As far as joints are concerned, the shoulder is truly remarkable. It moves in absolutely every direction. The only other joint that is even somewhat close in terms of the different types of movement is the hip. But even there, the mobility is much more limited. 

     You need a lot of movement in the shoulder to perform everyday activities. The ligaments that hold the upper arm bone, the humerus, in the socket are quite loose to allow for this wide range of motion. Because they are lax, they don’t do much to hold the shoulder together. 

     What really holds the shoulder together and stabilizes the joint are muscles that are referred to as the rotator cuff. There are four small muscles that run from the shoulder blade to the humerus. These muscles completely surround the humerus like a sleeve or cuff. They are very dynamic, contracting to stabilize the shoulder when needed or relaxing to allow you to move the arm freely. The movement of our shoulder is so free and easy that we often take it for granted.

Corrective Exercise Strategies for Neck Pain Prevention

Following NASM’s Corrective Exercise Continuum programming strategy can help address potential muscle imbalances that may be contributing to movement compensations which lead to a forward head posture and neck pain. 

First, inhibit the muscles that may be tight/overactive via self-myofascial release. Typically, this technique would be performed with a foam roller, but due to the regions being addressed, hand-held devices (such as a Theracane) may work best. 

Key regions that should be addressed using such a tool would be the upper trapezius (Figure 3) and levetor scapulae (Figures 4). If one also possesses rounded shoulders, foam rolling the thoracic spine (Figure 5) will also be important to help improve thoracic spine range of motion and decrease stress to the cervical spine.