5 Reasons Your Shoulder Hurts, and What To Do About It!
Making an appointment with a physical therapist – ie. physiotherapist or chiropractor – for your shoulder pain is suitable for people of all ages!
Physical therapy is a non-invasive, safe, and effective treatment choice. It’s intended to improve movement and alleviate pain from a wide variety of work and sport-related injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, age-related conditions, and more.
Typically, patients undergo physical therapy to help relieve acute or chronic pain symptoms and avoid potential injuries in the future. One of the most common reasons for new patients to visit our rehabilitation clinic is to identify and treat the cause of their shoulder pain.
There are many reasons why your shoulder may hurt. Whatever that reason may be, one thing is sure: living with shoulder pain will make it difficult to complete everyday tasks if left untreated.
To learn how physical therapy – i.e. physiotherapy or chiropractic care – can help alleviate (or even eliminate) your problem, contact Leaps and Bounds Performance Rehabilitation for help today.
Five common shoulder pain conditions
Did you know that to help you complete your daily tasks, your shoulders actually do a good bit of work? Most people typically just go about their day without thinking too hard about how much stress they’re actually putting on their body, specifically, their shoulders.
Five of shoulder pain’s most common causes include:
1. Tendon Tears
If you experience an acute injury or have a degenerative condition, the result can be a torn tendon in your shoulder. The natural aging process, overuse, and random injuries can often cause split or torn tendons as well.
Tendon tears are not necessarily a cause of pain for some people (see imaging studies in non-symptomatic shoulders), but for those that have a painful partial or full tendon tear, it can be searing and may require regular appointments with a physiotherapist, and sometimes, surgery.
2. Tendinopathy
Inflammatory or degenerative conditions of the tendon can often send people to a physical therapist for pain relief. They usually affect people who take part in many physical activities or work at a job that requires them to use lots of repetitive motions – at least more than what their tendon capacity allows for – on a daily basis.
Take this, for example, if you are an athlete who plays tennis or a professional painter, you could be at high risk for developing tendinopathy in your shoulder, if your muscles are not sufficiently trained to tolerate the load, or if you are not allowing yourself enough time to recover between practices or between jobs.
3. Impingement
Shoulder impingement is a naturally occurring thing that happens in the body when the rotator cuff or biceps tendon rubs or gets pinched between the bony structures of the shoulder. Normally, this does not produce any pain. But when these particular tissues are sensitive or irritated for whatever reason, it can result in pain and dysfunction in the shoulder. This should be referred to as “impingement syndrome” and not just “impingement”.
4. Bursitis
The shoulder is made up of a very complex network of moving parts. This makes it a pretty complicated joint! One of the main components that make up the shoulder is called the “bursa.”
The bursa contains small fluid-filled sacs that work to keep the joint lubricated. If the bursa becomes inflamed or irritated in any way, you could develop bursitis.
5. Frozen Shoulder
Adhesive capsulitis, also known as frozen shoulder, is a condition that occurs following an injury or alongside another shoulder condition. It is typically characterized by pain and stiffness in your shoulder and typically involves 3 stages – the freezing, the frozen, and the thawing stage.
Frozen shoulder, if left alone, will run its course anywhere between several months to up to three years. With the exception of the freezing stage, physical therapy can often help reduce pain and improve mobility.
How can physical therapy help me?
There’s no justification in spending loads of money on costly operations or counter drugs to get relief from shoulder pain. Physical therapy – i.e. physiotherapy or chiropractic care – can help you get back on the road to living a pain-free life.
Seeing a physiotherapist or chiropractor as soon as possible if you have encountered an acute or persistent shoulder pain may be a good idea. It is a safe and natural recovery choice that may enable patients of all ages to recover from their shoulder injuries, including the ones mentioned above.
Your practitioner will analyze your condition, find the cause of your pain, and develop a detailed, specialized treatment plan for your individual needs. If at any time you have questions about the course of your treatment, feel free to ask your therapist! They are skilled at what they do, and your well-being is at the forefront of their minds!
Contact us today!
To learn more about the benefits of physical therapy for shoulder pain, call Leaps and Bounds Performance Rehabilitation today to begin your journey towards a life free of shoulder pain.