How to Prevent a Shoulder Injury

Shoulders are a combination of flexibility, strength, and support. Almost every time you move, your shoulder moves, too. Because of their amazing range of motion, shoulder joints have the least stability, making them prone to strains and injuries. 

Shoulders are the most commonly injured joint in the body. A shoulder injury can sideline you from normal daily activities, playing sports, and getting a good night’s sleep. Let’s look at the most common ways that shoulders can be injured. Our top tips can prevent the painful “downtime” of a shoulder injury and keep you in the game.

Understanding what causes the most common shoulder injuries can help you prevent them. 

Most shoulder injuries are caused by: 

• Repeating the same movement many times, especially moving your arms above your head (painting, pitching a baseball, or hanging curtains), can result in injury. 
• Aging and the normal wear and tear of living can cause shoulder pain and injury.
• Osteoarthritis caused by the wearing down of your shoulder cartilage. When cartilage loses its ability to protect shoulder joints, bone rubs against bone. Osteoarthritis can also be caused by injury or trauma to the shoulder, including dislocation. Osteoarthritis symptoms can include shoulder pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of mobility. It’s more common in older people, females, if you’re overweight, have a history of a shoulder injury, continue to place repeated stress on your shoulder joint, or if your family has a history of osteoarthritis. While cartilage destruction cannot be reversed, most shoulder pain can be managed with medications and staying active.  
• Rotator cuff injuries are common shoulder injuries. The rotator cuff is the group of muscles and tendons that holds your upper arm bone, collarbone, and shoulder blade together. Rotator cuff injuries can result from injury or trauma, repetitive movements, or normal aging. Symptoms can include a dull ache, weakness, swelling, and inflammation. Without treatment for severe injuries, you may have permanent loss of mobility or weakness that causes the joint to continue to deteriorate.   
• Tendonitis is another common cause of shoulder pain. It’s caused by inflammation of a tendon – the thick fiber cords that attach muscle to bone. Inflammation can be caused by long-term stress on the joint, an injury, or trauma. 

Symptoms may include a dull ache or burning pain that gets worse after activity, weakness, reduced shoulder mobility, stiffness, and swelling. Without treatment, tendonitis can increase your risk of a ruptured tendon and degenerative changes in the tendon.

Tips to Protect Your Shoulders from Injury 

Warm-up before you exercise. Moving cold muscles is a potentially painful problem waiting to happen. If you’re over age 50 or already have osteoarthritis, warm up every morning as soon as your feet hit the floor. 

Stretch after sports or other vigorous activity. You can increase your joint flexibility if you stretch after your muscles are warmed up. Stretching before activities is more likely to injure cold joints and muscles.

Strengthen your shoulders. Ask your doctor to recommend exercises that target the shoulder, arm and back, to increase shoulder joint stability.

Use proper form whenever you lift or exercise. If you play sports, invest in a few lessons to be sure you’re using proper form when you play. When lifting, keep your back straight, tighten your core (belly) muscles, and use your legs to lift.

Change your sleeping position.  Sleep on your back or your side. Try using two pillows, with the top pillow pushed slightly back of the bottom pillow. The bottom pillow can support your shoulders; the top pillow supports your neck. Or, hug a pillow while sleeping to put your top shoulder in an open position. 

Properly align your work desk, chair, keyboard, and computer screen to reduce stress on your joints.  

Be aware of your posture. When sitting, keep your feet flat on the floor. Keep hips comfortable but toward the back of your chair. Elbows should be close to your body. Your desktop should be even with or below your elbows. Keep hands, wrists, and forearms straight out in front of you. Relax your shoulders but don’t round them. 

Stand tall. Don’t slouch or round your back. Tighten your core muscles whenever you stand or walk. Standing on a soft, anti-fatigue mat can help. Your shoes are important, too. Tennis shoes are going to help you stand tall and straight a lot longer than stiletto heels.

Take breaks while sitting or standing to walk around and stretch. Aim for a five-minute break every hour. 

Here are a couple of good shoulder stretches you can do at your desk:

• Raise your shoulders up toward your ears. Hold for several seconds, lower your shoulders back down. Repeat.
• Put your arms in front of your body and interlock your fingers. Raise and extend arms straight out in front as you rotate wrists. The tops of your interlaced fingers should be facing your body. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Repeat.

Listen to your body! If you’re having pain or discomfort with any activity, stop. Rest your shoulders. If the pain continues, try cold or hot packs several times a day. If the pain returns when you do that activity again, stop and call your doctor for an evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.

Consider physical therapy or chiropractic care if symptoms don’t improve in a few days. Don’t ignore your pain. Toughing it out might make the problem worse. 

You can benefit from chiropractic care if you’re experiencing shoulder pain. At Village Chiropractic, we are patient-centered and results-driven. We use state-of-the-art therapies that research has proven will fix injuries instead of just treating your symptoms. Get back to your active life. Start with a call to Village Chiropractic for an appointment today.