Functional Movement Awareness

Functional Awareness

If you wish your body move more efficiently you need to understand how it is designed to function. In order to improve your overall movement, you need to develop awareness about basic parts, body segments and structures of the human body, and how they are intended to be used. For example, it is not widely recognized that skeletal joints are designed to move dynamically to support the muscular movement. Also, a proper understanding about the function gluteal and abdominal muscles including their movement and exercise patterns is lacking.

Functional Movement Awareness

Shoulder Girdle, Shoulder Joints and Shoulder Blades
The primary purpose of the shoulder blades is to provide stabilization for the shoulder girdle and shoulder joints. If the shoulder joints are not supported by the shoulder blades the shoulder joints will carry excessive load and it can contribute to injury.

If you have not been engaging shoulder blades the muscles responsible for their movement are likely to be tight and weak. As a first step, you should learn how to perform properly shoulder blades movements such as abductions, adductions, rotations, elevations and depressions.

For example, you play baseball, basketball or lifting weights joints and you are experiencing a shoulder pain. The wrist joints, elbow joints and shoulder joints should be aligned with the shoulder blades to throw a pitch, make a shot or lift a weight. It is important to understand that shoulder blades, shoulder joints and arms have to interact as one functional unit when any shoulder joint or arm movement is performed.