Eliza has suffered a primary impingement

I was white water rafting a couple of weeks ago and pulled my left shoulder
quite badly when thrown from the raft. Though it is no longer agonising (as
initially), two weeks later, I still do not have full range of movement and
it catches in low-strain movement such as running. It is tender from the
point of the shoulder running down the back side of my arm. I am really keen
to get back into normal exercise (yoga, cycling and gym being key) and am not
sure what the best way of managing it is – should I rest it, or are there
stretches/exercises/massages that would help?

Thanks!

Eliza

Hi Eliza

In “technical” terms it sounds like you’ve had something like or similar to a primary impingement which is basically where a piece of tissue/muscle gets uncontrollably squished between your arm and the shoulder joint itself.

This makes the tissue swell and so your range is limited due to the painful swelling.

So, you’re kind of beyond taking anti inflam stage but you need to wake up the muscles that surround the shoulder and control how you move your shoulder blade. All these need to have a good dose of thoracic mobility too.

Have a look at these videos for a few ideas  As a rule of thumb anything which is overhead with small weights, done repetitively, with rotation but not allowing your pain to go over anything rather than mild, is an OK thing to do. Anything which is too painful (3-4+ on an out of 10 pain scale) is not groovy….

Massage – good, but not needed, stretches – not needed, exercise – really good!

The Guru