Banish Your Arm Pain
Banish Your Arm Pain
Are you experiencing pain and weakness in your arm? Is it difficult to lift and hold things you use in your daily routine? You could be suffering from tendon dysfunction or even arthritis in your joints.
Whether your pain results from an injury or repetitive stress, it’s often the result of underlying trauma or inflammation of the tendons, cartilage, or nerves in the arm. Your pain can be so severe that doing normal activities of daily living seems impossible. While the pain may feel serious, it’s entirely curable.
Call our clinic today to make an appointment. With guidance from your physical therapist, you can find solutions to your pain and get back to living the life you enjoy!
What Is Causing the Pain?
Limited shoulder movement due to pain, stiffness, or weakness can affect a person’s ability to carry out daily activities (eating, dressing, personal hygiene) and work responsibilities. Factors such as heavy lifting, repetitive movements (especially in awkward positions), and vibrations influence the severity of symptoms and disability. The most common causes of shoulder pain and disability are:
- Rotator cuff disorders
- Joint disorders
- Arthritis and bone spurs
- Referred neck pain
- Bursitis and tendinitis
Overuse injuries often cause elbow pain. Many sports, hobbies, and jobs require repetitive movements leading to overuse. The leading causes of elbow pain and dysfunction are:
- Tennis and Golfer’s elbow (i.e., tendinitis)
- Ligament sprains
- Arthritis
- Broken and/or dislocated elbow
Wrist pain is most common in groups participating in physically demanding activities like manual laborers and jobs that require computer use or repetitive movements. The leading causes of wrist pain are:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Arthritis
- Wrist tendinitis
- Repetitive motion syndrome
Shoulder, elbow, and wrist pain are often the result of workplace injury and repetitive stress injuries. While it is sometimes possible to take action to prevent an injury from developing, it is crucial to be able to recognize when an injury develops and to get help.
Find your physical therapist so they can identify what may have caused the pain to start and what you can do to resolve it.
What Do My Symptoms Mean?
Aching or stiffness around the front or the side of the shoulder is often due to a tendon/rotator cuff injury. In comparison, pain in the back of the shoulder is likely coming from the joint itself. Although some think the top part or shoulder blade is the “shoulder,” they refer to muscles and/or the neck and not the shoulder itself.
Clarifying the location of your pain will help your physical therapist figure out the source of your pain and the appropriate plan to resolve it.
The inner and outer aspect of the elbow is commonly thought to be where most people experience tendon or ligament injuries. Typically, the pain will be sharp at the junction of the tendon and bone but may also move toward the forearm when the injury is tendon-related or caused by inflammation.
A decreased range of motion is often associated with arthritis. Still, weakness or clumsiness when gripping or holding onto things can be signs of deeper problems. It may indicate a more severe condition: the more dysfunction and disability, the more your conditions warrant seeking help sooner than later.
Ignoring your pain or waiting too long to be seen can make the problem worse and eliminate simple solutions.
Physical Therapy for Shoulder, Elbow and Wrist Pain
Physical therapy treatments for shoulder, elbow, and wrist pain include manual therapy, joint mobilization manipulation, exercise instruction, education, and techniques like KT taping and joint splinting. These have all been proven to help alleviate pain and restore function.
Physical therapists assess your particular condition to identify the contributing factors and address all of them. Your therapist is skilled at hands-on intervention and exercise selection for the most comprehensive and appropriate intervention to help you resolve your pain and/or restore your function.
Interventions such as education, manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, nerve and tendon glide techniques are widely used for effective results!
Contact Our Clinic Today
Addressing the pain early on is the best way to prevent an issue from becoming more debilitating. Physical therapy is the ideal tool for providing you with an opportunity to understand what may be causing your pain and helping you mobilize and strengthen the surrounding muscles to alleviate the pain associated with your injury.
Contact your physical therapist today for support with learning how to manage the pain and learn exercises and techniques that can help you overcome the injury and restore proper strength and functionality to your shoulders, elbows, and wrists.
Around the Clinic: The Excel Family!
We loved seeing everyone’s costumes for our Harvest Hoedown!
Find Relief Now – Schedule Your Free Consultation!
Ready for personalized care?
Come back to Excel Physical Therapy and book your session today!
Setting Goals for the New Year? We Can Help You Keep Them
Setting goals for the new year is a time-honored tradition, but how many of us will still stick to them through June–or even February? Firm statistics on the success of New Year’s goals are hard to come by, but one study found that 45% of people surveyed felt their goals were unsuccessful one year out.
Don’t despair. There are ways to ensure your goals are successful, especially if they’re health- and fitness-related, as the vast majority are. In fact, one of the most popular New Year’s goals is to exercise more–and that’s one habit Excel Physical Therapy can definitely help you develop!
Physical therapists are movement experts who understand the importance of regular exercise–not just on your appearance, but on your overall health. And if you’re going to make just one goal, exercising more is a great one! Regular exercise has a radiating effect that impacts your mental health, sleep quality, joint pain levels, mobility, and so much more.
How Physical Therapy Will Keep You Moving All Year Long
One of the biggest challenges in starting a new exercise program is having no idea what to do. Joining a gym is most people’s first step, but it’s also an intimidating maze of unfamiliar equipment and wall-to-wall mirrors. Our therapists will help you develop an exercise program that suits your needs, interests, and ability levels–eliminating that initial hurdle.
Another trick to keep you moving is to track your progress. While many people default to monitoring their weight or appearance, our therapists can provide other measures to give you a complete picture of your overall health and wellness. Range of motion, balance, and strength: all paint a comprehensive portrait of your overall progress.
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Success Story
We are so proud of this exemplary father and daughter duo! Kirby and Madelynn have been an inspiration to those around them and to us as well as part of their care team. We are honored to work with this amazing family.
Kirby won World Master Jiu-Jitsu 2024 after he recovered from a shoulder surgery. He is someone that not only worked hard but aimed at higher goals. We are incredibly proud of his commitment to excellence. He truly went above and beyond. We couldn’t be happier for him!
And Madelynn won her wrestling match! She is an exceptional young woman who overcame injuries and not only wrestles but competes in Jiu-Jitsu as well. We are bursting at the seams at how proud we are of this young athlete! She is doing great things and the stars are the limits for her.
Excel Upgrades!
A huge shout out to Bob’s wife, Cari who painted and decorated our new Appleton Office! She also did a wonderful job repainting and redecorating our entire Oshkosh office. She is an amazing Interior Designer and we appreciate all her hard work and long hours completing both of these tasks!
Seasonal Recipe:
No-Bake Chocolate Peppermint Balls
- 10 tbsp cocoa powder
- 6 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/4 cup almond butter (use SunButter or nut-free)
- 1/4 cup unflavored pea protein powder
- ½ tsp peppermint extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2-4 tbsp crushed candy canes
- 2-4 tbsp dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)
Put everything except the candy cane or cacao nibs, chocolate chips, and water into a bowl and mix well. Slowly add water if needed (You may not need any water if your almond butter is runny). Start with a teaspoon and slowly add until you get a well-mixed batter. If you add too much then the batter will be too soft to roll. Add the candy canes/cacao nibs and chocolate chips and mix again. Allow batter to chill in the fridge while you clean up, then roll into balls.
