How the two parts of your nervous system relate to your rotator cuff muscles

There are two main — and opposing — branches of the autonomic nervous system.

The sympathetic nervous system gets turned on when one is scared or under threat.  This causes the hormone epinephrine to be released causing the heart rate to increase, the eyes to dilate, and sweat to rush out.

The parasympathetic nervous system produces the opposite effect.  The hormone acetylcholine is released causing the heart rate and breathing rate to calm, blood vessels to the stomach open, and provides a greater sense of well-being.

The sympathetic nervous system gives us the so-called flight-or-fight mechanism and the parasympathetic nervous system gives us the rest and digest mechanism.

As you can see, even though we have one main nervous system, we have two branches of it that do opposing and separate duties.

Let’s take that information and put it towards our rotator cuff muscles.

It is a common practice to strengthen your rotator cuff to help your shoulder pain.

However, here is the kicker.

Your rotator cuff is on the back side of your shoulder.

When you strengthen your rotator cuff, you should feel your rotator cuff muscles working.  Yes, feel them working and not other muscles.

A common issue we see in our clinic is that when someone tries to strengthen the rotator cuff on their own or at another office, he/she feels the FRONT or SIDE of the arm and not the BACK of the shoulder.

Therefore, you are not actually strengthening the rotator cuff!

That is why you are not feeling better.

That is like your nervous system wanting to turn up your heart rate, but instead the opposite effect occurs, you turn down your heart rate.

Do you see how that can be problematic?

We have one main shoulder system, we have muscles that do opposing and separate duties.

This concept is one way we get people to feel better than other places, including needing less medication, less injections and avoiding surgery.

We actually aim to get the correct system to work.  Not just get you to move around the clinic and bill your insurance with 3 other people at the same time.

If this is something that can make your life better, feel free to contact us at 919-728-0335 or schedule online to get you back on track!

You can also learn about how we help you get symmetry and balance for the entire body by reading about our 6 Green Zones.