24 Feb Putting up with niggling shoulder pain and now you can’t lift your arm up overhead

Putting up with niggling shoulder pain and now you can’t lift your arm up overhead
Been told to do shoulder exercises to strengthen your shoulder but it’s aggravating your shoulder pain

Shoulder pain is the third most common musculoskeletal complaint presenting to physiotherapy, yet shoulder pain is difficult to define as it can present in a variety of diverse symptoms. Shoulder pain can involve other structures like the neck and mid back joints as well as neck muscles, back muscles and chest muscles. In addition, the extent of tissue damage observed on a scan does not correlate with shoulder pain intensity. Therefore, it is really important to have the correct diagnosis for your shoulder pain.

Here at My Favourite Physio, we see many people with shoulder pain and shoulder dysfunction. They often complain of difficulty in lifting their arm up to comb their hair or to bring their arm around their back to tuck a shirt into their trousers or to do a bra up, yet pain is not a symptom that they experience. Studies have shown that in the general population 20 – 40% of individuals have rotator cuff muscle (shoulder muscles) tears in their shoulders but have no pain or symptoms. Sometimes, people think that they need to exercise more and when they do, they end up causing more tears in their shoulder muscles.

To help our clients overcome their Shoulder Pain or Dysfunction, our Expert Physiotherapists use a 3 Step Shoulder Solution System:
1. Release and Reduce muscle tightness, inflammation and swelling. We do this by using Soft Tissue Massage, Radial Shockwave Therapy or K-Taping.
2. Increase Range of Movement in the shoulder. We do this by Joint Mobilisation, Posture Correction, Shoulder Girdle Re-training and Stretches.
3. Improve Function and Performance. We do this by doing functional training and strengthening exercises for the shoulder as well as Core Strengthening and Back strengthening Exercises.

So if you are experiencing limitations in your shoulder range of motion or shoulder pain, reach out to My Favourite Physio on (02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Physiotherapists today!