Speaking of shoulder pain, I believe everyone is no stranger, this was originally a common problem for middle-aged and elderly people, but now it has become common in white-collar workers.
In the outpatient clinic, I often encounter some young people come to do treatment, most of them because of the long time after the desk office, resulting in neck stiffness and shoulder discomfort and other symptoms, and many friends also complained that they sat in the office 8 or 9 hours a day, after work, they felt that the neck, shoulders and back were like carrying 10 pounds of stones, which was uncomfortable, and even plasters and massages were difficult to relieve.
Image from: Visual China
In fact, neck and shoulder stiffness and discomfort are caused by various reasons, and when dealing with it, a doctor needs to evaluate it clearly before the right medicine can be prescribed. Below, share the reasons for shoulder pain in office white-collar workers:
First, the upper cross posture causes shoulder discomfort
First, let's explain what the upper cross posture is. It is characterized by round shoulders, hunched back, chest, head forward, common in poor posture, and sedentary people, the symptoms caused by stiff and sore neck on both sides, shoulder and back discomfort, etc.
Image from: Visual China
The production of this posture is usually related to life and work posture, and has nothing to do with age, mainly caused by muscle imbalance.
When muscle strength is unbalanced, compensation may occur, such as ligament contracture, joint stiffness, bone hyperplasia, degeneration of muscle tendon fibers, etc., showing chin forward in posture, earlobe and acromion are not at the same level.
Nowadays, with the popularity of smart devices and computer work, the number of people with upper crossover syndrome has also increased.
When the human body is in a normal posture, the neck muscles only need to support about 5.5 kg of weight, but when looking down to play with the mobile phone or work, the bad posture is subconsciously produced, the head, chin stretch forward, shoulders begin to adduct forward, every 2.5 cm forward, neck and shoulder to bear an additional 4.5 kg of weight.
The extra weight will strain the muscles more than they can handle, and the shoulder and chest muscles will gradually become tense to bear the additional pressure of moving the head forward, but the muscles balanced with them will not be enough, which will cause the deep flexors of the neck and the muscles in the back to not function properly.
Image from: Visual China
Some white-collar pain is more common around the trapezius muscle in the neck, because the trapezius muscle needs to support the head all the time, and modern people often use poor sitting posture to work.
Therefore, it is easy to become stiff around the trapezius muscle, and when the situation worsens, it will carry the stiffness and high tension of the muscles around the trapezius muscle, such as the supraspinatus muscle, which is responsible for lifting up and abducting, and the infraspinatus muscle and teres minor, which have been elongated for a long time.
Image from: Visual China
2. Rotator cuff injury caused by improper activities
Rotator cuff injury refers to the 4 muscles of the rotator cuff, which are caused by varying degrees of wear and tear due to certain movements, or ruptures caused by trauma, which constitute an rotator cuff injury.
The rotator cuff is composed of the four muscles of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapular and teres minor, and the main function of exercise depends on the coordination and balance of the four muscles of the rotator cuff.
Source: Anatomical Master
1. Trauma
Due to the lack of exercise in modern people, the shoulder muscles are mostly unstable, so muscle strain is the main cause of rotator cuff injuries in young people. The rotator cuff may be damaged when the hand is abducted to the ground or holding a heavy object during a fall, a sudden abduction of the shoulder or a sprain.
In addition, older age and excessive use in sports can also lead to rotator cuff injuries that may start out as just tear injuries, and with daily external forces and not receiving proper rehabilitation, these small wounds will gradually expand into large laceration wounds.
Can the coach come to practice tomorrow?
2. Insufficient blood supply
When we maintain postures such as shrugging shoulders or raising hands for a long time, because the humerus is in the position of internal rotation for a long time, this danger area of the rotator cuff is easily compressed by the humeral head, squeezing blood vessels and making the area relatively ischemic, so that the tendons undergo degeneration.
3. Chronic impact injury to the shoulder
Some patients degenerate the soft tissues and ligaments of the rotator cuff due to long-term inability to avoid subacromial impact and wear, and the disease often occurs in repeated movements that require extreme abduction of the shoulder joint and the instability of the shoulder joint in some people.
3. How to prevent neck and shoulder pain?
At work, it is necessary to properly adjust the office environment, adjust the position of desks, chairs and bodies relatively well. In life, change bad habits, sit in a correct posture, and reduce the legs of Erlang. You can also stretch the muscles of the neck and shoulders at ordinary times.
The anterior neck muscles stretch
Trapezius stretching
Finally, not only people who exercise too much will have shoulder pain, and the chance of shoulder pain in office white-collar workers is also very large!
If you want to avoid this pain, it is recommended to avoid bad posture and exercise properly in life to protect our body.