Shoulder Pain.

[CtA318]

Hi Bill,

Well as you can see from the title I have shoulder pain in my right shoulder. It started hurting after I had done squats. It felt like I had pinched something when I moved my hands back to hold the barbell on my back. I think my lack of flexibility in the shoulder may have caused this.

Now whenever I move my arm or put a load on my shoulder it is a sharp pain near the rotor cuff. When I mimic the squat stance and hold my arms back as if I'm holding a barbell, the pain is the worst.

Any ideas what happened here?

[Bill Hartman]

Sounds like you may have some anterior instability. The externally rotated position of the shoulder in the squat puts quite a strain on the anterior shoulder capsule. Coupled with many other strength execises and posture, this can occur over time.

Obviously, avoid exercises that are painful. Switch to another squat variation like front squats, single leg, and split stance exercises. You'll most likely need to go through a bit of a specific strengthening program to improve rotator cuff and scapular stabilization.

You also have to consider why you feel this in the squat. Many times a lack of thoracic spine mobility prevents sufficient thoracic extension to allow an adequate posterior tilt of the scapula which results in impingement in the position you described. that means postural correction and mobilizing your spine with a foam roller and rotation plus extension exercise.

Bill

[CtA318]

Thanks a lot Bill. Do you know of any shoulder strengthening exercises I could start to incorporate into my workout? How about some information on foam rollers.