Imagine you are sitting in a work meeting and you begin to feel a small area on your back that needs to be itched. It’s not too bad so you do a mild shimmy in your chair to get it, but nothing. Not only is it still there, but it’s getting itchier.

You lean forward and attempt to reach your hand overhead and down your back to itch it, and realize you can’t reach it. You try the other hand without avail and you are running out of options as you are starting to draw eyes your way with all of this commotion you are creating. 

You now ‘throw in the towel’ and internally admit defeat as you excuse yourself from the meeting to ‘use the restroom’. You make a B-line to the first corner you can find that no one can see you and aggressively use it to itch your back.

You make it back to the meeting safe-and-sound and can’t shake the thought of, “What happened? I used to be able to reach any part of my back with no problem”.

Now that you’ve brought your attention to your shoulder(s) not moving like they used to, you also make note that there is some mild popping or clicking with different motions: i.e. washing the back of your head, tucking in the back of your shirt, or maybe giving a tall high-five to a friend.

We can all agree that this isn’t how it should be; however, I do want to point out that it can be very fixable without major cause for concern. 

Popping, clicking, and other various sounds or sensations within the shoulder joint can be the result of many different things going on in the joint or closely surrounding structures. The first thought that most people have is a damaged labrum (the thick and strong tissue lining the rim of the shoulder socket).

The labrum is a structure that provides more depth and surface area for the ball of the humerus (upper-arm bone) to sit into and create stability and cushion for the joint. Other potential culprits could be a tendon (tissue that connects muscle to bone) snapping over a bony surface or a muscle dysfunction leading to faulty mechanics of the joint itself. 

Without an incident of trauma or repeated overuse in the shoulder, there is a decreased likelihood of the labrum being the structure in question. Going through the series below can be a good starting point to cleaning up the deficits you may have. 

Getting Full Motion Back

The first thing we want to look at is whether you have full range of motion (ROM) in the different directions that the shoulder joint can move. You can call upon a friend to watch you move or you can watch yourself in the mirror. 

Start with both arms straight at your sides, lead with a thumbs-up position, and move your arms out in front of you until your hands are overhead. You should be able to get your arms even with your ear on both sides. Observe whether or not you have full ROM and how much you lack if you do. 

Next, you will repeat the same process, but this time you will take your hands out to the side in a jumping-jack motion. Again, assess how much motion you have. 

If you are lacking motion in either of these planes, then check out this video (https://youtu.be/09TdZXDkPjY) to gain those last few degrees of motion!

Silencing the Shoulder Through Stability

Next, we want to provide a sense of stability for the joint. The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body. It is truly impressive! With that much freedom to move, it requires many muscles to work in unison to create a silent symphony of movement. 

To do this, we want to use an exercise that gives a lot of input into the joint and allows each muscle to play its part and do its job through self-correction. Start small with this Kettlebell Exercise (https://youtu.be/w61j_EGQwp4). This works through providing immediate feedback as the kettlebell starts to move or fall and you have to keep it rock-solid in place!

Rotator Cuff Strengthening

The rotator cuff has two jobs. The word “rotator” implies it rotates the shoulder, and although this job is important it could be quickly overshadowed by the second; which is to keep the ball snuggly in the socket. This last exercise (https://youtu.be/lAMd2uRvpk8) is the cherry-on-top of bulletproofing your shoulder.

If this story sounds like a situation that you have found yourself in, give these exercises a shot. Altogether they should take less than ten minutes to complete. Please let me know how they go for you! 

If your shoulder is giving you problems, but this isn’t right on par with what you’re experiencing, then please give us a call to help you get it sorted out!