Bracing shoulder blades during squat.

[Jacob R]

In a previous video posted it was observed that I didn't brace my shoulders properly while squatting. I can see now that it's usually the tshirt has a crease indicating bracing. Anyway, yesterday I put particular focus on ensuring i was strongly bracing/pinching my shoulder blades together. Today I woke up with pain that is inhibiting using my left arm—pulling my shoulder blades together is what hurts (it's basically too sore to pull them together).

Given the soreness only appeared when I woke up. I guess it could be DOMS, the soreness/pain seems to go away when I stop moving (but not completely, I suspect these muscles are involved in keeping you upright), but it's not quite like what I normally expect DOMS to feel like.

Are there good and bad ways to brace your shoulders while squatting, perhaps my muscles are just unhappy they had to do some work

[Michael Wolf]

I don't know what you mean by "bracing your shoulder blades." That is not a cue or instruction we typically use. It sounds like you might be referring to scapular retraction, which happens as an artifact of the way we position our hands and lift our elbows up, but I've never seen "brace your scapulae!" used as an instruction or cue in the squat.

[brkriete]

Some of this article might be relevant:

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ml#post1337883