If you’re meeting me for the first time, a little background will help this story make more sense.
Before I started coaching, I spent several years training seriously and competing in bikini bodybuilding competitions. During that time, I was constantly reviewing progress photos, stage photos, and practicing my back pose to improve my physique.
That’s actually how I first noticed something was off.
In some of my competition photos, one of my shoulder blades looked like it was sticking out slightly when I hit my back pose. At first, I didn’t think much of it. When you’re competing, you’re always analyzing small details, so I assumed it was just one of those tiny things you notice when you look closely at your physique.
Eventually, though, it stopped being just a visual detail.
Over time my shoulders started feeling uncomfortable, especially at night. I would lie in bed trying to find a position that didn’t bother them, and when your sleep starts suffering, everything else starts feeling harder too.
That’s when I started asking the same question, I now ask many of my clients: what’s actually causing this?
The Cause Wasn’t In The Gym
At the time this started happening, I had already been training consistently for a few years. But something outside the gym was creating the imbalance.
I was working in a deli, and the meat slicer I used was right-handed. The resistance on the slicer actually happens when you push the carriage forward through the meat. That meant thousands of repetitions every shift pushing forward with the same arm.
Over time, that repetitive movement started affecting how my shoulder blade stabilized.
One of the muscles responsible for keeping the shoulder blade anchored against the rib cage is the serratus anterior. When that muscle isn’t stabilizing efficiently, other muscles begin to compensate to keep the shoulder functioning.
In my case, my upper trapezius and levator scapulae began taking on more of that stabilization role. When those muscles take over, the shoulder blade can start lifting away from the rib cage.
That’s what’s known as scapular winging.
Training Harder Wasn’t the Answer
At first, I assumed this was just a typical muscle imbalance.
My right side had clearly been doing more work because of the repetitive motion from the slicer, so my first thought was that I just needed to train the left side more and “balance things out.”
That’s a really common approach. When something looks uneven, the instinct is to simply add more work to the weaker side.
But the more I looked into it, the more I realized this wasn’t really a strength issue.
The problem was how my shoulder blade was moving; not just how strong the muscles were.
If I had simply kept adding more volume to the left side, I likely would have reinforced the same compensation patterns that were already happening.
Instead of pushing harder, I needed to retrain the way my shoulder blade stabilized and moved during exercises.
Once I focused on restoring that control, everything started to change.
What I Did to Fix It
Once I understood what was happening, my focus shifted toward rebuilding proper control of the shoulder blade.
Three exercises played a major role in correcting the imbalance: banded punches, serratus push-ups, and wide-grip landmine rows.
Banded punches helped replicate the same forward pushing motion I was performing with the slicer. The difference was that this time the focus was on keeping the shoulder blade anchored against the rib cage while producing force.
Serratus push-ups helped strengthen the muscles responsible for stabilizing the shoulder blade and improved how the shoulder blades moved around the rib cage.
Once my shoulder blade was stabilizing properly again, I started loading the movement with wide-grip landmine rows, which allowed my back muscles to strengthen while maintaining proper shoulder positioning.
You can see demonstrations of these exercises and how they should look in the video above, where I walk through the movements and explain how they helped retrain my shoulder blade.
The Result
Once my shoulder blade was stabilizing properly again, my back training finally started feeling the way it should.
Instead of compensating with other muscles, my back muscles could finally do their job properly. My training felt more balanced, and the discomfort I had been dealing with gradually improved.
The Bigger Lesson
One of the biggest things this experience reinforced for me is that many imbalances don’t actually start in the gym.
They often come from repetitive patterns in work, sports, or daily habits. Understanding those patterns is often the first step toward correcting the problem.
Why This Matters for My Clients
This experience is also a big part of why I coach the way I do at Dzingala Fitness.
Sometimes the key to better strength and better training isn’t pushing harder. It’s stepping back, understanding how your body moves, and correcting the patterns that may be holding you back.
Once those patterns are addressed, everything else becomes much easier. Your training improves, your strength improves, and most importantly, your body feels better.
If something in your body feels off, there’s usually a reason behind it. With the right approach, it’s often something that can be improved.
