by the seated pull cable station. Torso vertical, hold bar shoulder width with straight arms. Now pull your shoulders (and only your shoulders) back, pulling your scaps together. Repeat.
  2. Serratus anterior. scap pushups. Pushup position with straight arms. Push shoulders downwards (staright arms!), raising your torso. Then lower your torso. (repeat).
    2b You can add a chaturanga (google it), but only if your shoulders feel stable. Otherwise wait.[/quote]

Thanks for the reply :slight_smile:

Do you mean a variation of rhomboid shrugs? I already do those quite a bit.

also, I’ve done a lot of serratus strengthening already, and it’s done nothing. Pretty demoralising, I’ve ready that winged scapula from serratus weakness typically corrects itself within a month. I’ve been strengthening mine for 5 months and still no change.

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Does anyone else have any advice on this hopefully?:slight_smile:

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No. Rhomboid shrugs would pull the shoulder blades in and up. You want in and down. Why don’t you switch to “Neanderthal no more” if you really want to correct this permanently? It’s on the site.

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Hello, i’m no expert but i have rounded shoulders and have been doing the following exercises ;

Scapular wall slides. This works the muscles that bring your shoulder blades together and stretches the muscles that are tight. They look really easy but they are giving me a real burn as i’ve started doing them.

With rounded shoulders you need to be doing pulling exercises and cut out the pushing.