Shoulder pain are one of the most common complaints we see in the clinic. Today, I want to tell you a little bit about why you potentially would get shoulder problems. When we see people coming into the clinic here with shoulder problems, there are three things that we need to make sure that that shoulder can have to move efficiently in over head movements.
One, you need to be able to extend through your thoracic spine. If you can’t extent through your thoracic spine, then your shoulder will be blocked. So, if you try to slouch and then try to move your arm, there’s only so far your shoulder will go. If you stand up tall, the block from the thoracic spine is gone, and now the shoulder blade can move freer, and the arm can use its full range.
The second part that we look for is the shoulder blade. So, the shoulder blade is a floating bone. It moves around and it’s suspended in a lot of muscle. And therefore the control of those muscles and the flexibility of those muscles are paramount to making sure that that moves.
So, we then check all the muscles to see if they’re doing the job that they need to do. Are there any that are restricted? Are there some that are underactive due to postures and habits that you’ve formed over time that’s causing restrictions in there? All important areas to address if you are experiencing pain in the shoulder.
The third thing then is looking at the range of movement in the shoulder. Often due to, postures and habits and training methods, you can become a bit stiff in certain parts of your shoulder joint. This can then block the shoulder itself leading to shoulder pain. Now, if we take the constituent parts of that, your thoracic spine needs to extend to be able to lift the arm above the head. You need to be able to tilt your shoulder blade back. This then accounts for about a third of that movement before the shoulder then then comes through and does the second two thirds of that movement.
Now, that all happens at the same time, or it should happen at the same time, so that you can get your arm above your head. Any restrictions in any three of those components can cause the other two to be overloaded and cause problems in the tissues and give you pain.
If you have any questions about how the shoulder functions, and you have any problems that you’d want us to look at, then feel free to send us a message, or indeed phone us. Our details are on the this website. Look out for future blogs as there will be more content coming from us soon.
