EFFECTIVE SHOULDER PAIN MANAGEMENT

As movement specialists, we have developed a complete philosophy to target your shoulder pain. Helping you get on the road to recovery quickly and effectively.

Understanding the issue

According to population surveys, shoulder pain affects 18-26% of adults at any point in time, making it one of the most common regional pain syndromes. Symptoms can be persistent and disabling in terms of an individual’s ability to carry out daily activities both at home and in the workplace.

Common shoulder issues include:

The shoulder is a complex area and has a close relationship with the scapular movement patterns, which can increase load into the shoulder joint. Along with this the neck and shoulder can send stress from one region to the other. As such a good assessment is crucial to getting to the bottom of the issue you are currently struggling with so the correct treatment pathway is put in place for your speedy recovery.

OUR FIRST ACTION: REMOVE YOUR PAIN

Body Logic Health, working with the latest evidence based treatment information, have put together a complete solution for shoulder pain treatment. Our full treatment pathway will take you beyond the ‘quick fix’ and through the necessary phases to make sure you return to the activities your enjoy.

Important First Step

Your pain must be addressed first, it is important to be able to get on with your daily activities, and there are huge benefits to returning to normal activities. Your movement specialist will complete a full assessment to understand the best way forwards for your condition.

You will then have your diagnosis and the reason for your symptoms fully explained to you along with an outline of your treatment pathway. This is also your chance to ask questions about your injury so you understand the underlying issue more fully.

The first step to ‘remove your pain’

You will then begin the best treatment plan to help your recovery, and our highly skilled team will give you the best outline of the time frame for this first step.

N.B.

If you have made it this far previously and find yourself in treatment again due to recurrence then there are a few key factors that you need to be aware of;

CAUSATIVE FACTORS

Design of the shoulder sacrifices stability for mobility. The shoulder joint has the widest range of movement of all our joints and it hasn’t got too many passive structures supporting it, only a few small ligaments. That puts the shoulder joint under a lot of stress and prone to injuries as we use our arms including shoulders many times on daily basis.

Up to 80% of shoulder stability comes from the muscles around it. To keep the shoulder healthy we need to have effective and strong muscles around the shoulder to stabilise it and keeping the shoulder movement controlled. If the shoulder isn’t stable enough, there may be excessive movement which can create compensations. Repeatedly utilised these compensations will start to aggravate the muscles, tendons, ligaments and the joint capsule around the shoulder and this loading can create problems over time.

You also may have shoulder pain that has got nothing to do with the shoulder itself. You might feel general pain in the shoulder area and going further down the arm even to your fingers. If that’s the case the source of pain is most likely not the actual shoulder but something else, for example a disc bulge in the neck. Rarely shoulder pain can also be referred from the intestines.

Have you continued to address the underlying factors?

Unfortunately many people find they drop back into the old habits, this causes a return of the stresses on the soft tissues, which you will now understand relates to a return of symptoms.

Did you complete the full treatment pathway?

Recurrence is the toughest area to address in shoulder injuries, primarily if you only completed the first step previously then the chances are you have not changed how the body is moving to prevent loading and issues returning at a later date.

The ability of our team to identify poor movement patterns, muscle imbalances, timing faults and related issues both above and below the specific shoulder injury means the team are ideally placed to explain and address these factors to move you to a better long term result and allow you to spend more time doing the activities you enjoy.

BUILD YOUR FOUNDATION

Building your foundation is the key to step 2, to complete this phase we need to identify the underlying movement faults that you have. You have a couple of options here depending on your specific requirements and end goals;

1. Movement Screen – a brilliant way to understand how you move affects your tissue loading and can be easily related back to many of the reasons behind the injuries we see in clinic each and every day.

2. Pilates Discovery Session – can be an exciting option looking forward at your long term movement health, the screen helping identify issues in your movement that can then be addressed through targeted Pilates sessions.

3. Running Video Analysis – if running is your thing then this a great way to change the way you move to prevent future issues. This might not be directly shoulder related but shoulder problems can prevent you running and have a dramatic effect on your running pattern as a result.

4. Rehabilitation Evaluation – your shoulder is crucial to everyday activities such as carrying shopping, reaching and playing sports such as tennis and golf. Understanding how you move and load the shoulder can open the pathway options to improve patterning and create long term shoulder health

You will have the ‘how you move’ identified and explained in full detail to you, and this will allow your movement specialist to plan the next phase of your recovery.

The main goal in building your foundation is to not only identify the underlying causative factors but explain why they are there so you can make lifestyle changes to help avoid recurrence and begin the movement retraining phase to adapt how you move to change excessive loading and tissue stress building up again in the body which can affect your shoulder injury.

ELEVATE YOUR PERFORMANCE

The hardest part for everyone is to stay motivated once you are feeling great and moving well again. We all know life gets in the way of looking after you. If you feel you need further help to achieve your performance goals or to maintain your lifestyle, there are ways we can help you.

If you have completed the first two steps, you are now ready to achieve lifestyle and performance goals, step 3. At this phase our great sports rehabilitation team will often take over your management.

There are plenty of options for you depending on your specific goals, so please discuss your options with your physiotherapist. This step will complete your knee pain solution, and will involve individually designed programmes to complement your home exercise programme.

You can see the whole pain to performance shoulder solution. This will help you create movement health and enjoy the life you want to live.

Start your journey today and enjoy your life again.

Ready to start your recovery?

Get in touch with us now

Have a question?

Wondering how we can help you? Give us a call and one of our expert team will be happy to answer all your questions!

Ready to book?

You can book your appointment online by clicking below. If you’d prefer to talk first you can call us on 020 7924 6068 or email battersea@body-logic.co.uk