The Pinching Shoulder

Normal shoulder function is essential for many sports but also our daily functional tasks. So when we get an impairment it can drastically affect our quality of life. Its is still one of the most complex regions of the body that I treat in clinic as it composed of four joints, so any abnormalities in any of the joint regions can start to cause problems.

The biggest area that my patients tend to complain of, is pain in the glenohumeral joint which is very similar to the hip in that it is a ball and socket joint. Unfortunately its the joint that gets picked on the most when these movement dysfunctions start to manifest.

This leads to the pinching shoulder! The pain one can get when reaching for something or lying on your side and getting pain deep into the shoulder from the compression.

Impingement can be complex though so we will break it down and look at the different types. Either external or internal.

External: This we where we can get bony changes that build over a period of times and leads to narrowing of the subacromial space. The other type of external impingement is due to instability where muscles imbalances occur and also leads to the subacromial space to narrow .

Internal: This type is common with golfers and tennis players where the arm is repetitively moved into extension, abduction and external rotation causing impingement of the rotator cuff tendons.

External impingement due to bony changes tend to affect people over the age of 35 while the muscular imbalance tends to occur in people younger than this. Both of them tend to cause referred pain into the front and side of the shoulder with overhead activity.

X rays can be useful for external impingement for the older age groups due to the potential bony changes as they might require an arthroscopic decompression where as internal and muscular external impingement usually respond well to correcting the muscular imbalances and joint function.

So if you have been suffering with this condition recently please get in touch so we can assess you and get a plan of action in place to get you pain free and moving well again..