Shoulder Impingement

Do you have pain on the tip of your shoulder? Does that pain get worse when you try to lift your arm? Chances are you may be experiencing shoulder impingement.

What is shoulder impingement?

Impingement happens when structures at the top of your shoulder get ‘pinched’. At the tip of the shoulder lays an anatomical tunnel create by a ligament that attaches the acromion and coracoid processes with the humeral head as the ‘floor’. Your rotator cuff tendons and your subacromial bursal sac lay just inside that tunnel.

In a normal shoulder, you would be able to flex and abduct your arm up to the ceiling with no pain or issues. However, in a shoulder that is experiencing impingement, the rotator cuff and surrounding musculature are not doing their job to depress the humeral head and allowing it to elevate and create a smaller tunnel for the rotator cuff tendons to pass through. So, when increased flexion or abduction occurs, that tunnel becomes compromised and places pressure on those subacromial structures.

What do we do about it?

If a weak rotator cuff is what is causing the elevation of the humeral head and therefore the narrowing of the subacromial tunnel, then strengthening the rotator cuff is what we need. Simple rotator cuff exercises you can try:

• Banded step outs for internal and external rotation

• Banded internal and external rotation

Although the rotator cuff is usually the main culprit, we cannot forget about the entire shoulder girdle - the scapula, the neck, the collarbone, and every muscle that attaches to these as well.

Working with me (Kiera) over a period of sessions, I can help to determine what limiting factors you may have going on. Starting with an in-depth evaluation, I will screen your movement for the big picture to get a feel for how you move as a whole being. From there we will take the deep dive to look at ranges of motion, strength, mobility, and coordination.

From that initial evaluation, I will use some manual therapy tool to relieve your pain - often times for shoulder impingement that includes cupping the area and moving through pain free ranges of motion. Once your pain has been consistently decreased after 2 or 3 sessions, we begin to work the entire shoulder girdle to build strength and endurance to get you back the activities you love to do!

Curious about how I might be able to help? Give me a call and lets talk about what activities I can help you get back to.