Have you ever experienced Shoulder pain? The kind that limits you from lifting something heavy, playing sports like tennis, golf or pickleball, playing with your kids or grandkids or pulling on that dog leash. It can easily be the reason you are not sleeping well through the night.
We hear stories like these everyday in the clinic & here are the 5 most common reasons why your shoulder problem is lasting longer than it should:
1. Poor Posture at Work
Having a poor posture for several hours each day at work is extremely common. A common faulty posture - something your neck & upper back naturally fall into when focusing at the computer screen is called forward head posture. Most people tend to fall into this position without even realizing it whether they are using a sitting or standing desk.
This improper positioning of your neck, upper back & shoulder tissues & joints is easily becoming one of the most common reasons of shoulder, neck & upper back pain. Some people start to feel discomfort within days, others in months and some in years. It all depends on every individual.
2. Prolonged Driving
Spending a couple hours each day in your car driving could easily add up to the poor posture time you are clocking in each week. Holding onto the steering wheel & focusing can create the same sort of postural stress as created by staring at the computer screen.
Sure, biking or even walking to work could be a great substitute to this driving time but be wary of that bike posture if you have lower back or lumbar spine issue. Ofcourse, that is a different topic for another time!
3. Too much time on Cellphone
This is a huge one, especially when it comes to neck & shoulder problems. The ongoing increase of neck pain from staring at your phone screen is commonly referred to as text neck & yes we have apple, samsung & other companies to thank for it!
The constant or frequent looking down at our smartphones significantly increases the load on our cervical, thoracic spine and shoulders. This increased load accrued over days, months & years could easily be a contributor of neck & shoulder pain or in some cases even symptoms down your arm.
This topic is explained at full length in my different blog article here. But of course, finish reading this one first before you move on to the next!
4. Lacking Shoulder Mobility:
Very often we see patients who lack full mobility in their shoulders meaning they are not able to bring their arm above their head or reach behind their back or reach the back-seat of their car without pain or limitation. Their natural tendency or even sometimes professional advice is to not move their shoulder often or into the range that hurts.
This is where most people get stuck in their recovery or their progress feels plateaued. Moving into the ‘new range’ albeit painful at start often loosens up their shoulder and causes the pain to dissipate. Working with your physical therapist is important to help you realize how far you can move and ‘how much is too much’
5. Lifting/Carrying on one side only
Last but not the least common reason is that most people tend to carry heavy stuff i.e lift a heavy suitcase, carry a heavy purse or lift heavy boxes mostly on one side instead of evenly distributing the weight. If you have a dog, you tend to hold the leash on one side as well resulting in additional forces being exposed to one side of your spine & shoulder versus other.
A lot of women carry a heavy purse almost always on one side versus the other too. So the easiest thing you can do is start to switch it up. Switch sides on which you carry your purse or use a backpack across both shoulders.
Switch sides on which you hold the leash for your dog too or if you tend to pick up your baby on one side switch it up to the other side occasionally!
So, here you go, these are the 5 most common reasons for shoulder & neck pain in the absence of a sports injury, fall or an accident.
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