The shoulders are the fulcrum upon which most of our day to day upper body activity rests. Every time you reach for something on a high shelf, move an item from a table to the floor, or pull open your car door, you are engaging the muscles and tendons in your shoulders.
Considering all of the wear and tear we put our shoulders through, it should come as no surprise that shoulder pain is such a common affliction among modern Americans. The most common cause of shoulder pain is a problem with the rotator cuff muscles and tendons. We most often hear the phrase “rotator cuff” in connection with sports injuries. But you don’t have to be a golfer or a tennis player to suffer from a rotator cuff issue.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the four most common causes of rotator cuff injury are:
- Falling. Using your arm to break a fall or falling on your arm can bruise or tear a rotator cuff tendon or muscle.
- Lifting or pulling. Lifting an object that’s too heavy or doing so improperly — especially overhead — can strain or tear your tendons or muscles.
- Repetitive stress. Repetitive overhead movement of your arms can stress your rotator cuff muscles and tendons, causing inflammation and eventually tearing.
- Bone spurs. An overgrowth of bone can occur on a part of the shoulder blade that protrudes over the rotator cuff. This extra bone can irritate and damage the tendon.
Any one of these unfortunate causes can befall a person in an ordinary occupational or home environment. So if you are a non-athlete suffering from shoulder pain due to a rotator cuff problem, you are not alone!
So when we speak of a rotator cuff injury, what are we referring to, exactly? The diagram below should help you to visualize the problem.
As you can see, the rotator cuff is composed of four muscles and several tendons. While there are many possible physiological causes of rotator cuff pain, the most common are impingment (when the bone of your upper arm presses in on your shoulder tendon when you raise your arm), overwear of the tendons, or injury to the muscles.
These relatively small muscles are particularly at risk for injury because of their necessary frequent use and the tendency to be improperly strenghthened or conditioned. Also, due to the infamously poor posture habits of us Westerners, we have a tendency to put a lot of undue stress on the muscles of our shoulders and neck through slumping and repetitive motions, especially in desk and manufacturing jobs. To compound these problems, it is now known that the blood supply to the rotator cuff musles begins to atrophy somewhat in people over 40.