Do you have shoulder pain that just doesn’t go away? Is it stoping you from living your life to its fullest? I commonly have patients with pain in the front of their shoulder. There are several different anatomical causes of this pain that include rotator cuff injury, impingement syndrome, ac joint sprains, different types of tendinitis, and in rare cases labrum tears. In many of these cases, there is an underlying issue that causes the pain to develop. Most of the time this underlying issue is shoulder instability.
What is shoulder instability?
Shoulder instability is when the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the shoulder joint are not properly holding the humeral head in the glenoid fossa. The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body. It has a huge range of motion which allows us to perform many of the everyday activities that we do. The cost of having all this range of motion is that sometimes the joint is not as supported as it should be. Ideally, the head of the humerus should be held in such a position where it sits close to the middle of the socket. For many different reasons, including postural habits, the muscles in the front of the shoulder tend to be stronger and tighter than the muscles in the back of the shoulder. This causes the head of the humerus commonly sits more towards the front of the socket. As a result, the shoulder does not function optimally. Wear and tear can lead to pain and this pain commonly presents itself in the front of the shoulder.
What can you do?
First, it needs to be determined if this is the cause of the shoulder pain. While it is one of, if not the most common cause of shoulder pain, which does not mean it is the cause of your shoulder pain. An in-depth examination should be performed to better determine the cause. Once it has been determined that instability is either causing or contributing to your pain the next thing to do is to try and correct the instability with the appropriate exercises. Exercises that strengthen the back of the shoulder and especially the muscles that hold the shoulder blade back can be done to help stabilize the shoulder. These exercises can take a few weeks to be effective, but once the shoulder is more stable it should alleviate some of the wear and tear that is happening on the front of the shoulder. This allows that area to heal and eventually for the pain to be reduced.
What is the first step that you can take today?
You have a couple of options available to you. The easiest is for you to download my free report on shoulder pain. The report goes further in-depth and can help you better understand why your pain is happening and the things you can do at home to help with the pain. To download that report please go to www.thepittsburghchiropractor.com/shoulder-pain/ and hit the big orange button. If you want to start feeling better as soon as today then you can schedule a free discovery visit with me where we will go over the history of your shoulder pain and I can help you determine what is going on and what treatment might help. If we decide that I can help you then we can usually start getting you on the road to recovery that same day. To do that please head over to https://www.thepittsburghchiropractor.com/complimentary-discovery-visit/ and enter your information.