Many people have asked me the same question: Shuai B, why do my shoulders often protrude, click, creak and sometimes hurt when I raise my arms? If you have had the same experience, then today's article is well worth reading and gives you two good suggestions to solve this problem!

First of all, as usual, if you want to solve the problem, you must first know the reason. When you raise your hand above your head, your shoulder blades will participate in this work. Only when the shoulder blades cooperate with the shoulder joints can your arms be raised above your head. If the shoulder blades are not moving, it is impossible to raise your arms above your head.

Suprascapular rotation

In addition, in this action, you will use a muscle that we usually don't pay much attention to, the rotator cuff muscle group.

The rotator cuff muscles include four tiny muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis and teres minor, which wrap the shoulders like sleeves.

Rotator cuff muscle group

Both shoulder pressure and triceps head pressure can play a very good stabilizing role, because the rotator cuff muscles will wrap the muscles at the upper end of the arm. When these muscles contract, they will turn right and cover the upper end of the arm, and the upper arm will turn back and enter the joint, so that the bone will only move in the center of the joint.

Scapular neutral position

When the arm is lifted upward, if the rotator cuff muscles are too weak to do work, the bone end will gradually move to the upper end of the joint, so it will be pressed to the top of the joint, squeezing the muscles of the acromion, and even colliding, and continue to press the tendon, which may eventually lead to what we call rotator cuff tendon tearing. This is caused by over-squeezing, just like a rope that breaks when it is twisted on the head.

Therefore, when doing actions, it is best not to cause the joints to move upward, so that the joints move in the center. The main function of the rotator cuff is to keep the joint in the center when the bone end does something like hands up. Give the upper arm more room to move when lifting.

Weakness of serratus anterior muscle

If you look at our dynamic picture above, you can see that the muscles that can make the scapula do supination (that is, when our arms are raised above our heads) are: upper trapezius, lower trapezius and serratus anterior. These three muscles form a pair, just like turning the steering wheel with both hands when driving. Although the right and left hands move in different directions, the steering wheel rotates in the same direction, turning the scapula. This is the so-called steering wheel theory of scapular movement. Supination on the scapula is an extremely important factor in our movements, such as pushing up, flexion and extension of the neck and back arm. The most obvious manifestation of serratus anterior weakness is the pterygoid scapula.

The scapula of normal people clings to the chest wall, which is mainly accomplished by the cooperative contraction of serratus anterior and trapezius muscles. If the serratus anterior and trapezius muscles are weak, the scapula will lose its force on the chest. When the upper arm movement makes the scapula rotate, it can tilt upward because the spine edge loses traction, forming a cricket-like deformity, so it is named wing shoulder in clinic according to this feature.

At the same time, because the serratus anterior muscle is the main muscle rotating on the scapula, muscle weakness will seriously affect the obvious oppression or pain when our arm is lifted. So how to solve these problems? I believe this is everyone's concern, two main points, look down.

1: Strengthen rotator cuff muscles

There are many reasons for shoulder injuries, but what I am telling you now is the most common and the most common. Because we recommended people seldom really pay attention to this piece, but rotator cuff is the only muscle that can help shoulder joint. There is no other way, you can't do it without practicing.

▲ Then the method is to stick your arms and back on the wall and lean on it. You need to pay attention to two points:

1: Finger position, you should pay attention to the finger position, so as to press this piece against the wall. (This side of index finger, red line position)

2: Then elbow, so that the back of elbow is also against the wall.

Raise your arm. When you are close to the top of your head, you will find that the higher you go, the farther your shoulders will be from the wall. There is a natural inward trend, so let your arms close. Finally, the two parts of the hand are together. When you do this for the first time, you will find that your elbow will definitely leave the wall, or your finger will leave the wall, or both, which will happen when you lift it.

But it doesn't matter. Keep doing it. The second time, things will get better. The third time, things will get better again. Do it 5-6 times at a time and then take a step forward. Raise your arm above your head normally, and you will find that the symptoms are relieved anyway, such as the various shoulder discomfort symptoms and noises we mentioned earlier. Even the symptoms disappeared completely. Is it a surprise? In fact, the principle is that you temporarily restore the position of the rotator cuff and restore your bones to the correct position. In this way, when you move, the bone has more space, so it won't squeeze the tendons and bones.

Therefore, as long as we exercise for a long time and integrate into daily training, we can overcome this situation and make the rotator cuff not easy to be damaged and torn. Because once the shoulder is injured, it is difficult to fully recover. I am a good example myself. Anyone who watched my live broadcast knows that my shoulder injury took a long time to recover. Therefore, as an experienced person, it is very necessary to remind everyone of this problem.

2. Strengthen the serratus anterior muscle

One-arm dumbbell side lift

Hold the dumbbell in one hand, tilt your upper body to the side where you don't hold the dumbbell, and then push the dumbbell up directly. Allow the load to be applied to the serratus anterior area before starting to contract the serratus anterior again. Make sure that the serratus anterior muscle contracts and lifts vertically. This will unconsciously make the serratus anterior muscle bigger when practicing shoulder muscles.

When we exercise, avoiding injury is our greatest concern. It is an idea that I want to convey to you, safer and healthier exercise. If there is anything else you want to know, please tell me, or leave a message at the bottom of the article. See you next time.