What Causes Rounded Shoulders and How Do I Fix Them?
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Photo by Scott Webb
By: Mark Sisson
Look at the average person walking around the average industrialized nation and you’ll notice something:
Their shoulders are rounded inward.
Look down at yourself right now reading these words and you’ll probably notice something:
Your shoulders are rounded inward.
Older kids, teens, grownups, athletes, powerlifters, grandmas, moms, dads, students, baristas, almost everyone. It’s rare to see someone with neutral shoulders—shoulders that sit in their sockets as nature intended, rather than rolled and rounded inward in perpetual internal rotation.
Why is this?
The Problem with Rounding Your Shoulders
First, let’s explore why rounded shoulders are bad.
First principles tell us that that which is intrinsic and natural to our skeletal structure is ideal and optimal. Our natural state is not to rest in the rounded shoulder position. It is to have neutral shoulders, shoulders that sit in their sockets, neither externally nor internally rotated. Shoulders that simply are. Young kids tend to have these stable, neutral shoulder positions, mostly because they are closer to their natural state and less altered by the trappings and designs of modern society.
But let’s get more specific with the issues that emanate from rounded shoulders:
Promotes forward head tilt, which places a ton of stress on your neck and impairs your breathing and reduces your lung capacity.
Begins pulling the rest of your torso forward as well—hence the hunchback that’s so prevalent in people who are too young to have any business having it.
When shoulders are perpetually rounded, the supraspinatus tendon tends to get pinched against the boney bridge running from your clavicle to your shoulders, particularly if you’re lifting overhead or pressing. This can cause pain, wear and tear, and degeneration.
It’s unattractive. This might seem inconsequential but it’s an important signifier. Aesthetics in many respects represent utility, form, and function.
To get an exaggerated sense of what rounded shoulders are doing to your shoulder function, try fully protracting your shoulder blades (rolling your shoulders as far forward as possible by spreading your shoulder blades). Now, try lifting your arms directly over head, like you were performing an overhead press or setting up for a dead hang pullup. You can’t do it comfortably. Your shoulders are out of place. Do the opposite: retract and set your shoulder blades back, then lift your arms overhead. It should be a lot easier. That’s how shoulders are supposed to work.
What Causes Rounded Shoulders?
Excessive laptop and computer usage. . .
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