Shoulder Health | Improve Your Shoulder Function
Your shoulder has an extensive and flexible range of motion. It’s an exceedingly intricate joint that is very mobile but extremely unstable. If something goes wrong, even if it’s just a minor shift, it can affect the mechanical function of your shoulder, inhibit your mobility, and cause a good deal of pain. This is the reason why you should be watchful and always strive to improve your shoulder function.
Your shoulder connects your arms and hand to your neck, head, and torso. It’s a ball-and-socket joint that is made up of the clavicle, the scapula, and the humerus. Your shoulders are held in place by the rotator cuff, a group of muscles and tendons that keep the humerus firmly within the rounded socket of the scapula. Covering it, protecting it, and allowing you to move your arms freely.
Shoulder Pain
You probably don’t think much about your shoulders until you feel a sudden pain in one or both of them. Having shoulder pain can make simple movements like combing your hair, brushing your teeth, or reaching for something overhead seem like a very difficult task.
As you get older, you get more prone to experience shoulder pain because the soft tissues that surround the shoulders tend to deteriorate with age. Shoulder pain can happen due to a variety of reasons like an injury, accident, manual labor, playing sports, overdoing a task, or doing repetitive motions.
Symptoms
- You can’t move your arm freely.
- Stiff or painful shoulders.
- You feel as if your shoulder will pop-out of its socket.
- Your shoulders are not strong enough for tasks you usually do.
Possible Causes:
Dislocation
When your arm pops out of its socket due to over-rotation or being pulled too harshly. Weakness, pain, and numbness can be felt in your shoulder. There could also be bruising and swelling.
Fracture
A fracture happens when a bone cracks or breaks. This usually happens to the clavicle and humerus. This can cause tremendous pain, bruising, sagging shoulder, and make it impossible to raise your arm.
Cartilage tear
A tear in the cartilage can happen when you do a certain movement over and over again. It can also happen due to excessive force or when you get injured from a fall. You will feel pain and weakness in your shoulder.
Rotator cuff tear
Overuse or injury can damage the rotator cuff. It can also degenerate as you age. Your shoulder will hurt when you lift your arm and it may hurt at night time. You might also hear a crackling sound wherever you move your shoulder.
Adhesive capsulitis
Also known as frozen shoulders, this condition affects the shoulder joints and limits their movements. Abnormal adhesion of tissues accumulate in the joint and impedes the shoulder movement.
Impingement
This syndrome happens when the rotator cuff’s tendons rub or get pinched in the shoulder bones. This can cause pain and swelling.
Bursitis
The bursa is a tiny sac filled with fluid that cushions the joints and helps in reducing the friction between the bones and soft tissues. It can get irritated and swollen when doing the same motions repeatedly or after an injury. You will feel pain every time you move your shoulders.
Arthritis
Arthritis can cause shoulder pain. The pain can be felt in the front, back, or side of your shoulder. Some feel the pain whenever they use their arm while some feel the pain even if the arm is not in use.
Referred pain
When you feel pain in your shoulders but none of the conditions above is causing the pain. This is probably caused by an injury or pain in another part of your body. When there’s nothing wrong with your shoulders and you’re experiencing pain, this could be a sign that there’s a problem with your liver, gallbladder, or other organ.
Heart attack
When you experience pain in your shoulder and you feel a tightening in your chest, or you have difficulty breathing. You might be experiencing a heart attack, please get medical attention immediately.
Treatment
For fractures and dislocations, you would need the help of an expert to get your shoulder back to its normal position.
For the other conditions, your doctor might advise you to take some rest, heat and cold treatment, and anti-inflammatory, pain-reducing medicine like aspirin and ibuprofen.
Prevention:
- Use a chair that provides adequate back support and promotes good posture.
- If you’re doing repetitive motions, take a break, do stretches and walk around.
- Instead of straining your arms and shoulders, use a high reach hook, stool, or ladder to reach things above your head.
- Don’t lift heavy loads.
- Avoid carrying your heavy backpack over just one shoulder
Improve your shoulder function
Learning how to take care of your shoulders will help in preventing shoulder pains and improve your shoulder function. Treatment and improvement plans usually include exercises that stretch and strengthen your joints and boost your shoulder function.
One of the best ways to improve your shoulder function is by using The Yamuna Save Your Shoulders Kit. It contains a pair of Yamuna black balls, a Yamuna gold ball, a Yamuna pump, and a Yamuna Save Your Shoulders DVD. The kit will help you free up the restrictions in your joints and muscles. It can also increase your shoulders’ range of motion in places you never knew were tight.
It’s important to keep your shoulders aligned, free from tension, and with a full range of motion. Knowing how to care for your shoulders and improve its functions will help prevent shoulder pain, injuries, and illnesses from happening. Now you can live a shoulder problem-free healthy happy long life.
You might also be interested to read Crooked Toes And How To Correct Them and Foot Health | Yamuna Foot Wakers and Foot Savers.