Muscles That Move The Pectoral Girdle

The shoulder joint of the human body allows for movement of the arm, back and chest. Composed of two sets of muscles that sit on the front and back of the body, the pectoral girdle affixes the arm to the rest of your body. Keeping these muscles fit can keep your shoulder joint healthy.

Pectoral Girdle

The pectoral girdle, also known as the shoulder girdle, supports your arms. Your collarbones, or clavicle, and shoulder blades, the scapula, are the primary bones involved in the pectoral girdle. There are three joints involved in keeping the collarbone and shoulder blade affixed to the body. The inside of the clavicle joins with the sternum as the sternoclavicular joint. The shoulder blade and collarbone joint together at the acromioclavicular joint. The shoulder blade also joins with the humerus, the upper arm bone, at the humeroscapular joint.

Anterior Muscles

The anterior muscles are those toward the front of the body. The anterior muscles acting on the pectoral girdle are the pectoralis minor, serratus anterior and subclavius. The pectoralis minor depresses your shoulder blade. The serratus anterior abducts and lifts the arm and depresses, elevates, adbucts and rotates the scapula. Your subclavius muscles depresses your collarbone.

Posterior Muscles

The posterior pectoral girdle muscles are toward the back of your body. These include the levator scapula, rhomboideus and trapezius. The levator scapula elevates and rotates your scapula to move the shoulder downward. The rhomboideus are composed of two muscles: the rhomboideus major and minor. These muscles elevate and retract your shoulder blade as well as hold it to allow downward rotation of the shoulder. The trapezius muscles elevate the shoulder blade to move the shoulder upward and retract and depress the shoulder blade.

Training

The range of motion of the pectoral girdle makes it vulnerable to injury or dislocation. Try working the pectoral girdle muscles with the wall shoulder girdle stretch. This exercise stretches the muscles of the pectoral girdle both isometrically and dynamically. Start by standing against a wall with your upper back leaning on the wall but your feet away from the wall. With your hips and knee bent slightly, bring your arms against the wall so that your elbows are bent and hands are near your head. Firmly press your arms against the wall as you slide your arms up the wall by straightening your elbows, then slide them back down to the starting position.