In today’s post, I want to talk a little about shoulder pain.
You might have seen my other posts where I talked about abnormal joint biomechanics. Well this post is going to get really specific about one key muscle which is crucial when it comes to helping with shoulder problems.
When one of my patients comes to me with shoulder problems, one of the first things I have them do is to look at their range of motion. To do this, I simply ask them to put their arms down and slightly in front of them and then bring their arms up at each side until they feel some pain. I want to check that range of motion.
The Different Parts That Affect the Motion of the Shoulder
The shoulder joint may appear simple because it comes down to a ball and socket type structure. See the diagram below to see the layout of the shoulder. As you know, there is the ball (which is part of the humerus bone) and the socket (which is part of the scapula). However, around that ball and socket are a bunch of muscles pulling in different directions to keep it balanced.
Causes of & Ways to Reduce Shoulder Pain
The main muscle I want to talk about today is latissimus dorsi. Latissimus dorsi actually starts all the way down in your spine, comes up and wraps around your back and is attached to the bottom part of the humerus. When this muscle is working freely, it will allow the shoulders to open up and give you your complete range of motion. When your brain gets disconnected from that muscle, it’s either going to get too short or too weak, or both.
What I’ll typically see when I do the motion range test (lifting their arms), is one arm coming all the way up and the other one stops at shoulder height. When this happens, I instantly start thinking about the latissimus dorsi muscle because if it’s too short and it’s connected to the bottom part of the humerus, then it’s going to stop the motion at that point. That causes abnormal joint biomechanics and that causes the shoulder to wear down prematurely and can cause injury.
Trigenics
Next, we apply trigenics to the muscle itself. Remember, trigenics is a non-surgical procedure that we do to reconnect the brain with that muscle and we can instantly lengthen it and allow that motion to come back freely. If this procedure solves the problem, it will be after only the first or second visit.
If it doesn’t improve in those two visits, then you will need to be referred to for surgery to solve the problem.
If you’d like to explore trigenics as a solution to your shoulder pain, please contact us and we’ll begin scheduling your appointment today!
