We see a lot of patients with shoulder injuries, so I just wanted to share a couple of things with you today. Many of these shoulder injuries are chronic in nature and often prevent people just like you from living a normal active life.
The rotator cuff (the muscles around your shoulder) consists of muscles designed to basically hold your shoulder joint together. These are the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, teres major, and the subscapularis muscles. We doctors call them the SITS muscles.
The SITS muscles are small muscles. A healthy set of shoulder muscles allows you to play golf, bowl, throw a ball, swim, play tennis, sleep comfortably, and even comb your hair. An injured set of these muscles compromises all the muscles in the shoulder region. The rotator cuff helps you to pull the arm bone down into the joint when the arm is raised to the side; this prevents the arm bone from banging into the shoulder blade. It also works in slowing down the shoulder joint when throwing a ball and swinging a club.
Another way that the shoulder is injured is during weightlifting. Many weightlifters have or have had shoulder injuries. Many popular lifting techniques actually cause damage to the shoulder muscles. One exercise that should be eliminated is the upright rows. Bench-pressing is another one; bench-pressing with a straight bar also causes the shoulder to slip into a bad position due to the little work required of the SITS muscles to hold the joint together. It is better to use dumbbells, which force the rotator cuff muscle to hold the shoulder together. That said, dumbbell pullovers should be avoided, as this places great stress on the shoulder joint and also puts the shoulder in a position in which it can easily become dislocated.
There are many shoulder injuries that can occur to the joint and muscles including tears, tendonitis, and impingement to name a few. If you let your shoulder go too long with an injury scar tissue can set in, and if not treated correctly and aligned properly with adjustments and the proper therapy, it can result in something called a frozen shoulder.
When your (rotator cuff muscles) shoulder is injured, pain is most often felt over the deltoid-shoulder muscle. Often there will be a referral type pain down your arm into your hand. To help support and prevent further injury a lot of people start to put their hand in their pocket. This starts to set up something called “adhesions” between the muscles, nerves, tendons, and fascia. Think of these adhesions as tiny little hairs that prevent the muscle from sliding on each other. One way to promote healing is to convince the scar tissue lay out in such a way that as few adhesions as possible are created, and the best way to do this is to passively stretch your shoulder, which we’ll help you do when you’re here. This stretch allows the scar tissue in your shoulder to lay down in the direction of the muscle so that your muscles keep a better range of motion.
So what should you do if you hurt your shoulder? First, don’t keep trying to work through the pain. Second, get some professional help by calling my office immediately so that we can examine you, find out if you need rehab on your shoulder, and then start helping as quick as possible. Third, when you’re not in the office, use ice—not heat. I’ll go over the frequency when we talk at your exam. Here’s something else to remember: If you would like to avoid surgery and finally get some sleep from your nagging shoulder, call my office and make an appointment. My staff will get you in as soon as possible so you can get some relief. Stay healthy and call with any questions.
Dr. Scott Cabazolo
(540) 622-6400
112 E 6th Street
Front Royal, VA 22630
naturalresultschiro@yahoo.com