Arms are designed to be suspended over the torso and supported by the axial skeleton and surrounding tissues. They don’t need to weigh us down, pull us back, push us forward or hold us up, though they often do.
Can you balance your collarbones so they are not too high, not too low, not too far back and not too far forward? The image below shows some of the nerves of the brachial plexus. They travel out of the neck and down the arm. When the arms aren’t balanced over our body, too often they put pressure on these nerves. This can cause all kinds of radiating pain and muscle weaknesses down the arm to the hand.
Reflecting back to yesterday’s image, sense how optimizing the space between the ribs, collarbone and upper arm bone can give these nerves room to glide and breathe.
Breath in fully. Sense the space between the ribs, shoulder blade, collarbone and upper arm bone. There’s plenty of room for the nerves traveling through this space to accommodate movement and feed the muscles they innervate. Exhale fully and notice this space remains.
There are so many ways to look at the arms, I have a hard time choosing where to go next. Tomorrow we’ll look at how the shoulder blades move around freely on our back.