Winged Scapula Exercises

Injuries to the nerves or muscles that support your affected shoulder blade are the most common causes of scapular winging.

Winged Scapula

Your shoulder blade (scapula) is supposed to stay flat against your back and ribcage when you’re not moving it. If an injury damages the nerves and muscles in your shoulder, they might lose the ability to control your scapula. This can make it stick out, a bit like a bird’s wing. That’s where scapular winging gets its name.

Overview

Any issue with the nerves and muscles that hold your shoulder blades in place can cause a winged scapula.

What is a winged scapula?

A winged scapula happens when your shoulder blade (scapula) noticeably sticks out instead of lying flat on your back. Healthcare providers also call it scapular winging.

Winged scapulae (the plural form of scapula) get their name from the way they make your shoulder blades protrude. It can make your shoulder blade flare out away from your back, like a bird’s wing.

Having a winged scapula can make it hard or painful to move and use your affected shoulder blade. Lifting and moving your arm and shoulder on that side might hurt or feel weak.

Visit a healthcare provider if you notice that one of your shoulder blades looks visibly different from the other, or if you have symptoms like pain and stiffness that last for more than a week.

Scapular dyskinesis

Scapular winging is rare, and most cases that do happen are usually mild. Healthcare providers call this scapular dyskinesis (scapular misalignment).

If you have scapular dyskinesis, your shoulder blade might only look slightly different than usual. It won’t fully lift off your back when you move your arm or shoulder. It causes many of the same symptoms and “true” scapular winging, but they’re usually less severe.

Symptoms and Causes

What are scapula winging symptoms?

The most obvious winged scapula symptom is one shoulder blade looking noticeably out of place compared to the other.

You might feel symptoms in your affected scapula or shoulder, including:

Shoulder pain.
Stiffness.
A reduced range of motion (how far or smoothly you can move your shoulder), especially when you try to lift your arm over your head.
Weakness.
Hearing or feeling grinding or snapping when you move your shoulder.
Straining on one side of your neck when you raise your arm.

What causes a winged scapula?

Injuries to the nerves or muscles that support your affected shoulder blade are the most common causes of scapular winging.

The parts in your shoulder work together as a unit. They move best when there’s balanced tension in your shoulder muscles that push and pull each other when you move your shoulder and arm. Injuries that damage the nerves that control your muscles (or the muscles themselves) disrupt that natural balance. This prevents your muscles from holding your shoulder blade flat against your ribcage.

Picture trying to close a cardboard box by tucking all four flaps into and under each other. If one side of the box is bent or damaged, one of the four flaps will slip out and pop up when you try to tuck it in place.

What are the risk factors?

True scapular winging usually only happens when an injury causes nerve or muscle damage. People who have surgeries on their chest — especially mastectomies (breast removal) — also have a higher risk.

You might have an increased risk of developing a mild winged scapula (scapular dyskinesis) if you:

Play a sport that puts a lot of stress on your shoulders.
Do physically demanding work.
Wear a very heavy backpack often.
Have a slumped posture.
Have one shoulder that’s much weaker than the other.