How to Know if YOu have Depressed SHoulders

​If you’ve been lifting for a over year, you probably have depression, but not mental depression, I’m talking about shoulder depression.

And you wouldn’t be able to tell because all the best fitness people you see have it, so it tends to go unnoticed. 

In this 3-part series, we’re going to go over how to assess for depressed shoulders, how you got it, and how to correct it.  In today's article, we are just going to go over how to assess for depressed shoulders. 

Why should you care if you have low shoulders? It can lead to: 

Shoulder pain

If I get a new client who obviously has low shoulders and has shoulder pain, I'll often elevate the shoulders overhead, and ask them to lift their arms.  If there is no pain or less pain, I know that low shoulders is a factor in their pain.  

Neck Pain

If I do the same thing with new clients that have neck pain and the neck pain decreases or is eliminated, I know that low shoulders is a factor in their neck pain.  Often, the muscles which affect the shoulder directly attach to the neck, so there is often a cause and effect relationship between the shoulder and the neck. 

Tingling in the Hands

Certain nerves can become compressed from having low shoulders which can contribute to tingling in the hands.  Often, individuals who sleep with their arms overhead and have low shoulders are at the highest risk for developing tingling in their hands because of low shoulders.  

Trouble Sleeping on Side

If you have trouble sleeping on one side, it may be because that side has to low of shoulders.  

Clucking in Shoulder

If you raise your arm overhead, and you hear popping or clunking, low shoulders may be playing a role in this.  

Okay Von, you convinced me low shoulders can suck, but how do I really know if I have low shoulders?  The biggest tell-tale sign is the clavicle angle. 

If this clavicle or bone here is straight, you have depressed shoulders.  But, what if this part is a little elevated? 
 

In that case, I recommend taking a measurement of the slope of your upper traps.  To do this, we’re going to use an extension on a Chrome Browser called Protractor.  So, basically, as long as you can email yourself your picture, have it in Google Photos, or have it online somewhere, and can use a Chrome browser to look it up, you can easily measure your upper trap angle. 
 
Let’s first get Protractor on Chrome as an extension.  We go to the upper right corner and click on the three vertical dots.
 
Now, it shows up as a button, in the top right corner that whenever you click on displays your protractor and allows you to measure angles.  I believe there is a similar app in Android and I’m sure in the Apple store. 
 
So, here are the angle measures that I’ve found which tell you if you have depressed shoulders, or at risk of developing depressed shoulders, or if you have normal shoulders.   ​

​Here I am checking of my clients, and as you can see he pretty much has a flat right clavicular angle (follow the red arrow below), which guarantees him depressed shoulders on the right side.  However, his left clavicular angle is a little higher, so in that case, I like to measure the upper trap angle for his left side (and for completeness, we'll measure his right side too.) 

Then we’re going to put the other line across the upper trap.  We are measuring the left upper trap, and we get 33.9 degrees.  For tdhe right side, we get 33.5 degrees. 
 
I always recommend measuring the other side too because they’re almost going to be a little different, and sometimes a lot different. 
  
Both shoulders certainly qualify as being depressed. 
 
Now, let’s check myself. 

I’m going to measure my left angle, and we get 27.5 degrees (sorry the cursor is blocking the actual number). 
 
For my right angle, we get 30 degrees. 
 
If you’re are either “Approaching Depressed Shoulders” or have depressed shoulders from these measurements, in the next article, we’re going go over how you got it, so you can help prevent it. 
 
Finding out if you have low shoulders is simple.  Measure it, try to correct it, then measure it later on.  If you find it's getting better and you have less symptoms, keep it up!