How easily can you move your shoulders? Can you link your hands behind your back? One side tighter than the other?
The shoulder joint is one of the most mobile joints in the body due to it's loosely located ball and socket articulation. This allows it to move well in many directions! However, as we age, with more desk work or with repetitive injuries, we can start to struggle to reach over head, or reach behind us to do up a bra-strap for example.
Upper crossed posture (rounded back and shoulders) is discussed in greater detail in my blog post on Mid-back pain . In this article, I shall discuss the common complaints affecting the shoulder girdle, and some effective rehab exercises that can be done to help prevent them from occurring.
The shoulder joint is actually a complex system of bones, muscles, ligaments and a joint capsule. To move your arm about, the scapula (shoulder blade) needs to move with it, as well as your clavicle at the front. Combinations of muscles are responsible for the movements of the shoulder:
Flexion and extension
Abduction and adduction
Internal rotation, external rotation
Circumduction
Horizontal abduction (transverse extension) and horizontal adduction (transverse flexion)
We need all of these movements to allow us to do every day activities.
We tend to move one shoulder much more than the other, as most of us use one hand dominantly for writing, brushing our teeth etc. Certain sports are very unilateral, such as tennis or golf, which can predispose us to getting more complaints in our dominant arm. Your shoulder can be injured due to sudden trauma, (such as a dislocation or fracture), or due to repetitive strain, infection or more rarely, tumour.
Frozen shoulder (or adhesive capsulitis) is an inflammatory condition that typically involves a gradual loss of movement in one shoulder. Other inflammatory conditions include:
Rheumatoid arthritis,
Osteoarthritis,
Bursitis (inflammation of one of the bursa in the shoulder and surrounding joints)
Tendonitis
When you come in to Melyn with shoulder pain, I will go through a thorough medical history with you, and examination, to get to the root of the cause of your pain.
Shoulder Mobility Exercises
Wall slides
Wall slides are a great way to counteract the shoulder roundedness we spend a lot of our time in.
With your back and head against a wall (you may need to move your feet away from the wall, then lean back to get this contact), place the backs of both hands against the wall. Ideally your arms should maintain contact with the wall throughout the movement as you slide both hands above your head and back again to the start position as shown.
Threading The Needle
I love threading the needle as a mobilisation tool as it gets your spine moving, and it gives your shoulders some wiggle room to move in another plane (transverse or horizontal). It allows your pectorals at the front and your scapular stabilisers at the back to contract and relax/lengthen in one smooth motion. Be sure to pad the knees if you need to get into position comfortably. If kneeling is not available to you, this exercise can be modified using kitchen counter for your supporting hand.
Extended child's pose
Extended child's pose is a great stretch for the musculature of the chest and front of your shoulder and your scapula stabilisers at the back, such as your latissimus dorsi (lats). You can adapt it by widening your knees to make it more accessible. If you can't put pressure on your knees or getting onto the floor is difficult, you can perform it leaning on a sofa or your hands and forearms on a kitchen counter.
Shoulder Strengthening
As previously mentioned, the shoulder is a very mobile joint at the expense of some stability which is why it is one of the most frequent joint to dislocate. Strengthening your shoulder is a great way of improving functionality of your shoulder. You don't need to visit the gym to do this, there are many ways of strengthening your shoulder at home without any equipment or with the use of a simple piece of resistance band. Get in touch with us today for a full shoulder assessment and personalised rehab plan.
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