Shoulders are a common joints for pain and injury and can affect quality of life as you age. Your joints need to last a lifetime to ensure you stay mobile and agile into your later years.   Here we will review a couple of common shoulder injuries and prevention tips.

The shoulder is a ball and socket joint and have an extraordinary 360 degree range of motion. The shoulder’s great mobility comes with some downsides, namely decreased stability. The shallow ball and socket and loose ligaments come at a cost. That’s why it is extremely important that you avoid overuse injuries from throwing, lifting, or repetitive motions.

Labrum Tears

A SLAP lesion (superior labrum, anterior [front] to posterior [back]) is a tear of the rim above the middle of the socket that may also involve the biceps tendon. A tear of the rim below the middle of the glenoid socket that also involves the inferior glenohumeral ligament is called a Bankart lesion. Labrum tears most often are caused by trauma, but can also occur from incorrectly lifting and throwing.

Prevention

Warm up correctly and do rotation exercises against resistance to build strength in the surrounding muscles. Here is a good video on to use as reference on youtube. Labrum Tear Prevention and Rehab

Shoulder Impingement

The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the shoulder and hold the joint together. Overuse can result in impingement on the rotator cuff. Be careful with repetitive overhead motions such as swimming, throwing, swinging  a racket, or even work related overhead motions such as painting.

Prevention

Exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff include proper warm-up, resistance and using light weights to strengthen the rotator muscle group. Shoulder impingement rehab exercises.

Building and maintaining muscle mass is important for you and your patients, but healthy joints must be well maintained in order for us to work, exercise, stay active, and enjoy life to the fullest.

Healthy Shoulder Handbook: 100 Exercises for Treating and Preventing Frozen Shoulder, Rotator Cuff and other Common Injuries

Categories: Health and Wellness, Shoulder Injuries, Shoulder Pain

Tags: Aging, Physical Therapy, Shoulder, Shoulder exercises, Shoulder Pain