If any of these four joints are not moving correctly (for a number of underlying causes), you might feel rotator cuff pain. Rotator cuff pain is one of the most common reasons we see that people get their shoulder operated on when it doesn’t need to be. This is where your story and high tech nerve scans are extremely useful to us to help pinpoint how the pain might have originated (and it’s usually not the latest injury).
The list of causes for shoulder pain and rotator cuff pain are quite extensive because the shoulder is influenced by so many regions of the body. From years of getting great results with natural shoulder pain relief and rotator cuff relief, we’ve seen it all. We’ve successfully helped thousands of people with this, and we’ve created a list of the most common causes. Below are the top root causes of where most shoulder pain and rotator cuff pain actually come from.
The neck houses the nerves that directly control the way the shoulder feels and functions. This means any underlying issue in the neck can and frequently does cause shoulder pain and associated symptoms. This could be from past car accidents (even minor fender benders) or from years of sitting at a computer and having a head down phone posture leading to tech neck.
Overuse or overtraining is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain. This includes either too much weight for the shoulder to handle in gym sessions, or too much sport specific movement without enough rest. Part of our screening process includes digging for things that could potentially be causing this. We call this playing detective. More on this and the root cause below.
Stress aka the silent killer! Most people claim not to be stressed but what we don’t realize is stress comes in many forms. Relational stress, a constantly over scheduled life, excessive phone stimulation, and sitting in traffic are all examples of common stressors we experience daily. This one is by far the most common thing that contributes to shoulder dysfunction. Often we feel the effects of stress in our neck and shoulder muscles which can trigger shoulder pain.
We use our arms and shoulders for just about everything. If we choose to “shake off the pain” or ”just live with it,” we see the effects start to spread to other areas of the body. The most common consequences of untreated shoulder dysfunction include the following:
If left long enough without addressing the root cause, people are usually faced with two last options- drugs or surgery. The drugs can be effective for temporary pain relief but are highly addictive and come with a list of many side effects. Surgery including rotator cuff surgery, oftentimes creates more stability in the shoulder but creates new problems due to scar tissue and limited motion.
We go to the shoulder last! Yes, that’s right. Here’s why. We commonly feel symptoms including rotator cuff pain or shoulder pain due to “compensatory effects.” This means the problem is often coming from somewhere else. We want to find the fire, not just chase the smoke. Most people claim to be holistic but they just assume the problem is where the symptoms are. This is rarely the case.
Commonly the underlying dysfunction is hidden in the spine and nervous system. The top contributors to an imbalance of the nervous system we mentioned above like stress, cell phone and computer posture, past injuries, or overuse.
At Lifespring Chiropractic, we use our TriChord Method™️, which takes into account all the areas in which the source of your shoulder pain may be hiding. The TriChord Method™ focuses on creating resonance in the body with our three layered approach. This means we check your spine and nervous system, all four shoulder joints, and search for potential ligament problems (or over flexibility issues) that could be contributing to shoulder pain. Learn more about the TriChord Method™.
People we see typically experience shoulder pain as a muscular sensation, but neglect what actually causes the muscles to feel and function the way they do. The shoulder is a highly muscular structure. There are 16 muscles that make up the shoulder, including the four rotator cuff muscles. If there is any problem in any of these, the nerves coming from the spine should be the first place we look to as the cause.
This is because the nerves control the way the muscles move and feel. Any stress in the spine and nervous system from past injuries, poor posture, or stress, will affect the 16 shoulder muscles and beyond. The associated tightness and limited motion is usually what causes pain.
Chasing muscle tightness! Where we usually feel the problem is not usually where the root of the issue is. We often see people waste hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars and precious time on posture correction devices, or quick massage tools without finding lasting relief. This is due to an ongoing symptom management approach vs finding the root cause.
Symptom management is not the bad guy. It’s treating symptoms, without ever really addressing the underlying cause that’s the problem. The root causes of most shoulder issues mentioned above ( stress, overtraining, neck dysfunction) all negatively impact the system of the body that runs the show- the nervous system!
We need your help! You’ll help lead us to the root of the problem. It starts with listening to you; your story matters. Also testing! Lot’s of testing. If it were easy, you would have already solved it by now. We call this playing detective. It’s usually a past event you completely forgot about that happened years ago along with a recent stressful lifestyle change which is the main contributor to our symptoms today.
After we narrow down the possibilities of the root cause, we lean on our high tech nervous system scans, called INSiGHT scans. This shows us the underlying stress patterns in your nervous system that might not show up with just a physical exam or imaging like x-ray. We also check the extremities including the shoulders (yes both) and ligaments. This give us a holistic, whole body view of where your symptoms are coming from.
The breakdown of our first visit with you compared to traditional chiropractors is below.
One of the three layers to our unique TriChord Method™ (and the hardest one to understand) is what is especially important when it comes to natural shoulder pain relief. It’s our unique ligament approach. One of the top hidden causes of shoulder pain is hypermobility (especially in females). This means that things are moving too much. We utilize specialized ligament support techniques for these cases.
Home care recommendations are also extremely important for shoulder pain relief. Oftentimes we actually recommend people stop doing the stretches they are currently doing because they are making the problem worse long term (even though they offer temporary relief).
Pairing this with our many specialized extremity shoulder chiropractic techniques and nervous system focused chiropractic adjustments to the spine allow us to tackle things from all angles. Our Austin chiropractic team has dedicated hundreds of ongoing hours in to learn many techniques to address shoulder pain.
Shoulder pain usually doesn’t start in the shoulder! We’ve said it many times now. Hopefully that sticks. It’s usually in the spine and nervous system, or the ligaments.
By focusing on the function of the nervous system, ligament system, and the shoulders themselves, it allows for deeper layers of healing. Oftentimes many symptoms beyond pain are even related such as poor sleep, low energy, or low mood. Our TriChord Method™ paired with our state of the art INSiGHT scans allow us to address deeper layers of healing through optimizing the health of your nervous system.
Even if you’ve tried physical therapy, seen orthopedists, and other chiropractors, we are confident you’ll find the root cause of the shoulder pain you’ve been experiencing through our shoulder chiropractic. Below is a diagram showing the benefit of addressing the root cause with Lifespring’s TriChord Method™ instead of just treating symptoms as they come up.
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Office Hours
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Monday
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8am - 1pm | 2:30 - 6pm
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Tuesday
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8am - 1pm | 2:30 - 6pm
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Wednesday
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8am - 1pm | 2:30 - 6pm
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Thursday
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8am - 1pm | 2:30 - 6pm
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Friday
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8am - 1pm | 2:30 - 6pm
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Saturday & Sunday
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Closed
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