July Question of the Month
Is one of your shoulders higher than the other?
Most people have one shoulder higher than the other. Is one of your shoulders higher, and if so, which one?
How to find out
Look in the mirror, let your arms hang by your side naturally, and look at your shoulders. Is one higher than the other?
Check your collarbones – is the collarbone on your higher shoulder higher than the other side, or is it even?
Draw an imaginary line across your shoulder line parallel to the floor (or perpendicular to the midline of your body, if that’s easier to picture). Is one shoulder higher and the other lower than that line? Or is one side level and the other is higher or lower?
What it could mean
If one shoulder and that collarbone is higher, there are a number of muscles that could be pulling your shoulder up towards your head – upper traps, scalenes, levator scapula. While you should try to identify why that side is tighter (what are you doing on a regular basis that brings that shoulder up?), our suggested stretch should help relieve the tension in those muscles and help them become more even.
If your collarbones are even but one shoulder is higher, your upper traps may be overworking and as a result be more bulky. This could be due to tight muscles in your side along your ribs making the top of your shoulder work harder than the other side. For that, our suggested stretch will help, but you should also try to stretch out your side with a gentle lat stretch.
If one collarbone is higher and the other is lower, you may have a tilt further down the body – possibly in your ribs, lower back, or side. We’ll be looking at side tilts in a future QOM, but if you’d like to know more before then, you can comment below, or email us, or come in for a session where we can have a look.
Suggested exercise/stretch
This side neck/top of shoulder is great for a lot of muscles that can get tight. As always, stretch very gently, especially because we are moving the neck, and do not do this if you have a history of neck problems or vertebral problems in your neck without checking with a healthcare practitioner first.
1. Put your arm behind your back or grab on to the side of the chair you’re sitting on to encourage your shoulder to stay down.
2. Very gently tilt your head away from that shoulder, lengthening your head away from your shoulder (i.e., don’t crunch your neck down on itself). To stretch slightly more in the back of the shoulder, look down towards your hip while stretching, for the front of the neck and shoulder look slightly up.
3. Stretch gently – aim for a 3 out of 10 in intensity, and you should start to feel a release after 10 seconds – if it hasn’t decreased in that time, you may need to ease up on the stretch. You can hold this for around 30 seconds.
So what did you find, is one shoulder higher? Does the stretch help? Let us know how you go, and of course, if you feel you need help you are always welcome to come see us where we can assess any shoulder imbalances and give you advice specific to your situation as to why you may have it.
4 Responses
During approx a year or a little more my right collar bone has gotten higher than the left. I had hip replacement 4-1/2 yrs ago and think that may have something to do with this since I am slightly uneven now; not too noticeable but probably enough to make this happen. What can I do to change?
Hi Della, there are a lot of potential reasons your collarbone would be higher on the right, so it’s hard to say without seeing you, but some potential causes could be holding your shoulder higher to lift up your hip, or it could be related to breathing, or a number of movements that would cause muscle tension to build up on that side of the top of the shoulder. Trying to stretch your chest and top of the shoulder may help, and checking that you’re not tilted in your upper body as well. I’d suggest seeing a clinical/remedial massage therapist to assess if it’s muscle-related or something else. Of course, if it’s causing you pain or severe discomfort you might want to check with your GP. Hope that helps!
Hi, I’m Ashish , My left collarbone has gotten up than my Right collarbone I don’t know why also the left one is popping out than right one what could this mean and what I should do to even it
Hi Ashish, thanks so much for your comment.
There can be a number of different reasons that one collarbone is higher than the other – you could have muscles pulling one up, or one down, or you could have structural/bone issues that aren’t able to be changed. Unfortunately, it’s hard to say for sure without seeing you in person. If your collarbone is higher than level you can do a gentle neck stretch to relax the muscles – as long as you make sure it’s very gentle so you’re not straining the muscles, and that you can do it without pain, it may help release muscles that are pulling your shoulder up.
If you have any medical conditions or a history of injuries in the shoulder you should see someone before starting any exercise for yourself, which in some cases would include stretching.
If you’re based in London, we’d be happy to have you in and do an assessment and some targeted massage work to see if we can help, or, if you’re not local to us check for a massage therapist who does clinical/remedial work (i.e. not a spa massage or general deep tissue/Swedish). Hope that helps!