How to Avoid Shoulder Injuries This Holiday

The holiday season is here, and especially after the crazy year you’ve had, you want to spread joy with some beautiful lights on your house. It takes considerable time and effort to set up, but it brings a smile to your face, which everyone could use right now. You climb down from the ladder and stand back to inspect your work when your shoulder begins to hurt—a lot. You have a shoulder injury! This doesn’t have to happen to you. In this blog post, you’ll learn more about common causes of shoulder injuries and how you can prevent them.

Common Shoulder Injuries

Below are shoulder injuries that can cause pain in your shoulder:

• Tendonitis
• Rotator cuff tear
• Shoulder dislocation
• Arthritis
• Fracture
• “Frozen shoulder” or stiffness and pain with movement

In many cases, these injuries occur as a result of a sudden incident or slowly over time with repeated use and advancing age. In fact, shoulder problems tend to increase for middle aged adults and older.

Household Tasks That Can Lead to Shoulder Injury

Painting

The repetitive motions of painting walls can aggravate an existing problem with your shoulder or suddenly cause it to start hurting.

Changing a Light Bulb

Reaching up, even just to remove an old light bulb and replace it with a new one, can cause your rotator cuff impingement or tear.

Climbing a Ladder

For many home projects, including putting up lights, you may need to use a ladder, but nearly 500,000 falls from ladders happen every year with a strong majority of them occurring at home. In addition to shoulder injuries, these falls can lead to serious damage to your body.

How to Prevent Shoulder Injuries at Home

Focus on the details. It can be easy to go into auto-pilot and forget to pay attention to the little things. Are you sure you know how to use a certain tool? Are you using proper technique? Is the ladder stable and secure?

Be sure to use high quality tools. For example, if you are painting, consider buying a long paint roller so that you don’t have to extend your arm up as high to get the ceilings or top of the walls.

Keep the area clean. Home projects can be messy, but clutter can cause slips and falls that could easily be avoided with some cleaning.

Have a spotter. Even if you have the skills and know-how to do your home project alone, it’s safer to have someone else there who can hold the ladder steady and sub in for you in case your shoulders start showing symptoms.

Ask for help. There’s no shame in admitting that you need help. Perhaps you can perform these household tasks on your own, but you need help dealing with the shoulder pain afterward—a chiropractor can help alleviate your suffering through effective treatments.

Spreading some cheer or working around the house shouldn’t put you and your shoulder out of commission. When you follow these tips, and you’ll be sure to have a safe holiday!

About the Author

Dr. Chad Wills After earning his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Life Chiropractic University, he has continued to value advanced training. In fact, he is certified in chiropractic biophysics, which is one of the most researched treatment protocols. If you experience shoulder pain, you can make an appointment with Dr. Wills at Wills Chiropractic in Naples.