The shoulder is capable of allowing the wide range of movements as a result of the way it is formed. Basically, the shoulder joint consist of the round surface of the upper arm, called the humerus, connected to the flat surface of the shoulder blade, or scapula. This allows for a large amount of motion, but also requires tremendous stability from the surrounding soft tissues.
This is needed, but where?
I preach a lot about the importance of joint mobility and how it relates to our overall health. When we look at the body’s joints, some need more mobility than others There is a rehabilitation model known as the joint-by-joint approach. This model is straight-forward in that it looks at the body like a stack of joints. Do all of our joints need to be mobile? No. For every mobile joint, there is joint stability needed close by.
Why This Is So Effective
Manual therapy is hands on treatment for joints and soft tissues with the goal of restoring normal function. Methods categorized as manual therapy include joint manipulation and myofascial treatment such as Active Release Techniques, just to name a couple. In the day and age of WebMD, YouTube, and other stuff available on the internet it’s not only common for people to come up with a diagnoses themselves but also find some type of tool, exercise, or stretch they think will tackle their injury. The biggest problem is, even if you are able to narrow down your issue to a possible diagnosis that does not mean that the solutions for that injury are the same for all individuals. For example, if I am treating two individuals for plantar fasciitis, they both don’t automatically get the same treatment. Most musculoskeletal pain is mechanical in nature. This means that the ultimate cause is most likely faulty movement patterns or postural imbalances and most peoples conditions may have not been caused by the same faulty movement.
Feel Free To Move
Mobility is simply the ability to move. When looking at our body movements I prefer to visualize it from the deepest structural layer first, our joints. If someone is unable to perform a specific movement correctly (squat, lunge, hip hinge, etc.) a common limitation is joint mobility.
Just to clarify, muscle tightness may be caused by, or may contribute to, a lack of joint mobility, but there is a difference. All surrounding joint structures can limit its mobility. That includes the muscles, which are actively move and stabilize the joint, and the ligaments, which passively stabilize the joint. If the joint space becomes smaller, limitation may also occur. Loss of joint space is a product of osteoarthritis and can be a result of both over and underuse of a joint.
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