Month: April 2012

About shoulders

Of all the joints of the body, the shoulder joint is the most flexible. This great range of motion is achieved by mounting a very flexible ball-and-socket joint on a stable, yet very mobile platform consisting of the shoulder blade and collar bone. Thus the entire shoulder girdle can be positioned up, down, back, and forth as needed to provide the best positioning from which the very flexible ball-and-socket joint can function. Extended periods of sitting or asymmetric activity can result in one or both shoulders becoming fixated in a forward and/or downward position. Such shoulder deviations have become so commonplace, that forward hunching, drooping shoulders are viewed as the norm. The problem is that such compromised postures restrict the shoulder’s range of motion and force the elbows, wrists, and fingers to perform a wide array of demanding lifting, swinging, twisting functions that they were not meant to tolerate. Should repetitive motion demand be thrown onto the misaligned shoulder (tennis, typing, etc.) the compromised joint will register the condition in the form of tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome or a host of other syndromes, in an attempt to quickly stop the damaging activity.

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