Forums > Help! > Shoulder Injury

Posted: 4th Jun 2011
If you are feeling pain or discomfort, you should probably seek medical advice if it does not diminish.

Just what my view is.

'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Posted: 4th Jun 2011
hmm sounds odd, what type of pain is it? i have a little knowledge on musclature injury through family in medicine and through karate. from what you describe it sounds like a problem in ligaments if you dont get any pain from the popping. if it only hurts when its under load eg. weight or just afterwards it might be on old injury come back to haunt you. if your unsure about it and its causing you severe pain (interrupting day to day life) then id personally get it checked out

fire is alive. it lives and breathes. it consumes and destroys. but we control it and live with it, we are fire dancers

Posted: 5th Jun 2011
Well the popping doesn't feel painful just uncomfortable, and but then it sort of pains in my arm if I let it happen alot( the top section of my arm near the shoulder)

but spose i'll get it checked out since no harm in asking before I do something irrversible or just waste time not spinning

Posted: 15th Jun 2011
i dislocated both my shoulders growing up in stupid falls from climbing things I shouldn't and sometimes get the sensation you describe. I've found that poi is very helpful in the long run, so long as your careful and don't over exert yourself you will build up muscles around the shoulders which will hold them in place. careful with your weights- be sure to engage your shoulder muscles to lift anything heavy, don't just grip the weight and let it hang from the the joint, that can cause damage. flowers are taxing on the shoulders at first so take it slow, use LOTS of beats, move your arms slowly and get your planes straight(like 20 petals a flower!) then when you've spent a week or so doing these movements you'll have developed muscle where it's needed and the plane control to start hitting flowers

even chuck norris can't pin you down if your on fire

Posted: 25th Jun 2011
2nd the suggestion you should get a medical assessment first, because there's various causes of shoulder problems.

I've had similar problems with my left shoulder that has less range of movement than my right due to an old injury. I've had 2 longish breaks from spinning because of it, just getting back in now.

Meenik has a good vid on poi and shoulder problems here:

https://www.youtube.com/v/3921roKHiF0

other than that I find rotator cuff exercises helpful (I found a number of sets via google, don't have them bookmarked) - so much so I thought my shoulder was better but the problem came back. For me at least just spinning isn't enough, I need to keep up the shoulder exercises as well. Which is not a big deal - 10 minutes a day covers it.

hth

Posted: 25th Jun 2011
Wow, I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but always warm up and stretch before you practice! It decreases the risk of injury significantly. For warming up, I'll either do a little bit of tai chi or I'll spin poi slowly and do simple moves for about ten minutes (working on stalls, turns, etc.). After the warming up, I do arm and shoulder stretches (holding them for about thirty seconds) for a few minutes. THEN I start doing my regular poi spinning routine and practices. I recommend doing other forms of exercise besides poi that will increase your flexibility like yoga, tai chi, etc. I've been doing yoga for years and it has really helped me with my flexibility. It'll really help to prevent injury.

Question everything.