The Shoulder

 

If a patient comes to us with shoulder pain, the majority of the time this pain is a symptom of another issue.  Therefore, Back2normal will evaluate the whole body as a system during the examination.  Muscles from the pelvis attach to the shoulder blade and the biceps, meaning that the ultimate cause could be from the pelvis and thus causing shoulder pain.

 

When looking at the shoulder, we know it is a ball and socket joint like the hip, and it is attached to the rib cage by muscles.  A total of 16 muscles, in fact, is involved in keeping it in its optimum position. So, finding the correct approach can sometimes end up like a Sherlock Holmes investigation!

 

The following 4 videos focus on the rotator cuff muscles whose main role is to maintain the ball in the socket at its optimum position. If one muscle is either too strong or too weak it will affect the rest of them directly and indirectly.

INFRASPINATUS

Keep your arm and elbow at 90 degrees and rotate your arm backwards as in the video. This movement is referred to as external/outwards rotation.

SUBSCAPULARIS

Keep your arm by your side still with the elbow at 90 degrees. The band is forcing your arm out. The band could as an example be hooked to the door handle
Starting with the arm being pulled out due to the band tension you can now pull the bent arm in across the body and out again.
This is referred to internal/inwards rotation.

TERES MINOR

Still using the door handle now swap hands and use the other arm. This means you don’t have to move around too much.
Having your arm close to your body still with the elbow bent 90” rotate the arm outwards. This is similar to the infraspinatus exercise we started with, but the angle of the arm is slightly different.
This motion is also referred to as external / outwards rotation just by the side of your body

SUPRASPINATUS/DELTOID

These two muscles work in conjunction with each other
SUPRASPINATUS work from the 0” angle to 30” and then the deltoid takes over. As the video shows it’s bringing your arm from your side up to or just near horizontal.
The deltoid does not belong to the rotator cuff muscles.

We recommend to do both sides and stick to a repetition range of 10-12 for 3 sets
If you find this painful then reduce to 6 or 8 reps, just so we can stay pain-free!