Shoulder Pain, How is Your Posture?

!±8± Shoulder Pain, How is Your Posture?

If you have shoulder discomfort, partial immobility, or shoulder pain that was Not caused from some kind of impact from car accident or tree collision during jogging that you didn't see for some reason then you need to check the following; how is your upper body posture, particularly the shoulders?

Take a look (a good look) at the mirror; side and front view. Do you have forward and leaning downward shoulders or one side is lower than the other? You're not sure yet, then perform these simple tests...

Range of motion test-1
Stand with feet pointing straight; heels, buttocks, and shoulder blades against the wall...Now raise your fully extended arms all the way up like a "surrender pose" and notice the following:

-How far can you raise your fully extended arms, they should be covering your ears with ease?

- Do you have difficulty performing this simple range of motion test?

- Is your back arched excessively in order to perform this test?

-Do you feel tingling or numbness around the shoulders or hands area after few seconds which is possibly from nerve impingement or blood flow restriction?

Range of motion test-2

-The other simple test is where you raise your arms to the sides at shoulder level (so you look like a capital T letter), then bend the elbows at a 90 degree angle (like flexing your biceps) and palms facing forward.

-Now bring the elbows together by performing a hinge movement, the other shoulder joint motion that many individuals have lost.

While you're performing this shoulder horizontal -adduction and abduction- movement try not to lower your elbows to make this test easier but keep them at shoulder level all the time. Also, keep both hands to the sides of your head because many people have a tendency to move their hands away while trying to bring elbows together.

While performing test 2, look for the following signs:

-Can you bring the elbows together- they should touch each other, again with ease?

-Do you have difficulty pulling the elbows back against the wall, without pushing the head forward?

-Is the back of your head touching the wall (it should be); if your head is sticking out that can be another sign of forward shoulders?

If you have any of these signs or symptoms then most likely you do have dysfunctional posture and if you do, then welcome to the ever increasing society of dysfunctional bodies. You're not alone, many people have misaligned body-posture because of what we do (or not what we do for the matter) every single day. We limit our bodies to certain movements something like the following:

- We sit most of the time which means tight and overactive hip flexors, posterior chain muscles are also tight and some of them inactive and weak.

- We rarely lift our arms with full range of motion simply because we don't need/have to!

- Static positions front of the computer and TV screens and also the same pattern with commuting (ex., driving or riding car, bus and other vehicles.)

Do you see the daily routine that we put ourselves in? Furthermore after months and years of doing the same thing, your body will adapt to the new environment so many muscles will shut off and other muscles will take over on top of what tasks they already have. That's where muscles start to compensate for other muscles .

What to do about your shoulders?

You need to pull the rounded shoulders back to their normal position by following the next suggestions:

In many cases your forward shoulders are caused by somewhere else in the body and the most suspect usually are the misaligned hips. For example, if you have an excessive arch (lordosis) in the lower back area or the opposite symptom (flat lower back) these hip misalignments can affect the whole body chain, including your shoulders.

So, stretch hip flexors (Psoas major and minor, Iliacus, and Rectus Femoris) and TFL to retain their normal length, and prevent them from being overworked, until your hips maintain the normal position only then S spine shape will preserve its normal curve. Also, incase of having a flat lower back then strengthen the hip flexors can be a good idea.

kneeling hip flexor stretch is one example to use. You can search online for most if not all these recommended stretching muscle exercises.

-Most likely you need to strengthen your butt muscles in both cases, because from being inactive (too much sitting or being prevented from doing its own task). Performing standing butt squeeze

-Stretch and possibly strengthen your hamstrings (the back muscles of the legs). Example, bending down to reach your toes (standing pose) or Supine hamstring stretch with strap using strap; this is where you.

- lie on your back and secure the strap around the arch of the right foot * while keeping the left leg straight touching the floor Or bending it if you have discomfort.

- keep the right leg fully extended and pointing straight towards the ceiling. Hold the stretch for about 1 minute and then repeat with the left leg.

- For the upper body; strengthen your muscles that act on the shoulder blades (scapula) area like performing scapular contraction exercises and rowing movements focusing on bringing the shoulder blades together.

Also, make a habit in the morning to stretch and move your all your joints like,

- Shoulder joint; swimmer arm circles (forward and backward motion), floor or wall glides, stretch your neck and turn it left-right and upward- downward

- Posture muscles; camel and dog stretch, the yoga down facing dog, floor or wall scapular contractions.

- Knee joint simple movements like floor kneeling and squatting on daily basis instead on using the chair all the time.

- Ankle joint ankle circles and dorsi and plantar motion.

- wrist joint circular motion clock wise and counter clock wise.

Even at work, every hour or so take a break for 5-10 minutes to perform the above simple stretches.

The next measure to do is consulting with a good chiropractor to locate and adjust the musculoskeletal area that is dysfunctional. Particularly focus on your hips which are the center connection between your lower and upper body so you can fix the source and not only the symptom.

Last but not least is to strengthen the shoulder muscles gently and gradually using light weight like light tension resistance bands or 1-10 pound dumbbells. The movements should cover all the range of motion the shoulder joint can do, like overhead pressing and side and front shoulder/deltoid lifts. Remember the weight you're lifting is not the focus for now, so don't feel bad because you're lifting light weight but concentrate on exposing your shoulder joint to all these motions with gradual and mild exercises.