A Simple Solution for Nagging Shoulder Pain
Dr. Jeremie Pederson D.C., C.S.C.S.
If you ever take a moment to stop and look around at your fellow weight-lifters at the club, it is likely that you will make a troubling observation. An inordinate number of gym patrons are forced to pause frequently throughout their weight-lifting routines in order to rub their painful shoulders. Unfortunately, shoulder pain is nagging and prevalent in health clubs, despite the fact that most pain can be avoided with a few simple precautions. One of the most common shoulder conditions encountered is shoulder impingement, meaning that the round ball of the arm bone, called the head of the humerous, rubs or grinds up against the underside of your acromion bone. Although this condition has numerous causes, one of the most common is muscle imbalance.
Many people spend much more time and effort performing overhead presses, bench presses, dips, pull-ups, biceps curls, and skull crushers than much-needed retraction and external rotation movements of the shoulder. Although these exercises are effective in developing muscles, they cause the shoulder to become inferiorly and internally rotated. As a result, the external rotator muscles of the shoulders don’t work well because they become overstretched and inhibited. The end result is a forward- rounded shoulder posture which causes pain when reaching the arm overhead. The pain gradually becomes worse and often causes weight lifters to discontinue exercising, leading to unhappy and inactive people who may loose flexibility and muscular strength.
How do you fix this problem?
If you have severe pain with swelling, or a long history of pain, you need to consult your Chiropractic doctor, as advanced treatment of your injuries with therapies or medications may be necessary. However, if your shoulder pain is minor and nagging, the following guidelines could be helpful:
1. Avoid these movements until the shoulder impingement is corrected: overhead presses, chest presses, pull-ups, lat pull downs, dips, push ups, and pec-flies.
2. Perform the exercises and stretches attached on the rehabilitation file 3 times a week for 3 weeks. If there is no improvement after 3 weeks you should come in for an examination to rule out more serious conditions.