The Dance of the Clavicle!

Hi. I'm Tom Cook. I'm back at Pilates. Anytime. Really excited to be back. I'm here with Aaron and Aaron, and we are, the lesson today is gonna be a tutorial on the clavicle, the elusive clavicle. So the clavicle is the beginning of our shoulder girdle.

So if you consider your shoulder girdle, which we're gonna be working on today, it consists of your clavicle, your scapula, and your upper arms. You can think of those three bones form your shoulder girdle. But the clavicle is the only one that connects to the skeleton, to the bony connection. So you can really think of it that your arm starts here. And another way of thinking of your clavicles, it's like a dynamic spacer. It gives your arm space to move around the torso.

We're just gonna experience ours, and you can see how you can relate it towards improving your posture, being more efficient with how you use your upper body, and relieving tension and get a little better quality out of the pilates exercise that you do. So we're just gonna take a moment just to touch our own clavicle, so I'm gonna take this guy out of the way. But before we before I do that, there's a bone that we're also gonna include, which is the top of your sternum, which is called the manubrium. And it's a bone that comes down. There's a notch right there that ties into your second rib. And we wanna I'm gonna show you how you wanna have that to maintain a little bit of movement. We'll call that your sternabray, the front spine.

So I'm gonna take this out of the way. And I always have a spare clavicle. You never know when you're gonna need another one. So so here's the clavicle. So you can see how it's kind of s shaped like a key, We're going to start with our left hand and just go along your right clavicle and just feel you guys can come a little closer.

It's all good. That's it. And just feel the shape of it. Feel how it goes all the way out there. It's a big spacer Now notice when you get to your sternal notch that the the head of the bone is pretty thick, and that's called your SC joint, sternoclavicular joint. And that, again, like I mentioned, is the only bony connection to the skeleton itself.

And now if you put your hand on the clavicle and you feel that, Just notice when you lift the clavicle up, there's a downward slide at the sternal notch. There's a roll in a slide. That's called the saddle joint right there, where it slides on the top of the sternum, on the top of the maneuverum. And notice when you lift your shoulder, you don't have to engage our muscles because the muscles that are lifting your clavicle are not our muscles. Just saying. There we go.

Now, if you come just below the clavicle and just massage along the muscles that go right underneath it. Now, you're massaging your pec major, underneath it is your pec minor. We can hold a lot of tension here that can compress the nerve plexus that goes under it from our neck to our spot, to our arm called the brachial plexus. We wanna have this to be a little more fluid. Also, it feels kinda good Tom, to rub that. Now, notice if you, when you rub it and you take the clavicle to the back, think of it swinging this way.

You're lengthening those muscles and release them. They're lengthening and releasing. And just think of it when your clavicle is going back, you show the blades going back. They're both moving together. And notice that if you, for you to get your middle back to work, the clavicle and shoulder blade have to go back, the pec has to lengthen.

Otherwise, the two are kind of fighting each other. We want that to be easy. Just think of we want the arm to kind of be suspended from the shoulder girdle opposed to braced on the shoulder girdle. Now let's just play with the movements of the clavicle. So first, the first one is elevation.

So just imagine when you lift the shoulder up, the the medial, the border close to the sternum goes down, and then it comes down. Just feel it a few Tom. Go for a nice fluid, easeful lift. Is a sliding down on the sternal notch. Now take the outer border forward.

That's protraction, and then take it back. That's retraction. And just feel again, you'll notice there'll be a tendency to add a lot of work from your arm. Let your arm do basically nothing. Let it go for the ride.

That's a whole lot nicer. Now the other version another version is when you lift the arm overhead, the clavicle does an interesting thing. It elevates on the lateral border, and the whole clavicle rolls back like a log in the water. Now let the sternal notch rest into the sternum. Let the weight of the arm fall into the sternum.

That's what's called being center loaded, where you're letting it fall into the midline. And then lower. And again, let's do them all one more Tom, so you can lift the shoulder up. Clavicle goes up on the lateral border, comes down, do that one more time. Now take it forward, take it back, take it forward, take it back, and now we're gonna go into elevation of the arm and feel the clavicle roll back and drop down on the sternum.

That's the upward rotation of the scapula, but we're focusing on the clavicles action, which we tend to not think about too much, then lower it down. Now, just take a moment. We haven't done a whole lot. Just notice the difference between the two sides. You might notice that shoulder feels a little lower already, even notice the length of that arm in comparison, and just and just notice the ease and range of motion. See, and that's And we have just, so think of when you focus on function, you become more efficient and you usually improve function. So we wanna we wanna keep playing with that.

So now let's add in, we'll do the dynamic of clavicle, shoulder blade, head and spine. So when you take the arm forward, you can notice that imagine if you didn't have a clavicle, that's as far as your arm would go. That's kind of boring. You'd be a little bit limited. Now take the clavicle forward and shoulder blade forward.

