Thank you for joining me again this evening for our nightly podcasts. I perform these podcasts in the hopes that you will be able to education yourself on the topics discussed so you can make better informed medical decisions regarding your health in the future. I am doctor Harrison Campbell of Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. Previously we discussed the elbow in great detail covering the bones and ligaments for the joint. Tonight, we will be discussing the shoulder in great detail.
The shoulder is what sugar land chiropractors call a ball and socket joint because of how the bones fit together. In this case the humerus is the ball while the glenoid fossa on the scapulae, shoulder blade, is the socket. Now it should be noted that the glenoid fossa is not a true socket for the humerus to slot into due to this joint surface on the scapulae being flat. In order to obtain this socket there is a tough piece of fibrocartilage which rings the glenoid fossa called the labrum, which is something many people have heard of in sports injuries. This labrum creates a shallow socket for the ball of the humerus to in to create the ball and socket joint.
As for the bones involved with this joint, we covered them. There is only the humerus and the scapulae articulating together. The complexity for the shoulder comes not from bones or ligaments but the muscles. It is the muscles which provide most of the stability for the shoulder. Now this statement goes against what we have discussed previously where I made the statement that ligaments stabilize bones. Ligaments do stabilize bones, but the shoulder is unique. In order for our shoulder to have the mobility they do we sacrifice stability. As sugar land chiropractors know in the body there is a sliding scale of stability verses mobility. As we can more of one, we lose the other. In this case as we gain mobility in the shoulder we lose stability, therefore the muscles have to pick up the slack and provide as much stability as possible.
Now most people have heard of the rotator cuff. To sugar land chiropractors this is not simply a muscle of the shoulder but a group of four muscles which are responsible for the internal and external rotation of the shoulder. It is these muscles which offer the most stability for the shoulder. We will begin with the subscapularis. This muscle sits underneath the scapulae and above the ribs. This is the primary internal rotation of the shoulder. Internal rotation is when the arm is rotated towards the abdomen.
The subscapularis is very rarely injured. Therefore when most people talk of tearing their rotator cuff or blowing out their shoulder this particular muscle can usually be dismissed as a culprit. The most commonly injured muscle of the rotator cuff is the supraspinatus. This sit on the back of the scapulae and is towards the top of the scapulae. Anatomically it sits above what sugar land chiropractors call the spine of the scapulae which is the ridge most people feel when they touch their shoulder blade. This is why it is names the supraspinatus. Supra is above and spinatus is the spine. So it is above the spine of the scapula.
The supraspinatus runs from the top of the scapula to the outside of the humerus. This muscle is an external rotator for the shoulder and also starts the abduction process for the arm. External rotation is rotating the arm away from the body. Abduction is raising the arm to the side away from the body. Now for the abduction it only starts the process, really the first fifteen degrees or so. Beyond that point the abduction is from the deltoid muscle.
It is this muscle more often than not that is injured when someone talks of an blown rotator cuff. This is the muscle most often repaired in the shoulder surgically and the most often rehabbed by sugar land chiropractors clinics when treating a shoulder. Personally of all the shoulder I have treated, I can recall none which did not involve or were solely the supraspinatus.
The other two muscles for the rotator cuff are also external rotators for the shoulder. These muscles are the infraspinatus and the teres minor. The infraspinatus is the muscle which sits on the back of the scapula below the spine of the scapula. This is why it is called the infra, meaning below and spinatus meaning below the spine. Now similar to the subscapularis this muscle is usually not injured in the shoulder. What can occur in this muscle though is nodules, or what most people call knots. This can be painful for the infraspinatus and can refer pain, meaning the pain travels to that locations, as the outside of the shoulder.
The other muscle stated before was the teres minor. This muscle gets its name as sugar land chiropractors know from the shape of the muscle. Teres means round or cylindrical. The teres minor muscle is a cylindrical muscle which runs similar to the infraspinatus. Similar to the infraspinatus there can be tender nodules in this muscle. In fact a majority of people have tender nodules in this particular muscle.
Combined all four of these muscle form the stabilization for the shoulder. An injury, usually to the supraspinatus, impacts the entire rotator cuff however. Any injury to the shoulder can set you up for a frozen shoulder and will be an extremely painful road to recovery form this condition. Therefore should you have a shoulder problem please make an appointment with Restoration health today so we can help you avoid a frozen shoulder and get you on the road to recovery today.
Thank you for joining me again this evening for another great podcast. I hope you enjoyed the discussion on the shoulder and the associated anatomy. As always should you or someone you know require a sugar land chiropractors services or simply have more questions on what was discussed please call Restoration Health today. We would love to schedule you an appointment and get you on the path to better health today. Thank you once again for joining us. Have a good night.