How To Improve Shoulder Impingement with Better Posture

For most of us, shoulder pain is something we will deal with at least once in our life. Shoulder pain has a variety of causes, including sore muscles, arthritis, injuries, etc. Commonly, impingement is the cause of shoulder pain. Now we'll cover how postural improvements can help reverse shoulder pain and impingement.

One very common cause of shoulder pain is shoulder impingement. But what is shoulder impingement? Shoulder impingement occurs when the muscles or tendons in the shoulder get pinched between two bones. Unlike shoulder injuries, which can cause constant pain, impingement pain is commonly felt at certain angles of arm elevation only.

Typically, the bones involved are the shoulder blade (scapula) and the upper arm bone (humerus). The shoulder blade actually extends out over the top of the upper arm bone, and curls around to connect to our collar bone. This is the area, out over the top of the upper arm bone, where most of the impingement happens.

The muscles involved typically include the biceps, or the various rotator cuff muscles. These muscles actually run between the upper arm bone and the top of the shoulder blade, and can become pinched when there isn't enough room for the muscles or tendon to move through as the arm moves. The most common patterns involve pain in the front of the shoulder caused when the biceps is impinged, and on the outside of the shoulder when one of the rotator cuff muscles is impinged.

So what can you do for your shoulder pain? Treating shoulder impingement should involve a visit to your chiropractor and a comprehensive plan including postural correction, icing, stretches, modified activities (to prevent further impingement), and chiropractic treatment of the area for overly dysfunctional muscles and joints with improper motion.

If instead you want to go it alone, beginning with postural correction is the your best option to both treat the problem and prevent it from returning. This is because poor posture is often the cause of shoulder impingement.

So do you begin to correct you're posture? If you're like most people, there will be three main areas in which you can improve.

First off, we should make sure that the shoulders themselves are not pulled forward. This is quite common in younger women and girls. To correct this, practice pulling your shoulders back, and pull your shoulder blades together in the back and slightly downward towards the back pockets of your pants.

Next, let's work on lifting your breastbone. Imagine there's a string tied to your breastbone, and that the other end of that string is tied to a balloon. As though the balloon were lifting your chest, lift your breastbone up. Doing this allows proper shoulder function.

Thirdly, retract your whole head back, like a frightened turtle going back into his shell. Don't move your chin up or down, just straight backwards, as if you're trying to give yourself a double chin. By correcting a head this is too far out over your shoulders, we are relieving the extra tension in the neck and shoulders that makes impingement worse.

Put all three of these steps together, and you will have very good posture. Now by incorporating these steps into your daily posture during sitting and standing, you should notice that your shoulder problem is going away, and your shoulders are moving more freely.