That's protraction. Now take the scapula and clavicle back take the arm back and look back. And again, it's arm, clavicle scapula, scapula, clavicle arm head follows. So there's a swiveling around the torso that gives the arm more range of motion, and no one muscle or one joint has to lengthen to an extreme because at the extremes is where we're weak. Now, let's add the spine, so it's going to be arm, clavicle, scapula, spine, coming back at spine, scapula, clavicle arm.

Arm, clavicle, scapula, spine, spine, scapula, clavicle, arm, just one more time, arm, clavicle, scapula, spine, spine scapula, clavicle arm. Now, from there, just go on to your trapezius because your trapezius attaches to the outer lateral third of your scapula, of your of your clavicle, bend your knees. Now, just lift lift the scapula or the clavicle up and just sponge the muscles, squeeze it like you're squeezing the water out of it. Muscles are about 70% water, then release it and just lift the clavicle and shoulder blade drop. And again, lift it up and sponge it and release it. And one more time.

Shoulder and neck tension is a great way for you to kind of get better function and understanding and be able to help yourself relatively quickly. Now just brush down the arm to your hand. This is all the Franklin method lesson on the clavicle, but it can tie right into your platy's work, beautiful way to improve function and understanding. And I come back to the center. Take a moment.

Degree of Better, and again notice, notice range, ease, and you might even notice your breath on this side feels a little more expanded. I can feel the lung fill up more on that side. You might even notice turning your head to that side. Feels a little easier. So shall we do side two?

So let's touch side two. Just feel the shape of the clavicle on the left side now. Just feel its dimensions. Working on when you're doing this stuff, get very curious about your own design. Body is brilliantly designed, and to improve how we function, we need to put our attention on how we're using it while we're using it. Now, massage underneath it along the under border, massage the line of muscles that attaches to the clavicle and even some that are under it, pec minor. That's it.

As that makes my jaw relaxed just doing that. Tom just notice when you push into the pec, you can take the clavicle tool to the back and then lengthen the pec, and you can give that little assistance with the hands pushing it back to open those muscles. And notice that the arm can just go for the ride. That's it. And one more.

Now, let's go through the movement. So as you lift the shoulder up, see the clavicle goes up as the the border at the sternum, the sternal notch goes down. And then the outer border goes down as the sternal notch slides up. Notice the arm can stay relatively relaxed and go for the ride. And now take clavicle to outer border forward, that's protraction, wrapping around the ribcage, to the back as retraction.

Just feel that action. So we're focusing on bones, but there's a lot of muscles being affected here. Your pecs, all the muscles that connect to your scapula, mid back, shoulder muscles, neck muscles. There's a lot going on there. And then when you lift the arm up overhead, imagine that the sternal notch is gonna slide down on the breastbone as the clavicle opens up on the lateral border, go up like a flag, and then roll to the back.

That's it. It's like, tada, and then it rolls down and the lateral border comes down. Let's do that one more time. It rolls and lifts and slides down on the sternal notch. Now let it rest on the sternal notch. Even bend your knees and let the weight be low in your body so you're getting your center of gravity a little lower. So the arm can be supported from a low place, and let it lower again. Now, let's add the arm in space.

Let's take the arm forward, clavicle and scapula, going back at scapula clavicle, looking back in the arm. Natural motion, arm, clavicle scapula, clavicle arm, and again, arm, clavicle scapula, scapula, clavicle arm. Now we're going to add the spine, arm, clavicle scapula spine, coming back at spine, scapula clavicle arm. Say that 10 times fast. ARM, clavicle scapula spine. Spine scapular clavicle arm, one more Tom, arm, clavicle scapula spine, spine scapular clavicle arm.

Now place your hand on the trapezius, and just picture that your trapezius the upper portion attaches to the lateral third of the scapula, r of the clavicle. As you rest your hand on there, soften the knees, and as you lift the shoulder up, you're shortening that muscle, but give it a little squeeze. Squeeze the water out. Now let it lower and just see it filling and spreading as the weight of the arm drops the shoulder and lengthens the trapezius. And again, lift, ah, and lower.

On the XL measure, you're yawning out of the back of your neck. And one more. And then just brush down to your fingertips. Take a moment, consumer report comparison, how are we doing? Notice length, notice range, and ease, notice posture. Now we're gonna take it into including the top of the sternum. So touch the the notch at the top of your manubrium, and just notice if you go down about an inch and a half, you'll feel a bump, and that's the joint where that bone meets the the longer body of the sternum, but we're going to work with just where that joint is.

So put your fingers there, and you can picture right above the clavicle attaches to it in that notch. So with soft knees on the exhale, just softly push back into that joint and see it flexing to the back. Now as you inhale, open the heart towards it and let the clavicles go back. And again, let the neck be really easeful. Watch the tendency to work hard with your arms.

Let's just the fluid glide, it's got clavicles to the back, clavicles to the front, and your manubrium is moving, which assists the thoracic spine and having better mobility. One more. Now take your two Franklin balls. Now, the movement will be looked like this. You'll tap up the front of your chest. Now when my arms are like this, I want you to visualize the the clavicles falling into the sternum. You're gonna open the top of the breastbone forward and then reach.

