Want to Avoid Shoulder Replacement? Start Doing This Now

The ball-and-socket structure of the shoulder joint works amazingly well to give your upper body access to a wide range of motions, from twisting and bending to lifting and throwing. It’s easy to take the smooth, pain-free functioning of your shoulder joints for granted. 

However, repetitive stress and other issues can absolutely take a toll on your shoulder joints.

If a shoulder joint degenerates enough to cause chronic pain or dysfunction, the team at the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine may recommend full or partial shoulder joint replacement. 

It’s good to have this option available to you, but it makes sense to do what you can today to reduce your risks of ever needing surgery.

Sports medicine specialist Dr. Michael L. Blackwell and the orthopedic experts at the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine provide care for athletes and non-athletes alike from convenient locations in Tomball, Kingwood, and Shenandoah, Texas. 

Could you benefit from expert advice on keeping your shoulder joints healthy for years to come? Here are some of Dr. Blackwell’s key suggestions.

Warm up before all strenuous activity

Dr. Blackwell often sees shoulder damage in athletes, especially those who compete in sports like baseball that put a lot of stress on your upper body. 

To avoid sports injuries, warming up is an absolute must. You should also warm up if you’re going to give your shoulders a workout in non-athletic situations.

Dynamic stretches, range-of-motion exercises, and other warm-up activities supply your shoulders with plenty of blood flow and maximize their flexibility. This helps your shoulders to better handle pressure when you put it on, decreasing your risk of injuries and joint damage.

Pay attention to posture

While athletes often suffer from repetitive stress injuries to their shoulder joints, everyone needs to pay attention to posture as part of good musculoskeletal health. 

When you hunch or slouch, you put unneeded pressure and stress on your shoulder joints. This increases your chances of needing surgical shoulder replacement later in life.

Your good posture includes keeping a straight spinal alignment and shoulders correctly pulled back when sitting, standing, walking, and resting. If you haven’t thought about your posture in a while, now is a great time to start!

Keep your shoulders strong

Weak shoulders are more prone to injury, as well as to degenerative diseases like arthritis. If you want to avoid shoulder replacement surgery as you get older, it’s time to get serious now about shoulder-strengthening exercises.

Building up the muscles around your shoulder joints takes pressure off of bones, cartilage, and ligaments. Use targeted exercise to develop your rotator cuff muscles so your joints don’t bear the brunt of all of your shoulder’s activity. Strong shoulders have more stability.

You should also make sure to always use proper lifting techniques, whether you’re at the gym, on the job, or at home working on hobbies.

To learn more about keeping your shoulder joints strong and moving smoothly, and to delay or avoid the need for shoulder replacement surgery, get in touch with Dr. Blackwell at the Center for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Call now, or book your appointment online.