What it feels like, and where it comes from
The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, and that freedom comes at a price. The rotator cuff, the group of small muscles and tendons that hold the joint centered, is easy to irritate with repetitive overhead work, a fall, years of lifting or simply sleeping on the same side every night. Tendon irritation, bursitis and frozen shoulder all start to feel the same from the inside: a deep ache, a sharp catch and a shrinking range of motion.
Shoulder pain also has a habit of not being only about the shoulder. The neck and the upper back control how the shoulder blade moves, and when they are restricted the shoulder has to work at a bad angle. Dr. Petrilak examines the whole chain, which is one reason patients who have already tried treating the shoulder alone find a different result here.
- Pain reaching overhead, behind your back or across your body
- An ache in the shoulder that wakes you when you roll onto it
- Weakness or a catch when lifting your arm
- A shoulder that is slowly losing motion
- Soreness after lifting, throwing, painting or overhead work
- Pain that runs from the neck into the top of the shoulder
