A season or so ago, a patient playing on a local high school football team was frustrated because every time he would reach out to make a tackle as a linebacker, his left shoulder would sublux (nearly dislocate) causing severe pain, weakness and loss of motion. Thankfully he sought out my help at Superior Physical Therapy before the damage became too severe to treat without surgery.
Presentation
The football player presented in my office for his first visit with limited motion, pain with overhead reaching, and weakness. He further explained that beyond his limitaitons with sports and lifting in the weight room, he was really struggling to sleep at night due to the deep ache at the shoulder. While he was desperate to rejoin the team for the upcoming games that season, sleep was his next priority.
Treatment
PT started with a clinical examination and a sonographic image of the shoulder or what is called musculoskeletal ultrasound. The exam identified the main problem of Instability with an inflammation of the rotator cuff tendons visualized on the ultrasound image. From there, I knew exactly how to start treatment to reduce the pain and inflammation, gradually restore full pain free motion and strengthen the cuff muscles and deltoid while retraining responses for shoulder stability. PT strengthens stabilizing muscles, improves range of motion, and reduces recurrence, promoting faster recovery for athletes. It can restore function without surgery, leading to a quicker return to sport (Hadjis et al., 2018; Kuhn et al., 2020; Popchak et al., 2021). Over a few weeks, our linebacker was throwing weighted medicine balls without pain, returning to the weight room and sleeping at night. He was almost ready to return to play.
Return to Sport Testing…Are you ready?
It doesn’t do much good to spend weeks of hard work in rehabilitation for shoulder pain, just to return to sport and reinjure. At Superior Physical Therapy, your outcomes are our reputation. Therefore, beyond strength testing, joint position sense testing, and sport specific drills for tackling, we also took return to sport to the next level. I performed a recheck with the musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging, found that the inflammation had resolved and the tissues looked healthy, and then performed Isokinetic Testing. This test shows that the athlete can perform at the highest level with functional movements specific the sport and at speeds and loads that mimic real conditions. Gratefully it is also a safe test during rehab. If the patient decreases engagement in the slightest degree during testing, the computer automatically recalculates to avoid reinjury.
Proactive Action
No matter what the cause of shoulder pain, waiting for it to ‘go away’ generally is not the answer. Click and make an appointment or call 208-233-2248 to get in with a Board-Certified Doctor of Physical Therapy and get to the root of the problem in Pocatello, American Falls, Fort Hall, Idaho Falls and Rexburg. Our shoulder specialists are ready to get you back in the game! Sincerely, Bart McDonald, MPT, ECS, FMSK President of Superior Physical Therapy
