Recently in the Hawthorn East clinic, had we a 25 year old Male client named Josh complaining of a very sore and tight upper shoulder. Mainly on the right-hand side with some associated neck pain also on the same right-hand side.
He has complained about weakness in overhead movements, that usually feels like a cramping in the upper trapezius muscles. Typically, whenever he tries to do any exercise with weights overhead.
He also noticed some associated clicking and grinding sensations through the right shoulder, when lifting his arm in forward and side movements. He was a full-time desk worker and did regular weights at the gym about 3 times per week for fitness.
His pain usually was at the worse during stressful periods at work after long hours at his desk, coupled with long daily commute by car to and from work.
His neck pain was mainly located on the right-hand side and felt tight all the way up to the base of his skull. We have successfully managing this patient with his pain and dysfunction with great success!
We did this by implementing a range of soft tissue modalities to ease the tension through his upward rotator muscles of his shoulder blade, activating and strengthening through his lower trapezius muscles as well as his Serratus Anterior muscles. Good activation through these muscles is very important in stabilising the shoulder.
This helps to give the shoulder blade much needed support while your arm is going through movements. It also creates much needed space and ease of movement around the top of the shoulder, helping to stop any compression, clicking or grinding.
Once the shoulder blade was more stable, this allowed the overactive, painful and tight muscles to let go which was the cause of most of his symptoms. We can relate this back to his poor shoulder posture causing his Upper Trapezius and Levator Scapulae muscles that can overtake majority of the actions in overhead shoulder movements, potentially leading to shoulder injuries such as rotator cuff tears, impingement and instability.
In the 5 sessions we have already completed we can already see great improvements as compared to the initial treatments in terms if how smoothly his shoulder blasé is moving without over activating muscles which hinder his stability.
The client reports a huge decrease in pain during his daily life at work and when seated for long periods. We were able to help him achieve other goals which included, returning to swimming and increasing his strength in overhead activities
The effect of Myotherapy for this client has changed his life and he is now able to do more things he enjoys. If you have a similar type of injury or would like to improve your strength and mobility through your shoulders, please contact us and we will do the best to help you achieve your goals.
Written by Mohit Bhatnagar Myotherapist.
