You suffer from shoulder pain and have diagnosed you with a shoulder impingement you don’t know what it is? Let’s find out together

Before talking about the causes and structures involved in shoulder impingement, it is good to explain first what it is. In fact, a condition of altered movement can be defined as “impingement” which, repeated over time, causes the joints to suffer from premature wear of some cartilaginous, tendinous and remaining soft tissues causing much pain

Most shoulder discomforts when doing exercises are due to an important muscle: the supraspinatus. The supraspinatus is a muscle that is part of the rotator cuff, a muscle group consisting of four muscles, very important as they stabilize the shoulder preventing dislocation. The supraspinatus due to repetitive movements and overloads can go to inflammation over time.

What is impingement caused by?

Every time the upper limb is raised above 45 ° with respect to the trunk, there is a narrowing of the space between the head of the humerus and the acromion, where the tendons of the rotator cuff run. When this happens, we speak of impingement syndrome which leads to the gradual degeneration of the tendon up to the rupture and consequent inactivity of the arm. The pain progressively increases, compromising the simplest movements

Incidence

The subjects most affected are men and women over the age of 50 who carry out manual work and sports activities that involve repeated lifting of the arm during the day. It is precisely the repetition of certain work or athletic gestures such as, for example, the classic exercise of the chin practised during training in the gym, to cause this discomfort.

The major causes of supraspinatus tendonitis are:

• Practice sports that require effort with the arm above the head (some exercises in the gym, volleyball, tennis etc.)
• Wrong postures maintained over time
• Past injuries
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Fall on the shoulder

Important is the collaboration of two professional figures, physiotherapist and Personal trainer of the personal trainer, who will work to correct those postural attitudes that can increase the onset of musculoskeletal problems, alleviate pain through various techniques, and will take care of increasing shoulder stability. The personal trainer, instead, will be able to follow you during your training and prevent the movements that can damage your shoulder, personalizing your training program. Precisely for this reason, the good collaboration between these two professional figures is important, and they will follow you at 360 degrees up to the complete recovery.