Exercise Thought

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Loading your shoulder

Sam Suke

Here’s what you need to know about your shoulder

We have 4 rotator cuff muscles located on the back of the shoulder blade (scapular), they include:

  • Supraspinatus

  • Infraspinatus

  • Teres Minor

  • Teres Major

They assist to stabilise and rotate the shoulder joint. This region is a common source of pain for lots of people at all ages. Supraspinatus tends to be the most injured out of the 4 muscles and can produce pain at the lateral aspect of the shoulder (side of the shoulder) that can refer down the arm.

Pain in this region is often described as impingement or subacromial pain. If you have pain on the outer region of the shoulder/arm when you are lifting or reaching overhead, you may have what they call subacromial pain syndrome – this could mean pain is coming from the rotator cuff tendons, shoulder ligaments, or bursa.

Research has shown that…

progressive loading of the shoulder muscles, specifically the rotator cuff, with weights or bands has a positive impact on reducing pain and improving function, so you can do the activities you love!

The study “Is exercise effective for the management of subacromial impingement syndrome and other soft tissue injuries of the shoulder?” done by Abdulla et al., 2015, suggests:

  • Supervised and home-based progressive shoulder strengthening and stretching are effective for the management of subacromial impingement syndrome

  • Supervised strengthening and stretching are equally effective to corticosteroid injections or multimodal care for people with nonspecific shoulder pain (shoulder pain with no known cause)

For persistent subacromial impingement, supervised and home based strengthening exercises lead to similar outcomes compared with surgery.

Excellent exercises your Physiotherapist may prescribe to reduce pain & improve function include:

  1. Side-lying External Rotation

  2. Band Internal Rotation

  3. Prone 90/90 External Rotation

  4. Full can

  5. Prone Y

References:

Abdulla, S., Southerst, D., Côté, P., Shearer, H., Sutton, D., & Randhawa, K. et al. (2015). Is exercise effective for the management of subacromial impingement syndrome and other soft tissue injuries of the shoulder? A systematic review by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration. Retrieved 18 February 2021, from

By Bianca Varigos