Week 33 — “Acromioclavicular”

Hello friends!

Happy Sunday!

Writing to you from inside a moving van.

Because when we say, “Wherever you are. However you are,” we are evidently very serious.

Cat and I have a new home! Come check it out in class this morning at 10am if you can - we're excited to show you the *unfinished* new "studio"!

WE HAVE SHIRTS!! And we are SO EXCITED about them!

We'll be releasing 3 designs later this week - go check them out and stock up!! Personal fave? The snuggly white sweatshirt. I’m curled up in it right now!

But they’re all great and we’d so love to see you in them!

Our Yoga + Meditation workshop with Camille is coming up THIS SUNDAY! November 8th at 10am! Join us for a half hour of meditation followed by a full yoga practice (55ish minutes) with time for Q+A's with Camille after! She's focusing on self-love and being kind to ourselves, and in these times, who couldn't use a little of that? For more information and to sign up, please click here.

And remember, VOTE! And once you do that, MOVE with us! Tuesday, November 3rd class at 6pm with Sean is FREE to anyone who voted this year! We just need a little photo evidence that you exercised your right and then you’re in! Shoot us an email or DM us a picture of your voting sticker, you at the ballot drop or however you’d like to show it and we’ll take care of the rest!

For anyone who knows me and my story, you know my dance career ended with a shoulder injury. So, know that I am very invested in our theme this week but I promise that’s not where it came from.

We’re going to take these next seven days to get nerdy about your shoulders, friends, because of your body’s joints, this one is arguably the most fascinating, confusing and basically...complicated.

But it’s also SO COOL! Because it makes us think, “Why? How did we get here? What’s the purpose of this?” and we LOVE things that make us ask questions.

Did you know that your shoulder blades ARE NOT actually attached to your back? Want to hear something wild? The only thing really connecting your shoulders and scapula to your body from a skeletal perspective is your collarbones! Did you know that?

Why?!? Right?!

We can’t answer why exactly, but we can show you how and what it all means, as far as moving goes!

What it means to us: knowing and understanding the bones in your shoulder and how they are aligned is SUPER important, but the muscles are perhaps even MORE important. Because in this case, the muscles are TRULY what’s holding it all together.

Quick little anatomy exercise for you - can you point to your:
Clavicle
Scapula
Humerus

What about your:
Deltoid
Latissimus
Rhomboid
Trapezius
Pectoralis
Serratus

Yes? No? Let’s look it up! Because these are the major league players of your shoulders.

Again, we said it’s complicated so of course, there’s more than meets the eye here but this is definitely a very good start!

As for the why, here come the emotions, just in case you noticed they were lacking *wink*.

Remember when we talked about your fight or flight response with your psoas? Well guess what’s connected in another mystifying body nerd way? Your shoulders and your psoas!!!

Because when your body goes into that fight or flight state of reactionary stress, your shoulders tighten up. Think about it - your vital organs are all right there, protected only by your rib cage (which like, alright, that’s some sort of protection I guess but let’s talk about wide open spaces of nothing) and your abdominal wall (which again, I don’t care how strong your core is, that’s not protecting your intestines from a sword). So when you feel stressed, afraid or in danger, guess what happens? Your shoulders start to draw forward and round towards your middle to help protect your vital parts from the scary outside world!

Bodies are so cool, right?!

But we don’t want to live in that state of stress -(would love to add that all the technology we use ALL THE TIME doesn’t help - it puts you into the same exact position your body goes to for protection) it’s not good for us, our posture or our bodies long term.

So let’s take a closer look and work our way back to a healthy neutral.

Take care, friends. Especially this week. We’re here. So are you.

All our love,
Cassandra + Pilates People

(11/1/20)