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2024-02-26
How to AVOID “Throwing Out” Your Shoulder!

BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

FEB 26, 2024

I was speaking with a client of mine a few days ago. She was just about to be discharged from PT after about three weeks or so, and she was talking about how it was ridiculous how she got her shoulder pain. She was just picking up a pretty light bag of groceries from food lion and right after doing this her shoulder pain went through the roof. Not just that but she was taking 5-6 ibuprofen a day and for all intents and purposes lived with her ice pack for about a week or so with very little relief.

I told her not to feel bad about the whole scenario. On almost a daily basis this plays out with folks in the community here in the Northern Neck. It could be a light bag of groceries, racking leaves, pouring mulch, or even pulling a chord to a chain saw. And out of nowhere this nagging pain in the shoulder comes and seems like it wants to stay.

Since this scenario is all to common, I’m going to go over a very quick and easy strategy I gave that particular client that any of the readers can use when lifting or pulling during these springs months to avoid “throwing out” the shoulder.

The problem is with lifting or pulling to quickly. This is seen often with my clients with lower back pain too. Those folks for example don’t know how to set the back in a true straight fashion before they see me or they just don’t think too much about it. And out of nowhere, they get an ache or pain. It’s the same with the shoulder.

Just like the back the shoulder can be placed in a strong position fairly easily with little effort. This position cuts down the risk of injury significantly. It does this by placing the muscles within the joint at a mechanical advantage and reducing the external torque on the joint.

Enough with all the PT mobo jumbo, I’m sure most of the readers at this point are asking what exactly is this position though.

That position that protects the shoulder is attained by simply tucking the elbow into the ribcage and holding this position while pulling or lifting. It seems simple, but I’ve found simple often produces the best results.

So, I encourage the reader to use this strategy when ever their lifting or pulling, which is VERY often throughout their daily lives. And even tell their family/friends about this simple but effective tweak they can use to avoid injury. Better yet avoid the pills, painful injections, and expensive surgeries!

That’s it for today, remember movement is medicine!

P.S. My client in the above story suffered for weeks with shoulder pain that caused her to miss almost 4 days or so worth or work before she decided to get some help. After that, she was able to get off the pills and back to work. She took us up on a free phone consultation and that was able to get the ball rolling for her. If the reader or their family/friends are in a similar scenario don’t hesitate to contact my practice at (804) 493-3256 to set up a free consultation with myself. And we can work together to finally get you some much needed help.

We also have this great new feature on our website where you can chat with us directly. Feel free to click on the link below during our business hours and we can give you some help within seconds!