Do you have a sharp pain in your shoulder when you lift your arm over your head? Constant dull and achy pain in your shoulder and mid-back? Decreased strength and endurance in your shoulder?
Shoulder pain can put a damper on anyone’s day. Patients often come in and tell me that they can’t take things out of the fridge without pain. Sometimes mundane activities like washing in the shower or putting on deodordant or fastening your seatbelt become a challenge.
Sometimes the pain has slowly developed over time or happened quickly out of nowhere.
What causes it?
Typically it’s overuse of your rotator cuff muscles.
As modern human beings we spend a lot of time hunched over computers, cell phones, car steering wheels, books… you get the point. We spend long periods of time, cumulatively, hunched over and that not only compresses your shoulder joints, leaving them prime for injury, but also makes your shoulder blade muscles weak. This Causes the rotator cuff muscles to jump in and work harder than normal. Like anyone else, if your boss makes you do too much overtime, eventually you’re going to get a little cranky.
Overworked muscles develop scar tissue over time. As a muscle is constantly in tension, not only does it starve itself (limiting the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can be delivered), but it becomes unable to get rid of waste products.
Poor joint mechanics in your hip, back and neck can also affect your shoulders. When we walk, swing bats or clubs or throw something, your hip connects to your opposite shoulder.
So how do we fix this?
It’s important to do a full exam of your joints, muscles, nerves and lymphatic system to determine why your shoulder pain even started. Once we know why, we will use different scar tissue release methods like Active Release Technique, Functional Range Conditioning, Graston and Gua Sha, Vibration Therapy and more combined with rehab exercises to get you out of pain in the shortest time possible and keep you that way.
