Fixing Your Shoulder

There are other ways you can hit an end point before you reach the natural end of the joint's range of motion. One is spasm, when the muscles seize up to protect an injury. The other is pain that you can't move through. When that happens, stop. With painful end feels you can get someone else to move you slowly into it so you're dealing with passive movement, which can help relax and realign tissues. But with a spasm, stop. 

 

 

If you're getting a spasm end feel, or a spasm around the whole shoulder when you move it certain ways, which isn't that uncommon, then you should primarily concentrate on reducing the protective spasm so you can work on other mobilization techniques. If you continually trigger spasm you're going to find the problem gets worse, not better. Methods that can help reduce spasming include anything that's relaxing, like a hot bath, as well as seeing a sports masseur who will know how to reduce spasm by manipulating tissues safely.

 

When you take your injured shoulder to the gym you're better off working within the range of motion you have. Safety first! 

 

If you have gaps in your active range of motion it's a good idea to explore them under professional guidance with minimal or no resistance. If they occur during your bench press, guess what? Don't bench press. At all. Not a bit, not light, not at all. Tissue that's spasming will spasm harder; tissue that's inflamed will be chronically irritated. Replace things like the bench press or overhead press with landmine presses, or with something like standing band pullovers. It's also a good idea to train the uninjured side unilaterally; studies indicate that unilateral training can result in a bilateral training outcome, essentially because training outcomes are centrally controlled.

 

Finally: consider that your orthopedic issue might not be your shoulder. If you're working through a shoulder injury and a professional you trust says, "it's your shoulder," well, then it's your shoulder. But if you're encountering pain or dysfunction in your shoulder when you do certain movements, your shoulder might not be the problem. You could have a neck issue or a problem with your upper back musculature and it's not unusual to have both at once, creating a perfect storm of nerve compression and scapular instability. To address this look at spinal posture first. 

 

See what happens to your shoulder pain when you stand will your back flat against a wall, from hips to skull, for about 30 seconds, about five times a day. 

 

Most people can't get into this position at all, so if it feels hard, don't worry: that's just because it's hard. But if back and shoulder pain falls when you do it your problem might be postural. If not you can look at the possibility that your injury actually arises from poor motor patterning that throws the weight of the movement onto smaller, weaker muscles and it's that that's creating the pain and dysfunction. If you address the root cause the peripheral symptoms often improve on their own. See a movement specialist like a physical therapist who's got a good track record in this area. The news no-one wants to hear: you might have to give up your sport while your shoulder heals, at least initially. Because it's probably something you're doing in your sport that's damaging your shoulder in the first place.

 

I'm indebted to Mike Reinold for his work on shoulder treatment when writing this piece.

 

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