Are You Tired of Living with Nagging Shoulder Pain?
Shoulder Pain Can Be Limiting….But Physiotherapy Can Help!
Shoulder pain can take many forms – it can show up when you’re reaching toward the top shelf to put dishes away or when you’re struggling to find a comfortable position to sleep in without feeling a dull aching pain in your shoulder and neck. It can show up as a result of an injury, making you feel as if your shoulder is immobile.
There are numerous reasons why someone may experience shoulder pain, and the severity can range from the temporary discomfort of a pulled muscle to the agonizing bone-on-bone friction of arthritis.
Whatever may be the cause of your shoulder pain, Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab is dedicated to offering you natural pain management modalities. Contact us today to learn more.
Why Am I Experiencing Shoulder Pain?
Your shoulder is capable of accomplishing many physical feats and has the greatest range of all the joints in your body.
However, with its complexities also comes the possibilities of pain and discomfort. It is a “ball-and-socket” joint, meaning the heat of the upper arm bone, or “humerus,” fits perfectly in the corresponding space within the shoulder blade, or “scapula.” The ends of the bone are protecting the bones from rubbing together.
Fluid-filled sacs called “bursae” also protect the tendons from rubbing against the bones. Tendons attach the bones in the shoulder to a set of muscles called the rotator cuff. If something goes wrong with the intricacies that make up the mechanical interplay of the shoulder, pain can result.
The type of pain you feel in your shoulder can vary, depending on what is causing it. Pain from impingement, for example, typically occurs as you raise your arm up and begins at a certain point in the range of motion.
Pain resulting from a degenerative shoulder may create persistent aches every time you move your arm in certain directions and even at rest. Acute injuries can result in a sudden and intense pain that makes it impossible to move your shoulder at all.
Common Causes For Shoulder Pain
Tendinitis
Tendinitis occurs when the shoulder joint is excessively overused typically due to the physical demands of a person’s job, overhead activity, or sport. Furthermore, poor posture is a major contributor, as this alters the normal forces on the tendons, and can set you up for tendon injury. This causes the tendons to undergo ongoing inflammation, resulting in swelling and painful impingement when raising your arm.
Impingement
Impingement typically occurs because of abnormal movement and tracking of the humeral head as you lift your arm overhead. Pain typically occurs when lifting your arm at or above 90 degrees.
Frozen shoulder
Also known as “adhesive capsulitis”, frozen shoulder can occur if your arm has been in a cast or sling for a while, or if you have been bedridden for an extended period of time. Frozen shoulder results in a painful loss of motion in the shoulder joint with a tightening of the capsule and joint that severely limits motion. There are some ethnicities that are more predisposed, and women tend to have more instances than men. It is more common in women 40-60 years of age.
Arthritis
The two main forms of arthritis that affect the shoulder are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage in the shoulder joint experiences significant “wear and tear,” typically due to age or excessive overuse. Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the immune system decides to attack the membranes surrounding the shoulder joint, resulting in pain and inflammation. Both of these result in painful loss of range of motion, weakness to the shoulder muscles, and difficulty performing normal, daily tasks.
Rotator Cuff Tear
The rotator cuff is comprised of 4 muscles, tendons, and soft tissue that surround the shoulder joint. The job of the rotator cuff is to correctly guide the movement of the shoulder joint. With injury, overuse, poor posture, or even age, the rotator cuff can be partially or completely torn. Depending on the severity and situation, sometimes surgery is needed, but often the correct physiotherapy treatments can help reduce pain and restore strength to the rotator cuff to compensate for the partial tear. If surgery is needed, physiotherapy is an integral part of the rehabilitation to a full recovery.
The most common shoulder injury – Rotator Cuff tear
Your rotator cuff is comprised of the muscles and tendons surrounding your shoulder joint. Sometimes, the rotator cuff can become torn or injured, due to repetitive overhead motion like those performed in sports like tennis or certain jobs like carpentry. If you are experiencing a rotator cuff injury or “torn shoulder,” you will generally feel a dull ache deep in your shoulder, arm weakness, difficulty reaching behind your back, and disturbed sleep due to pain. At Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab, our natural and non-invasive methods can help relieve your shoulder pain and heal your rotator cuff injury.
While rotator cuff injuries sometimes require surgery if they are severe enough, there are several cases where physiotherapy treatments can work just as well (if not better) than surgery. According to the American Physiotherapy Association, “A recent study from Finland asserts that when it comes to the treatment of nontraumatic rotator cuff tears, physiotherapy alone produces results equal to those produced by arthroscopic surgery and open surgical repair.” In this same study, a follow-up on 167 patients receiving physiotherapy alone for their rotator cuff injuries, demonstrated that conservative treatment, such as physiotherapy, should be considered as the primary treatment for this condition.
At Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab, we will conduct a physical evaluation and diagnostic tests to determine if you do indeed have a rotator cuff tear, and we will design a personalized treatment plan based on the needs of your diagnosis.
How can physiotherapy relieve shoulder pain?
Our physiotherapists are movement experts, trained to pinpoint the cause of your pain through a variety of diagnostic techniques. During your evaluation, we will examine your range of motion, strength, coordination, medical history, joint mobility, and mechanics of your joint motion.
Once we have established the cause of your shoulder pain, we can create a specialized combination of physiotherapy methods to manage and relieve your pain. Gentle manual therapy helps to restore normal joint movement, ease soft tissue restrictions, and promote circulation, while specific therapeutic exercises restore strength, and the correct sequence of muscle activation around the shoulder joint. Finally, we teach you techniques to enhance your strength and to prevent the recurrence of future shoulder problems.
Physiotherapy is a natural, easy, and comfortable way to find relief for shoulder pain, without the need for harmful drugs or invasive surgery. Our physiotherapists at Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab have treated a number of conditions resulting in shoulder pain, with patients finding improvement and relief after just a few short sessions – and sometimes less!
Ready to get started?
Don’t let your shoulder pain limit your physical abilities any longer! Our Newcastle physiotherapy practice will get you the help you need to start living your normal life once again. We are located in Newcastle, ON, but are proudly servicing surrounding areas, such as Oshawa, Ajax, Bowmanville, Orono, Port Hope, and Cobourg!
Contact Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab today to schedule your appointment and get started on your path towards pain relief!