Shoulder StrainThe tendons and muscles over the shoulder can be injured by twisting and wrenching strains by overuse and over stretching or by a forceful block to a movement while the muscles are contracting. The damage may be traumatic or sudden, or progressive and gradual.Traumatic shoulder injuries may occur in combat and contact sports like judo or rugby and in others like gymnastics, diving and swimming. You may fall awkwardly on to your elbow or hand, wrenching your shoulder. An opponent may for instance knock your arm in a rugby tackle, or block your arm in basketball. While you are doing gymnastics you may over balance while doing a handstand. Overuse injuries are associated normally with sports in which you use your shoulder repetitively like a fielder throwing playing cricket, or a tennis player practising a serve, javelin throwing, archery or shot putting, or continuously like a competitive swimmer. They may all similarly over strain the muscles and tendons and become inefficient through fatigue.In a traumatic injury you will feel an instant pain over your shoulder, which can be severe. You will probably have to stop what sport or activity you are doing, although, if it is a very minor injury, you may find that the pain goes away quickly and you are able to continue what ever you are doing. In a gradual over use injury, the pain normally starts off very slight, you will feel it on specific movements of the shoulder but over time it gradually becomes worse when you continue with your sport. In either case, once the damage has occurred, you will feel the pain whenever you move your shoulder, making the injured tendon or muscle contract or stretch out. You may be able to feel a tender spot where the tendon or muscle is injured, if you press over your shoulder with your other hand, although the bulk of your deltoids muscles makes it difficult to feel some of the individual tendons lying under it's thickest parts. If the injury is over the front part,contracting the muscles and tendons to take the arm forward, or turn it inwards, causes pain, and you feel a pull when you turn your arm backwards and stretch the same muscles and tendons. An injury to the tendons and muscles at the back of the shoulder causes pain when you contract the muscles to take the arm backwards, or turn it outwards, or when you stretch them as you take your arm forwards. An injury to the deltoid muscles over the top of the shoulder is painful if you take your arm out sideways against resistance.In this type of injury, you partly tear or strain some muscles or tendon fibres in rhw affected area. You may also damage ligaments that protect your shoulder. if you carry on with your sport or activity, and feel pain over the injured area, you will do further damage to the injured tissues. If you use your shoulder awkwardly, trying to avoid it from hurting will only cause the other muscles you are not correctly using to weaken themselves causing an imbalance. The shoulder will then lose any strability it owes to those muscles, and with this, it's normal range of movement and function. This will in itself set up a cycle of progressive weakness and associated pain.How To Help Rehabilitate Shoulder StrainsFirst aid for the traumatic injury to the shoulder consists of ice applications, and if the pain is very severe, support in a shoulder sling or support. If this occurs you should then go straight away to accident and emergency or your local doctor for an assessment of the damage which has occurred. You may require an x-ray if there is a risk of there being a broken or cracked bone in the shoulder.For the overuse injury, you should go to your doctor as soon as you become aware of the pain, so that he or she can assess the severity of the injury and make an accurate diagnosis. If the pain becomes severe you can safely apply ice to reduce the inflammation and soothe the pain.As soon as the acute pain starts to go, your doctor or physio will probably advise you to start remedial rehabilitation exercises. if a specific tendon or muscle has been diagnosed as strained, you will start with a gentle passive stretching exercises for the muscle group. If the injury is at the front of the shoulder, you do the exercises that take the arm backwards, creating a pulling sensation over the shoulder joint. For an injury to the back, you should do exercises that pull the arm forward. What you should feel when you do the exercises is a slight pulling feeling over the injured area, and you should hold this stretch position absolitely still for a ten count. You should repeat these stretching exercises around three times an hour if possible, or do at least six stretching exercises two times a day if it is not possible to do more.At the start of the stretching exercises you should also start to do strengthening and isometric exercises, but you should avoid doing any exercises which cause pain or discomfort. Choose a few exercises and do them once or twice a day or as time allows. If possible, it is best to do exercises in front of a mirror, to avoid cheating, by bending your trunk instead of using your shoulder. Using tools like resistance bands or tubes are a great way of rehabilitating and stregthening shoulder injuries without the need for weights which could possibly overload the injured area and make the injury worse.While your shoulder is still painful you should try not to continue with your sport or pastime and you should try not to do any painful movements, while exercising the shoulder joint specifically as much as possible. When you have fully regained flexibility in the injured muscles and your shoulder feels stronger because of the strengthening exercises, you can move on to more demanding functional strengthening exercises, starting with a few at a time while slowly increasing the amount that you do. You must always remember to maintain flexibility by stretching your shoulder muscles before and after all strengthening sessions.When you are fully confident that you can do the functional exercises without any pain, you can gradually resume your sport or pastime again. recovery from a shoulder strain may take only a week to ten days if it was minor and you started the rehabilitation process quickly. However, if you do not make sure you strengthened and stretched the joint thouroughly following the injury, you risk having niggling recurrences for a very long time after the original injury, or worse, you may find that your shoulder gradually stiffens up, while becoming weak, so that after a few months you have a real functional disability in your shoulder joint. Recovery after a severs injury may take six weeks or even longer. Your guide to progress is the pain that you feel, or your increasing ability to use your shoulder normally. if you do suffer from increading shoulder pain as you exercise it more, you should refer back to your doctor or physio for further checks, to assess what is causing the setbacks, and whether there might be any complications underlying your shoulder pain.
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder Pain Help
