Did you know that your shoulder has more motion than any other joint in the body? For pickleball, this is a great thing given just how much we rely on our dominant shoulder in order to return all of those tough shots. However, being the most mobile joint in the body, the shoulder also tends to be more susceptible to injuries than other joints are. Especially for pickleball players, a painful condition called impingement is a very common ailment that can affect a players game.
Impingement basically refers to something getting pinched within the shoulder joint. This pinching most often occurs when trying to raise the arm upwards or reach for an object.
Why the pinching? There are many structures that exist within a very small space around the shoulder. This includes fluid filled sacs (called bursa), muscles, tendons, bony structures (such as the acromion), and cartilage. Many of these structures are highly sensitive, and any abnormality in movement patterns or anatomy can result in quite a bit of pain.
Though the shoulder is complex and comprised of many structures, the most important thing is to discover what is causing the pinching to occur.
Impingement can occur due to issues such as weakness of the shoulder blade, poor training habits, arthritic changes, bad posture, nerve compression, localized shoulder stiffness, and decreased mobility of the shoulder blade or thoracic spine (mid-upper back).
Those are an awful lot of possibilities, but the root cause should not be difficult for a well trained physical therapist to uncover. Due to the many causes of shoulder impingement pain, two different people with impingement could wind up with two very different methods of improving the issue.
On the flip side, this is also why individuals are often dissatisfied when trying to resolve this kind of shoulder pain with the help of cookie cutter programs or YouTube videos. While generic programs may help with some shoulder pain some of the time, they just aren’t individualized enough to solve each person’s specific problems. It’s entirely possible that someone may end up working on everything except for the factors that are causing them to have pain!
If you are starting to develop symptoms that sound like impingement, it’s important to get it looked at and addressed sooner versus later. The less severe someone’s pain is, and the newer it is, the quicker these things tend to recover. People who are quick to act are less likely to have issues with chronic pain, muscle tears, and are typically able to recover to 100%.
What if your shoulder is feeling good right now? Keeping conditions such as impingement from happening in the first place is always the more ideal scenario.
Getting into the habit of periodically checking your shoulder motion is a good idea. Make sure that the shoulder has full and pain free motion rotationally, upwards, across and behind the body, etc. This can help you find small problems before they turn into bigger, more limiting ones.
Make sure that you’re doing a proper warm-up before playing pickleball. This should NOT just be dinking the ball in a straight line back and forth with another person. Dinking warmups can be a great option, but make sure you’re incorporating some reaching, deep hits, forehands and backhands. It’ll be even better if you involve some baseline returns and drop shots, and you’ll play better during your first game if you include these things, too.
Don’t forget strengthening! For pickleball players, I find that the muscles of the shoulder blade (rotator cuff) are often pretty weak, which can contribute to issues such as impingement. Working on strengthening exercises just a few days a week is a great way to ensure that you stay injury free, and it will also help with your ability to generate power and maintain better endurance game after game. There are loads of ways to do strengthening exercises - you can use free weights, exercise bands, body weight resistance, and other methods. Find a method that you find enjoyable. If you’re stumped about where to start, feel free to reach out to me.
Here at Serendipity Physical Therapy and Wellness, we’re well versed in working with pickleball players to treat issues such as shoulder impingement. We also provide wellness services to help players improve their game, provide guidance on injury prevention, and reduce aches and pains that can impact performance.
If you’re new, you can check out more of our advice and content here: https://www.serendipityptw.com/blog.
If there is anything we can help you with, or you have questions, please give us a call at (239) 232-8155, or send us an email at Contact@SerendipityPTW.com. We would love to see how we can help get you moving at your best!
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