Shoulder pain is one of the most common ailments we see in visitors to our Charlotte chiropractic clinic. It’s also a problem that’s notoriously hard to treat, given that the shoulder is the body’s most mobile joint. But whether your shoulder pain is due to a sports injury, stress, overuse, or poor posture, Active Life Chiropractic can help. In fact, here are five ways that our approach helps with shoulder pain relief.
Misalignment
Since the entire musculoskeletal system is connected, a slight misalignment in one part of the body can lead to pain in another. Specific to the shoulder, its many tendons and ligaments can cause a misalignment if one or more are exposed to excessive pull or stress. This causes inflammation, muscle spasms and pain, all of which can be remedied by realigning the joint and its adjacent tissue. It’s also common practice for our Charlotte chiropractor to align the neck and the shoulder together, since the two are closely connected.
Pinched Nerves
Some of the most painful shoulder injuries involve pinched nerves. These inconveniences result in tingling, needle-like pain that being in the shoulder and in some cases extends into the arm, causing tingling, numbness, and pain there as well. The good news is, chiropractic care is proven to alleviate and/or eliminate pain from pinched nerves. Our standard approach is to make small spinal adjustments geared toward relieving pressure on the affected nerve.
Posture-based Pain
If you work an office job that requires to sit during most of the day, chances are you’ve already experienced some level of posture-based pain. Posture pain is also common amongst people working in manual labor fields that require them to lift and carry heavy loads. Also, forklift operators who work hours at a time without stopping to stretch can experience posture-related pain. Over time, the muscles become knotted and the joints become misaligned, resulting in a dull ache in the shoulders and/or lower back. Short-term posture-based treatment includes spinal realignment exercises. If these don’t work, we’ll move into more long-term treatment such as realignment, regular stretching, reshaping your sitting posture, and more.
Rotator Cuff Pain
Rotator cuff injuries are often associated with baseball players, but they can also affect the elderly, people that do heavy manual labor, or an injury sustained in a car accident or other high-impact collision. At Active Lie Chiropractic in Charlotte, there are a few ways that we treat rotator cuff pain: some of the most popular are hot and cold compresses, spinal adjustments, and electrical muscle stimulation.
Weak Shoulder Muscles
Sometimes, a person’s shoulder just needs to be stretched and strengthened in order to lower the likelihood of injury. Stretching and strengthening not only benefits the shoulder muscles, but also its tendons, ligaments, and tissues. In these situations, the goal is to strengthen the shoulder rhomboids and lower traps. This can be accomplished via arm-circle exercises that range from 30 seconds to several minutes, and also by using Therabands, which are comprised of rubber tubing. Therabands offer different resistance levels in order to strengthen and tone specific shoulder muscles.
If you’re in need of shoulder pain treatment near Charlotte, contact the experienced team at Active Life Chiropractic.