Rotator Cuff Strain
A rotator cuff strain is a common cause of acute shoulder pain in sport, especially in throwing and racket sports. It is a tear to any of the four ‘rotator cuff’ muscles in the shoulder. Symptoms include:
- Sudden shoulder pain which may radiate down into the arm.
- You may have a feeling that something has torn.
- Rotator cuff strains can be mild or very severe.
Read More about Rotator Cuff Tear/Strain
Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
- Rotator cuff tendinopathy is a degenerative condition affecting one or more of the rotator cuff tendons in the shoulder.
- Pain is often present when resting.
- It is made worse by lifting things, especially above your shoulder.
- The tendon will probably feel tender and there may be a creaking feeling when the shoulder moves.
Read more about Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
Shoulder Arthritis
- In shoulder osteoarthritis (OA) – also called degenerative joint disease – your cartilage and other joint tissues gradually break down. Friction in the joint increases, pain increases and you slowly lose mobility and function. Shoulder OA is not as common as OA of the knee, but it is estimated that nearly 1 in 3 people over the age of 60 have shoulder OA to some degree.
Pain is the most common symptom of shoulder arthritis. Pain is aggravated by activity and gets worse over time. As the disease progresses the pain will continue when you are at rest and will begin to interfere with sleep. The affected joint will dictate where the pain is felt in the body:
- If the glenohumeral shoulder joint is affected, the pain will be felt at the back of the shoulder and may feel like a deep ache.
- If the AC joint is affected, pain will be focused on the top of the shoulder. This pain may radiate up the side of the neck.
Other common symptoms include:
- Limited motion and stiffness: You may lose range of motion and feel stiffness that makes it difficult to do everyday tasks, such as lifting your arm to wash your hair or getting something down from a shelf.
- Crepitus: Hearing and feeling grinding and clicking noises as you move your shoulder.
Shoulder Impingement
- Impingement of the shoulder, sometimes called swimmer’s shoulder or thrower’s shoulder, is caused by the tendons of the rotator cuff muscles becoming trapped or impinged. Symptoms include:
- Shoulder pain with develops gradually over a period of days or weeks.
- Pain may be located to the front and/or outside of your shoulder joint.
- Symptoms are worse during overhead movements such as in throwing, racket sports, and swimming.
Our Treatment Approach
To fix shoulder pain, the soft tissue structures must be strengthened. The main capsular structure involved in the stability of the shoulder is the glenoid labrum, which holds the humerus bone to the glenoid cavity of the scapula. Other common reasons for shoulder pain involves weakness in the supraspinatus tendon, acromioclavicular ligament laxity, a weakened glenohumeral ligament, and weakness of the structures that attach to the coracoid process. A shoulder is usually unstable because these structures are torn or stretched. Once these structures are stretched or loosened, no amount of exercise will strengthen the shoulder joint enough to permanently hold it in place.
The Star Method is a more advanced, yet non-surgical, approach that directly stimulates repair of the structures. The treatment is done around the entire shoulder, depending on where the soft tissue damage is located. This stimulates the body to re-initiate the natural healing cascade to areas that otherwise are not healing on their own. Patients are able to continue working and conducting activities of daily living during the treatment series.
Our Treatment Approach ->Usually, within a few treatments, the tissue has strengthened enough to eliminate pain and provide a stable base for the muscles to resume a high level of activity again, making it ideal for athletes and those who do physical and overhead work.
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