Shoulder pain in Wandsworth
Supraspinatus tendinitis, subacromial bursitis, biceps tendinopathy, subacromial impingement, subluxing glenohumeral joint, blah, blah, blah. As a patient this will mean nothing to you and to be honest as a therapist it doesn’t really matter what structure you have an injury in as there are a number of really simple things that can be used to manage many different minor shoulder problems.
The first one is to mobilise you upper back also called your thoracic spine. This can be done very easily on a foam roll at home. The upper back become stiff from poor posture and sitting at a computer all day. You need good mobility in the upper back otherwise the shoulder joint becomes over worked at can set up any of the pathologies above.
Next stretch the chest muscles, this can be done by putting your arms up in a door frame and leaning forward until you feel a stretch in the chest. Once again poor posture and sitting at a computer causes the chest muscles to become tight. Next you need to strengthen postural muscles in the upper back, there are any number of yoga, Pilates or other such exercises that can be used to strengthen the upper back. You should also strengthen the rotator cuff muscles, specifically the external rotators.You might need someone to show you what to do here but you can use a cable machine, a dumbbell or even stretchy rubber theraband.
Now these exercises wont help with more serious shoulder exercises but if you experience shoulder pain try them and see how much it helps. If your pain is not improving then book in to see a physio as your shoulder pain could be coming from elsewhere and a physio can help establish this and give you the right treatment.
