Your body’s fair wear and tear can impact the health of your shoulder. Add in sports injuries or repetitive tasks and our shoulders sometimes falter, causing pain and discomfort. Our physios’ expert knowledge of how your shoulder works combined with our rehabilitation plans can help.
What causes shoulder pain?
The shoulder is a complex region. It is the most mobile joint in the body and involves four joints interacting in harmony, allowing your shoulder to move freely in many different directions. With this amount of movement, problems can arise.
The shoulder can become hypermobile (where movement is excessive eg: a dislocated shoulder) or hypomobile (where movement is restricted eg: osteoarthritis or frozen shoulder).
Injuries to the rotator cuff, which helps you to stabilise, raise and rotate your arm, is a common condition. Sudden movements, especially under load, and repetitive movements can lead to rotator cuff tendinopathies that are often associated/combined with bursitis. Most rotator cuff pain can be managed by physiotherapy.
Neck pain, back pain and poor or incorrect posture (slouching and rounded shoulders) can also cause shoulder pain.
How Physiosouth treats shoulder pain
- Take down a detailed history – this includes your past medical history while establishing how the injury occurred and the pain severity
- Assess your shoulder to see how this fits with your history and to assess whether further investigation (x-rays, ultrasounds or MRI scans) is needed
- Check to see if you are experiencing referred pain from back or neck conditions, or to see if there is an underlying health problem
- Prescribe mobility and strengthening exercises built around your specific needs that you can do at home
- Choose which hands-on treatments will work best for your injury (mobilisation, joint manipulation or soft tissue massage)
- Advise or refer you to a sports physician or specialist orthopaedic surgeon (if required)
Outcome of treatment
Following a physio-based programme can often avoid the need for surgery. Be reassured that our extensive understanding of anatomy and physiology together with a combination of our manual skills and knowledge of strength and conditioning training will improve your pain and health outcomes. A strengthening program can take time so it is important to follow the timeframes before seeking surgery. Our physios are always here to help and advise, and if needed, can refer you to a respected health professional from within our external network.
