Article by: Dr. Jeff Heddles
drheddles@activebodychiro.com

Shoulders can be a challenging joint to treat. Unlike a hip that is extremely stable, a shoulder is designed
for a great deal of motion. This means that areas of restriction on one side of the joint can easily cause
areas of hyper-mobility on the other. A dominate area of strength can be offset with a passive area of weakness.

It is key when dealing with shoulder pain to look at the mechanics of the joint. This is true both in painful and pain free activities. Watching someone move their arm can uncover hidden areas of restriction that may be far away from the area of pain.

A common complaint when dealing with shoulder pain, is an ambiguous ache that is located at the top of the
shoulder. It is often fine in non-weight bearing movements and is worse with pushing or pressing movements under resistance. While the area of pain includes muscles like the deltoid and rotator cuff groups, the pain is often caused from restrictions in the area of the armpit (or axilla). When raising the arm, about 80 degrees of the motion starts at the gleno-humeral joint (kind of like the “ball and socket” joint of the hip). Beyond 80 degrees, a great deal of the raising motion comes from the shoulder blade rotating on the ribcage. The muscles of the axilla, if shortened or fibrotic, can restrict the shoulder blade’s rotation causing overuse injuries of the muscles on the top of the shoulder.

So basically the muscles where the pain is coming from are simply being overused because of a restriction of a group on the other “end” of the shoulder!

Now of course there can be dozens of other problems causing the same symptoms. That is why it is important to get the shoulder looked at before any more serious complications arise that delay healing.