I am an archer, and I have shoulder pain. Please help.

Question

Hi doctor,

I am an archer. I started doing it two years back. After starting it, I use to have shivers and so I started doing workouts. After a year, I started to have shoulder pain and so I consulted a physiotherapist. He told me that pain occurs due to a lack of strength. So I updated my workout schedule. After a few months, the pain got increased. I consulted many doctors but my pain is not getting decreased. I have done an MRI scan. But there is nothing shown. The doctor told me that I do not have any issues. Now, I am not able to lift my bow properly. I do not have pain in the entire shoulder. But it is present at a specific spot. I am doing strengthening exercises but my pain is not getting reduced. I have tried to find some solution. I searched online and I found that I am suffering from muscular imbalance. My posture is not good and I am unable to be in the correct position while playing archery. So I could not score properly.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You can have a muscular imbalance. But it can be corrected with proper guided and graded exercises. But this can be a functional pain also. It happens due to changed muscle biomechanics. Please mention the type of strengthening exercise done by you. Please mention the muscle-focused more. Please mention some information regarding your joint movement and muscle flexibility. Kindly provide the details to guide you further.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

You are doing shoulder grindle exercises with equipment and push-ups. Doing push-ups makes your shoulder strong. But it also helps in losing the flexibility of the shoulder joint. Try to do a pectoris muscle workout for the chest and some resistance band exercises. This requires several modifications like strength, flexibility, and muscle structural mechanism. You need to balance the posterior and anterior groups of muscles. You need to do exercise that increases your flexibility in the anterior group of muscles. For strengthening interscapular muscles, you can do resistance bands. For shoulder girdle stabilization, you need to focus on isometrics rather than an isotonic type of exercise. Go for closed kinematic exercise rather than open kinematics. Avoid doing push-ups. Having a proper implementation of muscle movement and joints helps to have excellent results.