Why do I keep injuring my shoulder?
Did you know the shoulder is (arguably) the most injured peripheral joint we see in the clinic?
With injuries, there are many questions that come along with it. Have you ever asked yourself “Why the #*!? does this keep happening!?!”
As a chiropractor working in sports, I see a lot of shoulder injuries!
Like any injury these are super frustrating.
They impact your day to day life
...something as simple as grabbing a box of biscuits from the top shelf in the pantry can cause pain.
Wouldn’t be hard for me to guarantee you don’t want that pain!
Before we look at what you need to do next, it will be helpful for you to understand:
Why the Shoulder is So Much More Susceptible to Injury?
You see, shoulders are a shallow ball and socket joint because we need more range in our arms to be able to do our day to day activities. The downside…
there is less structural support at your shoulder!
This means we need to get the support from your ligaments, muscles and the labrum (which acts as a suction cup to keep the ball within the socket).
All injuries are generally caused by either:
Trauma - like falling and dislocating your shoulder or,
Behavior - a movement based issue resulting from a repeated behaviour such as throwing a ball with the same side
Either way…
We need to remember that there are 3 main components (ligaments, muscles, or labrum) that help to stabilise, control, and move your shoulder, and any (or all) could be involved!
Each muscle in your shoulder helps the others to provide movement & control. If one muscle doesn’t work as well as it should (say you injured it), the others need to pick up the slack (thanks guys!), but… now we’ve built a compensation.
Compensation short term is great. It helps you continue living life and doing what you need to do. But long term it can lead to a behavioural based problem. This means your shoulder now moves differently and you’re now putting more load through the other muscles. This means they may be predisposed to injuring THEM.
And so the cycle begins!
Injury (Trauma) → others pick up slack (behavioural change) → overloaded muscles & abnormal movement patterns → injury → others pick up slack → injury etc
You see where I’m going with this?
(annoying right!?)
So what can we do about this pain you’re getting?!
If you already can’t tell,
your shoulder is complex!
It’s not as easy as saying “oh yeah… your traps are TIGHT!”
That’s great, they probably are, but they’re likely not going to be the cause of your pain.
And if I’m being honest:
if we’re not treating the cause then wtf are we doing?!
I know I can’t be the only one who has seen someone who rubs the sore spot and sends you on your way. Yes, giving you symptomatic relief is important, you don’t want to be sore!
But,
if we’re not fixing this shoulder properly with the right rehab and progressions then I guarantee you’ll do that push up, kipping movement, or even a push press and that pinching pain you’ve been feeling will come back.
You know what, I’d be as over that pain as I am with COVID (I just want to lay on a beach in Bali with a cocktail in hand, Scomo, can you please just let me go!)
Can you do me a favour?
If you experience pain, particularly in your shoulder, don’t stop doing the things you love! You don’t have to push through the pain either!
Get it checked out!
Let’s put a plan in place, and get you back to doing the things you love without worrying about the aftermath!
Complex doesn’t mean impossible, it just means we need to understand and figure out WHY it’s happening, and then be intentional with the treatment & rehab to get you back to #living.