SHOULDERS NEED TO STAY PRIMED
The ‘shoulder complex’ is indeed complex.
We utilize and enjoy the huge range of mobility in our shoulders daily. But they are a bit of a delicate joint system when compared to others in the body. There are several moving parts with relatively poor stability compared to other joints so we rely on muscles to keep things balanced.
A couple of key shoulder function facts are:
The shoulder blade moves when we move our arms; they create the base stability for the hinging ‘ball and socket’ shoulder joint. The ability for the shoulder blade to move correctly depends on posture through your spine, activation/strength of the muscles that control the movement and awareness. Move your arms up over head and appreciate how your shoulder blades are moving or watch someone else do it.
The ‘rotator cuff’ is a series of 4 muscles that lie on back, top and front of the shoulder blade. These all connect on the top of the humerus from these 3 aspects and hold the end of the bone, the ‘ball’ in the ‘socket’. These are small muscles that are asked to be movers and stabilizers. They are vulnerable to repetitive strain during activities - especially with the above shoulder blade stabilizers are weak and posture is poor.
Most trauma injuries from fall on your hands or arms, as well as repetitive use issues can be reduced by working on strengthening the muscles discussed above. The shoulder blade stabilizers and rotator cuff muscles fall in the category of ‘the lesser known ones that need to be strengthened specifically in order for them to be strong enough to match the load of life’. Or in other words, we should do a little shoulder maintenance often. Especially if you work with your arms, if you do a sport or activity that involves your arms or increase the likelihood of falling on them.
If you are someone with lingering shoulder pain that comes and goes, can keep you up at night or want to prevent injury then it would be beneficial to see if there are any weaknesses. All of the muscles need to be balanced to keep things working well.
One last thing- if you have fallen on your arm, tweaked your shoulder, waited out the pain and then carried on with life - it might not be a bad idea to make a visit or 2 to make sure all the muscles recovered from the pain/tweak. The initial pain and injury can shut these little muscles down and if they don’t fully recover then you have a pretty vulnerable shoulder. I only say this because I get a lot patients with shoulder pain who have a history of untreated lesser shoulder injuries that I believe can make things worse down the road.