Overhead Athlete

Overhead athletes are prone to a variety of injuries due to the repetitive and high-intensity nature of their movements, particularly those involving the shoulder complex. Several factors contribute to the increased risk of injury among overhead athletes. A factor is the overuse of movements such as throwing, serving, spiking, or swinging, which place repetitive stress on the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints of the shoulder complex.

Understanding the Overhead Athlete

Over time, repetitive strain can lead to overuse injuries, including tendinitis, bursitis, and stress fractures. This also puts biomechanical stress on the overhead movements on the shoulder and joint muscles. These movements involve extreme ranges of motion, rapid acceleration and deceleration, and high forces, particularly during the late cocking and acceleration phases of throwing motions. Poor throwing mechanics, faulty technique, or muscular imbalances can put further biomechanical stress and increase injury risk.

Muscle imbalances also is a contribution to the overhead athletes. Often people develop imbalances between the muscles that stabilize and move the shoulder joint. Weakness or dysfunction in the rotator cuff muscles, scapular stabilizers, and core musculature can lead to altered shoulder mechanics, instability, predisposing athletes to injuries such as rotator cuff tears, labral tears, and shoulder dislocations.

Common Injuries

    • Rotator cuff tears

    • Shoulder impingement syndrome

    • Labral tears

    • Glenohumeral instability

    • Little League shoulder

    • SLAP lesions

    • Muscle strains and tendonitis

    • Scapular dyskinesis

    • Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tears

    • Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)

    • Spondylolysis

    • Spondylolisthesis

    • Disc herniation

    • Facet joint syndrome

    • Muscle strains

    • Nerve compression

    • Thoracic outlet syndrome

    • Muscle imbalances

Meet Your Overhead Speciliast

Schedule your appointment today.