Anytime you use your arms — whether you’re swimming laps, shooting hoops, painting your living room, pulling a sweater over your head, or shoveling snow — it’s your shoulder joints that facilitate the full range of motion your arms require to perform the task at hand.
As with every joint you rely on to move your body, you probably don’t give your shoulders a second thought. Until, that is, one of them starts hurting — and you’re not sure why.
As board-certified orthopedists who provide comprehensive care for shoulder injuries, our Sports Medicine Oregon team is ready to help. Here, we explore possible reasons why your shoulder may hurt when you raise your arm, and explain when to seek expert evaluation.
Your shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint: The rounded, top end of your upper arm bone (humerus) fits into a hollow structure (glenoid) within your shoulder blade (scapula).
But unlike a trailer hitched to a truck bumper, your shoulder joint isn’t compact and tight; it’s more like a golf ball sitting on a tee. This shallow design enables an impressive range of motion — from adduction, abduction, flexion, and extension to internal rotation, external rotation, and total circumduction in the sagittal plane.
A ring of soft cartilage tissue that lines the shoulder socket (labrum) molds to fit around and cushion the humeral head, effectively increasing socket stability. The “shoulder ball” is given even more stability by a group of supporting muscles and tendons known as the rotator cuff.
The rotator cuff doesn’t just stabilize your shoulder joint — keeping your upper arm ball securely in its shoulder socket when you use it — it’s also what gives you the ability to turn, rotate, and (you guessed it) raise your arm.
Shoulder pain that appears when you reach your arm up above your head is most likely related to a rotator cuff problem. Rotator cuff injuries are common, and two “wear-and-tear” factors are often to blame: older age and repetitive shoulder movements.
Specifically, adults older than 40 who are involved in activities with repetitive overhead arm movements — like athletic individuals who play tennis or swim, or those whose jobs require heavy lifting or a lot of overhead reaching — are more likely to develop rotator cuff pain. Here’s what may be behind that pain:
The tendons in your rotator cuff connect the adjacent muscles to your shoulder bones. Impingement syndrome occurs when a tendon somehow becomes compressed — and often painfully pinched — beneath the acromion bone.
As the leading cause of pain during overhead reaching, experts estimate that impingement accounts for about half of all shoulder pain cases. It’s typically a result of abnormal wear patterns on the rotator cuff, often due to poor biomechanics. The most common forms of shoulder impingement are:
Any damage or irritation to a rotator cuff tendon can trigger inflammation that makes the tendon painfully swollen within the joint.
This condition occurs when an irritated rotator cuff tendon triggers painful inflammation in the normally smooth fluid-filled sacs (bursa) that line and cushion the tendon.
This painful injury occurs when a rotator cuff tendon becomes partially or fully detached from its shoulder bone. A rotator cuff tear can develop slowly, as repetitive motions break down the tendon, or suddenly, during an acute trauma event like a trip-and-fall accident.
A gradually developing rotator cuff tear is a frequent complication of an untreated shoulder impingement.
You didn’t experience an “injury event,” but for some unknown reason, you’re suddenly feeling mild to moderate shoulder pain when you raise your arm. What should you do? Start with basic self-care strategies. We recommend:
If your shoulder pain doesn’t improve after a few days, schedule a visit with our team. Seek prompt care if your shoulder pain began after a sudden injury — or if it’s persistent, severe, worsening, or accompanied by significant swelling, numbness, or tingling.
Only a comprehensive orthopedic evaluation can determine what’s causing your shoulder pain; it may be one of the conditions described above, or it may be something else entirely — like a labral tear, degenerative shoulder arthritis, or frozen shoulder.
Are you coping with unexplained shoulder pain? We can help. Schedule a visit at your nearest Sports Medicine Oregon office in Tigard or Wilsonville, Oregon, today.
