Playing sports comes with a high probability of a shoulder injury. These injuries can make your activities uncomfortable. At most, they can turn into debilitating issues that can take you out of the game permanently. Here's what you need to know about them.

How Sports Shoulder Injuries Occur

Sometimes a shoulder becomes bruised, pained, or otherwise a little uncomfortable. Just because your shoulder feels a little off, it doesn't necessarily mean you have a sports shoulder injury. In most cases, sports related shoulder injuries come mainly from overhead motions.

These overhead motions are especially prevalent in sports such as baseball, tennis, volleyball and many others. Generally, any sport or activity with a lot of repetitive overhand motions can lead to a sports shoulder injury, including exercises.

Types of Sports Shoulder Injuries

There are various types of sports shoulder injuries. No matter how they occur, these injuries are typically grouped under a few different categories.

Subacromial bursitis (rotatorcuff) – Usually comes with weakness in the shoulder, stiffness, and a reduction in range of motion. These types of injuries occur when you tear one or more of your four rotator cuff muscles.

Glenoid labral tears – These tears occur in the soft tissue that holds your shoulder blade in its socket.

Dislocation and fractures – When the shoulder blade comes out of the socket. This typically occurs from trauma to the shoulder, but can also occur from repetitive movements. Fractures, especially stress fractures, represent damage to bone that can happen all at once, or over time.

Various other types of damage and disorders can develop as well. Repetitive overhand motions can cause you soft tissue damage, bone damage, muscle damage, or a combination thereof.

What You Can Do to Mitigate Sports Shoulder Damage

There are many things you can do to prevent and deal with sports shoulder injuries.

Rest and medication - Often, all you need to do is rest between activities. Many forms of soft tissue damage will heal if you refrain from straining your shoulder for a little while. Proper sleep, diet, and hydration will also help you heal. It's okay to take an anti-inflammatory to help with any pain or swelling.

Shoulder exercise – There are many shoulder strengthening exercises that can help you to keep your shoulder in good shape to handle the repetitive motions.

See a physical therapist – One of the best ways to avoid sports shoulder injuries, and to deal with them, is to see a physical therapist. If you're active frequently, then seeing a physical therapist should become a part of your routine.

It's a good idea to see a physical therapist to help you figure out an exercise and care regimen that helps you deal with the possibility of damaging your shoulder. If you're already suffering from a sports shoulder injury, then a physical therapist can help you to overcome it and get back into the game.

If you suffer an injury and are experiencing pain, you should definitely see a physician (such as one from DeSoto Memorial Hospital) before you do anything else. Sports shoulder injuries occur frequently, but there are degrees of damage. A severe injury requires immediate medical attention.