People who play tennis don't use the shoulder blade muscles as much as other athletes when doing a specific exercise where they lie face down and pull their shoulder blades together, especially when their arms are raised high.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Muscle Recruitment and Asymmetry in Bilateral Shoulder Injury Prevention Exercises: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Between Tennis Players and Non-Tennis Players

Cross-Sectional Study

Human

2025 May 15

Tennis players use one arm a lot, so their shoulder muscles get used to working differently — this study found their back muscles don’t activate as much during certain exercises compared to other athletes, likely because their bodies adapted to tennis.

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No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Muscle Recruitment and Asymmetry in Bilateral Shoulder Injury Prevention Exercises: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Between Tennis Players and Non-Tennis Players

Score: 34

DOI: 10.3390/healthcare13101153

Similar Assertions

When tennis players do a shoulder exercise lying face down with arms raised high, their shoulder blade muscles don't fire as strongly as in other athletes—sometimes less than half as much.

89%

When people do a shoulder exercise standing with a resistance band, tennis players and other athletes use their shoulder blade muscles about the same—so this exercise doesn't reveal the differences seen in other exercises.

87%

Tennis players activate their shoulder blade muscles much more when doing a shoulder exercise lying face down than when doing the same movement standing with a resistance band.

84%

Both tennis players and other athletes have some imbalance in how strongly each shoulder blade muscle works, but tennis players are more balanced when their arms are raised high, and more unbalanced when their arms are at a lower angle—like during a tennis stroke.

83%