A Simple Test To Determine If We Can Help Manage Your Shoulder Problem.

We get a lot of people visiting our practice with Shoulder Pain. For many people with shoulder pain it is hard to know what to do, there seems to be many options….
Read on to check out one simple test to see if you have a problem that we may be able to help manage. Recent studies show that management should focus on prevention and early intervention in shoulder complaints (1).

When you have Shoulder pain you feel irritated and frustrated, it is hard to move and pick things up, let alone exercise. It becomes hard to think clearly and to truly enjoy life when your activities are limited.. Yoga, golf, simply picking up a shopping bag or hugging your child becomes difficult!! Recent research has demonstrated the most problematic areas are placing objects on a high shelf, washing one's back and carrying heavy objects (1).

The shoulder is the most flexible joint in your body, and given the number of everyday activities it's involved in—from brushing your hair to reaching up into the cupboard—it's easy to see why shoulder pain is something you'd want to get to the bottom of right away. Without free movement, often you struggle to do the things you love.
Your shoulder joints move every time you move your arms. These bones are held together by muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The shoulder joint has the greatest range of motion of any joint in the body. Because of this mobility, the shoulder is more likely to be injured or cause problems. The acromioclavicular (AC) joint, which lies over the top of the shoulder, is also easily injured.

​ There are many different types of Shoulder Issues and most are diagnosed by history and presenting factors. ​There are lots of reasons why you might have shoulder pain, there are also many different symptoms with shoulder pain. Here at Sprouting Health Chiropractic we will help identify why you have the pain, then we will develop a game plan specific to you, to help you manage your recovery. We isolate the major muscles and do very specific strength testing on these muscles to ascertain where the problem is. We also do stability tests and range of motion testing to work out if the shoulder problem is stemming from somewhere else (eg the neck). We then go about balancing the joints that support the shoulder and the shoulder joint itself.
We use natural and gentle means to help manage your recovery.
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Here is a simple tests you can do with someone else to see if we might be able to help manage your shoulder.
It is called speeds test. Speeds test is traditionally used to detect an injury to the long head of the biceps (1). We also use a modified form of this test to determine if there is scapular (shoulder blade) instability. Simple stand with your arm outstretched in front of your body with your palm up. Have someone push gently down on the arm just above the wrist. If the arm can hold against the pressure the test is a pass. If the arm cannot hold against resistance (or there is pain) there is a good chance you have either a biceps issue or scapular instability. This can indicate irritation or injury to the suprascapular nerve. A mechanism of suprascapular nerve injury is traction (2), this happens when there is scapular instability. Mechanical stretching of the nerve will weaken certain muscles (we check for these) and this can cause shoulder issues and pain. If this is the case we can help out with you management. There are lots of other causes of issues and we will screen for these.

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References

1. Ostor, A.J.K., Richards, C.A., Prevost, A.T., Speed, C.A. and Hazleman, B.L., 2005. Diagnosis and relation to general health of shoulder disorders presenting to primary care. Rheumatology, 44(6), pp.800-805.
2. Safran, M.R., 2004. Nerve injury about the shoulder in athletes, part 1: suprascapular nerve and axillary nerve. The American journal of sports medicine, 32(3), pp.803-819.