And as you open, and round, see the outer border go forward, and the manubrium go back. So inhale up the front, let the weight of the arm fall into the clavicle, open bend and curl, inhale up, and curl. Just three more. Go down into your legs as you reach up into the arms. And two. You can imagine your heart is like a rising sun.

It's rising up in between your lungs right here. Can even think of some epic mu music from a from a movie. Here we go. And then just take a moment. Notice posture, notice breathing, notice the feel of the shoulder girdles and neck.

You also might notice when you relax your neck and shoulders, you have more space in your head, your mind's a little quieter, you're a little more grounded. Now we're going to come down onto all fours. We can take the balls away. We won't need them now. So I'll just give you a picture.

So in the movement that you wanna think of the clavicle is gonna go like this. In the position you'll be in, you'll be kneeling with your hips, your knees about a little wider than you're are about shoulder width, and your hips about six inches behind your knees. Now my right hand is on the floor a little bit in the front. My left hand's gonna be in front of my chest for the first piece of it. Now just create a straight line head to tail and imagine that you're gonna take the free hand collarbone towards the back to turn the spine And now as you come down, turn into the arm. So this is the easier version, and see if you can keep the weight even on both your knees, and turn around like a central axis that goes from your head to your tail. Now from there, if you feel like you can go further, you'll put that hand behind your head.

Now lightly press the head back into the hand to lengthen through the back of the neck. Now lead with your clavicle on that up arm to the back to open. The other one goes forward. Now wrap them towards one another to bring the elbow to the other elbow, and then inhale to open, exhale to close. And get the feeling on the weight bearing shoulder, that shoulder can stay nice and low, and you're opening the clavicles away from the breastbone, and you're bringing them towards the centerline.

And just do two more. So this is for thoracic mobility, shoulder organization, and even some thoracic strength, we'll do one more, and then back to center, and we'll switch sides and start with that first version with the second side hand on the opposite shoulder. And just imagine you're gonna lead that lateral border of the clavicle to the back to turn and then fold in towards the other arm. And again, and feel how you're rotating that clavicle open and notice that it gives you a little more mobility without stress. And now as you come back to center, bring your hand behind your head. If you if that was appropriate for you to stay with that, you stay with that version.

Now as you open up that clavicle, turn, and see the two ends of the clavicles going away from each other, and then towards one another. Away from each other, and then towards one another. Just two more. Yeah. That's getting you right into that middle upper back where we all need work. Yes. Yeah. It's work. One more.

Beautiful. As you complete, come to tall kneeling, and we're just gonna take it into chest expansion. So in tall kneeling, and this could be done with light weights, could be done with a theraband, can be done with no weight. We'll do it with no weight today. So when you're in tall kneeling, just think of the initial movement as the clavicle, the the lateral border going back to drag the arms back, then a little bit through the back of the neck and open the top of the manubrium to the front. Now hold that and turn your head to one side, center, second side, center and release.

And again, drag back, Feel your middle back, stand down into your arms, turn, center, turn, center, and release will do one more. Drag back. Turn, center, turn, center, and release. So you can play with those and include those in your McCook classes of your own practice. We're going to do one more on the reformer.

Now we're going to finish the tutorial with another, version of the chest expansion on the reformer. So we're we have one blue spring. You could go anywhere between a red, a red, and a blue, or even heavier, but I would start light for this particular lesson so you can learn how to get the mechanics well before you make it any heavier. So we have one blue come into a kneeling position right up against the shoulder blocks, and then reach through the straps and hold the beginning of the rope right above the buckle. And just like when you were on the floor a moment ago, being tall kneeling, and just get the feeling that you're not even gonna think that you think of your arms or just these two poles that happen to be attached to your shoulder girdle. And all you're gonna do is initiate by drawing the collar bones back and notice right away the cart will start to move and then continue drawing the collar bones back as you reach down into the arms and then control the return.

Just get a feel for that that it's the lateral border of the clavicle is going back and then feel the downward reach all the way through. And notice as you pull that you can also get a sense of getting taller from that ground reaction force, so going down into your legs, going down into the strap, let that create a little more lift and length into your body. Beautiful. Now, the next one, do the same thing, initiate from the clavicles. Now just let the manubrium open a little more to the front.

And now turn your head to one side, center, second side, center, and release. We'll just do that two more times. Initiate from the clavicle, open the medubrium to the front, and then turn center, turn center, and release. The last one, you have to have just a little bit of a smile, nothing conspicuous, just, you know, something Here we go, draw it back, open the top of the chest, and again, turn the head, center, turn, center, and release. And that's not true too early.

I hope you enjoyed it. Please practice a lot. I find this work amazing. If you really go into learning how to understand the body better, and bring that to your clients, bring it to yourself, you'll inspire more people, and your body will still healthy for life. Hope to see you again.

Thank you everybody.