How to Put an End to Shoulder Pain
Most people who hurt their shoulders don’t know how they did it. It’s a pain that isn’t caused by something bad. They didn’t trip and hurt their arm, and they don’t remember what they did to hurt their shoulder. Most shoulder pain starts this way, so people don’t think anything is wrong because they don’t remember hurting their shoulders.
When you want to stop shoulder pain, the first thing you should do is learn about the shoulder’s structure.
The humerus is the name of the bone in your arm. The back of the shoulder, where the shoulder blade is, is the next part. On the back of your shoulder, above, below, and under your shoulder blade, is where your rotator cuff is.
Between the bone on top of your shoulder and the humerus, there is a space. A muscle for the rotator cuff runs between these two bones. As you move your arm up and down, this hole grows and shrinks, giving the muscles more and less room. But the things we do every day keep the hole from getting bigger for a long time.
What do we do every day that changes the size of the hole the muscle has to go through?
The first is a slouched body. When you sit with your back arched and look at your phone or computer, the hole gets smaller and the muscles get tighter. When this happens, the muscle can feel like it’s being pinched. This feeling of being pinched is called “impedance.” If this impingement goes on for long enough without being fixed, it can lead to a tear in the rotator cuff.
As soon as you feel like you’re being pinched, you’ll start to shrug your shoulder. This is what you’ll do because you want to keep your shoulder from hurting. If you shrug your shoulder, you can move it further without having to move it and feel the pinch. This shoulder shrugging can cause pain, neck pain, and even a tear in the rotator cuff.
Weakness is another reason that you can experience shoulder pain. Most people’s rotator cuffs are weak because they don’t do anything to strengthen them. You can’t strengthen the rotator cuff without doing exercises designed to do just that.
In order to stop shoulder pain, one of the first things you need to do is correct your posture. Start by rolling your shoulders up, back and drop them down. This will position your shoulders so there is a big enough gap in the shoulder to allow for the muscle to go through the hole. Don’t pull your shoulders back too hard, or you’ll overcorrect and hurt yourself in the opposite direction.
The second thing you should really think about is how you sleep, as it’s best to sleep on the side that isn’t hurt and to hug a pillow with the hurt arm. This gives your shoulder the best chance to heal.
Lastly, you need to do specific exercises for your rotator cuff. Ones that move around and work those muscles in particular. We have a lot of shoulder physical therapy videos you can follow on your own.
Visit our OC Physical Therapy location by calling us at 949.716.5050!