Can I Do Yoga with Shoulder Pain?

Shoulder pain and yoga: there are many, many sources of potential pain from this complex join, Physical therapy can help figure out the source and correct the problem.

Ow, my shoulder hurts when I lift it overhead.
I can’t do Chaturanga anymore.
I have a rotator cuff injury, I don’t think I can do yoga safely.

If any of these statements rings true, you are not alone! I hear some version of all of these concerns from my yoga students or my friends, just about every week. It is pretty normal for those of us over 40 to have done some damage to our shoulders, and at times, that damage shows up as pain. How we respond to this pain makes a huge difference in how the pain either continues to show up, or goes away.

I have found that poor posture eventually leads to small changes in motion, along with upper back weakness, and is quite frequently the culprit with new shoulder pain. We tend not to notice the changes as they happen, because they are small and we are very adaptable. But at some point, the body’s ability to repair itself looses the battle and the pain and weakness become everyday companions.

The shoulder joint is not a stable joint due to the bony framework - it relies on soft tissue for stability.

Yoga, as a whole, is not harmful for your shoulder, but it is not a one-size-fits-all recipe for healing either. The style of yoga you have been practicing, the patterns you have established with your movement, the sports you have played, as well as your posture, your job, your diet, all play a part. A physical therapy initial evaluation is where all of these components are looked at as a system. Your strength and movement patterns are observed, and a Physical Therapy diagnosis is made. In my practice, I take a look at the yoga poses you have been doing with pain, or avoiding, to make sure you have the range of motion and strength necessary to continue doing those poses. If I see a gap in either the motion, the strength or performance of the pose, we work together to modify the poses to get the healing benefits you should be getting.

You can do a lot for shoulder pain to get it feeling better, with the right PT looking at you.

Start feeling better today. Call 802-324-1252 to set up your initial consult, so we can start getting you feeling healthy and capable, once again. You can do yoga, you can lift your arm overhead, and you will be able to do chaturanga again.

Chataranga from knees is a good way to modify the pose as you gain strength and stability to do it with the knees straight.