Shoulder injuries in young athletes are unfortunately common. Even worse, it doesn’t have to be a contact sport. We see baseball players and tennis players each week in our Burlington office with shoulder pain. Luckily, in many cases, chiropractic care can help!

Shoulder Injuries in Youth Athletes Video

Key Takeaways:

• Depending on the sport and type of injury, the location of the pain can be different
• Shoulder pain can come from instability
• Step 1 is to evaluate and diagnose the shoulder pain correctly
• Stabilizing the core with therapeutic exercise is usually necessary for full recovery
• Dry Needling is one of the most effective treatments for shoulder pain

Your child doesn’t have to live with shoulder pain after an injury

If you, or your child, is struggling with shoulder pain related to their sport – you don’t have to suffer through the pain. We can help! Call our office at 336-270-3050 or use the link below to schedule.

---

Shoulder Injuries in Youth Athletes Video Transcript

DISCLAIMER: This is a direct transcript of the video audio and may not be grammatically correct.

Shoulder pain in athletes can be in different areas depending on the sport they are playing. With football since it is a contact sport, you can see shoulder pain all over the place. If the athlete is a baseball player, we typically see shoulder pain in the very front or even side of the shoulder.

Either way, the most important aspect of dealing with shoulder pain is finding where the pain is and what is generating the pain. 

Shoulder pain can occur in a couple of areas, such as the front of the shoulder, the very top of the shoulder, through the back of the shoulder, at the very tip of the shoulder, and sometimes even lower into the armpit which gets into the latissimus dorsi or lat muscle.

Shoulder problems and pain can be complicated because there are so many areas where problems can occur.

Shoulder pain can be coming from the shoulder due to instability problems within the shoulder or there can be a loss of motion in the shoulder joint. There can also be the rotator cuff muscle in the shoulder that is irritated or damaged.

Sometimes shoulder problems will even occur due to the loss of thoracic spine mobility. Shoulder issues can even come from the neck. There are many routes that can bring on shoulder pain so it is important to understand what athlete we are dealing with. 

We can see shoulder pain in a sport like football, which is a contact sport, and the athlete could have been hit and hurt their shoulder. We can see shoulder pain in a baseball player which is not a contact sport but is a big sport when it comes to overuse injuries.

All this information is crucial in finding what the injury is and what part of the body is the main pain driver. 

Step #1: Evaluation and diagnosis 

When we have a shoulder injury in the office, we have to have a good assessment that will look at the shoulder and decide if it is instability, joint blockage in the shoulder, joint blockage in the neck, or joint blockage in the mid-back.

Again, depending on the sport and mechanism of injury, we will assess if an MRI is needed and see if it is even a chiropractic case. 

Step #2: Treatment

Once we have done a good evaluation of the shoulder and the surrounding structures we will then be able to begin the proper treatment. Sometimes shoulder treatment does not even start with the shoulder. Again, if we did a good evaluation, we may have found core instability and need to start at the core.

The reason for this is if there is core instability, other muscles in the body have to function differently than what they were made to do. This is because if these muscles don’t have a stable base to work off of like the core,  they will have to create their own stable base, which will decrease their function and develop pain.

So, to help solve a shoulder problem we may stabilize the core and get the core functioning properly. 

If the core is not the problem or we have already stabilized the core, we then have treatments for the shoulder itself. If we feel there is a muscle problem in the shoulder, we move more towards dry needling. This is like acupuncture but with different principles behind its methods.

This treatment we have found is very effective for shoulder problems and if we are dealing with youth athletes we often need the parents at the office for that type of treatment. 

We will also look at joint blockage which most of the time is not in the shoulder itself. Sometimes this joint blockage or restricted range of motion will be coming from the mid-back. This is called regional interdependence which means that your shoulder needs mobility from the mid-back in order to do its job of creating stability while playing a sport.

The mid-back may be restricted in extension or flexion or rotation and in order to make up for the loss of mobility through this region, the shoulder will then take most of the load and compensate for the loss of mobility in the mid-back.

This will again ask muscles to do what they were not designed to do which will create trigger points and muscle spasms within the shoulder. 

That’s why a good assessment at the beginning is so important so that we know and understand what area of the body needs to be treated.

If you have a young athlete in a contact sport like football or in a sport like baseball and they have shoulder pain it is important to get their shoulder treated before it becomes something much worse or harder to treat.

These types of injuries often seem like they aren’t a big deal until the only treatment becomes surgery because of a torn labrum because of instability within the body. 

That type of treatment we ultimately want to avoid so if you start to develop some shoulder pain, take care of the pain, take care of the imbalances that are causing that problem in our youth athletes, and will be able to kind of save the headache later on. If you have any questions, feel free to send them my way. Always remember to live with passion, not pain.