Shoulder pain is a game changer. A painful shoulder can quickly limit the activity level for athletes and non-athletes alike.
The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in your entire body. With that being said, eliminating the pain in such loose joint is no easy task.
7 Sports Medicine Tips to Manage Your Shoulder Pain.
Pendulum Swings – With the hand of the pain-free shoulder resting on a chair and a 10-15 lbs weight in the other hand, slowly move the weighted hand in a slow circular motion. This will distract and relax the muscles surrounding the painful shoulder joint. Swing the hand/arm like a pendulum in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions.
Pliable Chest Muscles – Longer and more flexible chest muscles are vital for a happy pain-free shoulder. Start by aggressively massaging the deep chest muscles with fingers or a baseball (warning; it hurts but it works). Next, stretching the superficial chest muscles in a door frame is a simply way lengthen your broad, strong chest muscles. By doing so, the more flexible chest muscles will now allow for greater mobility of three (3) bones which make up your shoulder girdle (upper arm bone, shoulder blade & collar bone).
Strong Shoulder Blade Stabilizers – You have 17 muscles anchored to each of your shoulder blades. Keeping your upper back strong helps protect the shoulder joints by controlling the intricate motions of the shoulder blade. To do so, seated rows, bent-over flies, cable “T’s” and good ol’ scapula squeezes need to be part of your shoulder plan.
Enduring External Rotators – Of the four (4) muscles forming your rotator cuff, the two external rotators are the most important when it comes to prevent shoulder injury. The key factor with shoulder external rotators is not just strength. Hence, having great endurance of the external rotators should be your goal. Doing high repetitions (>15 reps) using cable weights or simple exercise bands will help accomplish this.
Overhead Stretches – Add low-intensity pain-free overhead stretches to your routine. Examples include 25-50% body weight hangs from a pull-up bar/door frame or bend-over stretches with hands on a high counter.
Limited Overhead Strengthening – Anytime you perform strength work above your shoulder level, you’re increasing the stress on your rotator cuff. You can sufficiently strengthen all your shoulder, back and chest muscles without ever elevating your elbows above your shoulder.
Strong Posture – Daily tasks like driving, working on a computer and carrying objects all contribute to poor posture and shoulder pain.
Strong posture = Shoulder blades “back and down” + chin over ribs
The Quest for Happy Shoulders
Most of the painful shoulder joints I treat have key problems related to their shoulder girdle. These 7 sports medicine tips will help you protect two very important joints.
Remember this simple formula: Happy shoulders have mobile shoulder girdles, great endurance of their external rotators and strong upper back muscles.
