One of the more common issues people experience with their upper bodies is shoulder pain. This can have many different causes. Today we will look at the rotator cuff, and how we can help.

The shoulder is made up of the scapular (shoulder blade), clavicle (collar bone) and humerus (the bone in your upper arm, not a joke). It consists of three or four joints, depending on who you ask. These are the glenohumeral joint (humerus to scapular), acromioclavicular joint (where the scapular joins the clavicle), sternoclavicular joint (where the clavicle meets the sternum) and scapulothoracic joint (where the shoulder blade sits on the rib cage).

When thinking of the glenohumeral joint, it’s useful to imagine a golf ball, on a golf tee, turned at 90 degrees horizontally… as you can imagine, the ball would fall off. The rotator cuff, along with several ligaments and the labrum, is what keeps this in place. The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles, the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres major and subscapularis.

Through injury or years of bad postures, sometimes the rotator cuff can become weak. This makes it more susceptible to injury. A change to the central position of the joint over time, when the shoulders round forwards, creates shortened tissues at the front, and lengthened tissues at the back. This in turn creates an imbalance in the way the rotator cuff contracts. It will be unable to fully contract at the back of the shoulder and fully stretch at the front.

A great way to lengthen the tight tissues and strengthen the weak ones is through hanging. Over a 6 week period it’s one of the best ways to help bring back normal function to the shoulder. It decompresses all the joints of the shoulder, whilst allows the rotator cuff to begin contracting again. Work towards hanging for 30 seconds, 3 times a day. You can start with 3 lots of 5-10 seconds and build up from there. Adding 5 seconds per hold per week until you are up to 30 seconds.

The best start point is to stretch the front of the shoulder and strengthen the back. A more upright posture will help the tissues adapt to a better position. And hanging will create a better balance in the rotator cuff (this is the probably the best way without having a tailored rehab program).

Heal > Adapt > Evolve