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At Physiokinetic we see a lot of shoulder injuries.

They are most prevalent in people that complete activity in the overhead position.

Quite often this is also the main symptom that people will seek physiotherapy,

“I get pain when I reach up to dry my hair”

“My shoulder hurts when I reach upwards to turn the light on”

“I can hit a forehand but as soon as I try to serve I get shoulder pain”

Quite often these symptoms will come with a diagnoses of “shoulder impingement”. 

This is an accurate description of the symptoms. However it is just that, a symptom of a problem, not a diagnoses.  The diagnoses is derived from what is causing the shoulder to pinch. This is due to multiple factors.

The most significant factor and improvement people can make in the early stages of injury is to relax and allow yourself to slouch! The misleading information that creates the need to relax comes from the ideal that sitting up straight and pulling the shoulders back is a good idea while you move the shoulder.

This causes more problems and can quite often worsen the symptoms of impingement. 

This is as a result of accidentally fixing the shoulder blades in once place.

The shoulder moves! To create space and to give you a stable platform for the arm to work, the shoulder blade needs to move forwards and rotate upwards. Any lack of this movement and the shoulder will function sub optimally.

To promote this movement I use the cue to relax and as the arms raise up overhead, expand the back between the shoulder blades. The exact opposite to pulling them back!

You can try this now, simply try and hold your shoulder blades together and raise your arms, then do the same while relaxed and letting your shoulder blades move. Which is easier?

When you have the feeling of this you can then train to maintain the muscular balance around the shoulder to keep this rotation occurring efficiently.

Have a good week!

Dan