Sporting Shoulder Injuries
One of the most common body parts injured in sports whether it be contact or non-contact sports is the shoulder. These shoulder injuries usually fall under two categories, traumatic injuries (dislocations, fractures, muscle/ligament tears) and overuse injuries (rotator cuff/biceps tendinopathies, arthritis, bursitis etc.).
Traumatic Injuries
Traumatic shoulder injuries are quite common in contact sports such as football and rugby. They will occur with heavy contact such as falling onto your shoulder/ an outstretched arm, being tackled awkwardly etc. There can be both glenohumeral (the ball/socket joint of your shoulder) and acromioclavicular dislocations (where the hard bone on top of your shoulder and your collar bone connect) as well as an assortment of other structural injuries such as the ligaments surrounding either of those joints, fractures on the bones themselves, tears in the surrounding muscles (rotator cuff, biceps etc.) and cartilage. Typically, traumatic injuries will create weak, painful, unstable, and restrictive shoulder movement. Thus, a physiotherapy assessment is required and depending on the severity of the injury medical imaging to determine the source of the symptoms and develop a management plan to get you back to your chosen sport as quick as possible.
Overuse Injuries
Overuse injuries will present when an individual asks their body to perform more than what they’re capable of doing. A very common shoulder injury seen with overhead sports and physical jobs is rotator cuff related shoulder pain (RCRSP). RCRSP is an umbrella term which is inclusive of rotator cuff and bicep tendinopathies and impingement syndrome. It refers to when the structures within the subacromial space (a space lying between the hard bone on top of your shoulder and the actual ball/socket joint) get pinched with certain shoulder movements. The structures which lie within this space are a bursa and rotator cuff tendon The subacromial space is illustrated below.
This issue arises predominately with performing excessive shoulder actions like throwing, serving, swimming etc. whilst also having an underlying shoulder muscle imbalance. This imbalance will prevent your shoulder/shoulder blade from moving optimally, thus creating a painful pinching of the bursa and rotator cuff tendon mentioned previously. Whilst rest will make your shoulder feel better, if you do not address the muscular imbalances across your shoulder your injury will continue to present itself, that is why seeing a physiotherapist as soon as possible is pivotal.
How can physiotherapy help?
Physiotherapy will be able to help you get back to your chosen sport, but then also make sure you do not have to take more time off in the future due to your shoulder. This is achieved with firstly through hands on therapy of your shoulder muscles, and surrounding joints to reduce pain and increase mobility. Then most importantly a management plan will be developed which will identify exercise and self-management strategies to prevent future occurrences of your injury.
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