I have been making short anatomy videos for Youtube and Instagram.
This one is about the supraspinatis muscle (that I mispronounce throughout the video) a muscle of the rotator cuff that is involved in almost all shoulder pain.
The rotator cuff is one of the more interesting pieces of the human anatomy.
The supraspinatus muscle is one of the four muscles of the rotator cuff.
Three other rotator cuff muscles are infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis.
One of the things that makes the rotator cuff so interesting is that it functions differently than most other muscles.
Ligaments connect bones to bones and they are very tight and strong.
Tendons connect muscles to bones and they are even tighter and stronger.
But the arm requires a great deal of freedom and it wouldn’t have that freedom if the tendons had their usual tension.
So the tendons of the rotator cuff muscles act like ligaments in a way that no other muscle in the body does.
Supraspinatus is the most surface of the four rotator cuff muscles.
It is a small triangular-shaped muscle (triangular muscles are movers), located on the back of the scapula.
Supraspinatus stabilizes the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint during the movements of the arm. It also assists in the abduction of the arm.
As an abductor, it pulls the arm away from the body at the shoulder joint.
It does this in cooperation with the deltoid muscles.
After 15 degrees of supraspinatus abduction, the deltoid muscle becomes more effective at abducting the arm.
A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that often sits between bones to allow for a smooth gliding movement.
Subacromial bursitis is an inflammation of the bursa between the supraspinatus tendon and the acromion and coracoid processes of the shoulder blade.
So when someone comes in with shoulder pain, and I asked if it hurts to put on a shirt or jacket and the answer is yes, I know the supraspinatus muscle is involved.
Subacromial bursitis takes a long time to heal and it requires rest and reduction of the inflammation to free up the joint and this is not an easy process to speed up.
Subacromial bursitis, as well as frozen shoulder, are issues of poor mechanics.
In my wife’s case, learning to punch incorrectly in kickboxing led over time to developing this issue and it took her more than a year to heal.
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