Why does my arm hurt when i throw a snow-ball or something overhead?

Question

I'm 25. I play a lot of volleyball and everytime I hit the ball my shoulder hurts. Later I would go to bed and wake up at night with intense pain in my shoulder. The pain is to the point where i can't lift up my arm and as a result I would have to use my left arm to pick up my right arm and position it so i can sleep. A week of inactivity later, the pain goes away. However, everytime i play volleyball, my shoulder would hurt and the cycle repeats. It's been about two months later and I thought it was only during volleyball spiking that my shoulder would hurt, so I went out for a snow-ball fight with my family the other day and found that my shoulder hurts even when I simply throw a small snow ball. The pain is the same for both volleyball hitting and snow ball throwing. I've read about shoulder tendonitis but I cannot conclude as to which type it is, or whether or not it is even shoulder tendonitis. Specifically, it hurts on the front of my shoulder and the side of my shoulder.

Answer 1

Have you been checked for a torn Rotator Cuff?

See your Doctor

Answer 2

Tight shoulders/rotator cuff can cause this.  Consider Yin Yoga or minimally the "shoulder openers" that are practiced -- this should help quite a bit.  Warm (arnica) oil massage after practice is a good idea too.

Answer 3

I and my friend had exact same symptoms for about a year.  It sounds like shoulder impingement.  Anatomically, when you lift up your arm, inside your shoulder joint becomes cramped leaving less space for your bones to move around.  Anybody will get shoulder pain, if one keeps his arm up for a long time.  Basically, some nerves in the joint gets pinched and causes sharp intense pain.

There are several causes.  One is natural shrinking of joint space due to aging.  In my case, it was one time injury that caused inflamation in some mebrane or nerves in the joint.

When I was playing baseball in HS, I once over-stressed my throwing shoulder.  Ever since then, my throwing arm hurt easily when I played volleyball or baseball.  It was the worst last year when I started playing volleyball again after 10 years of inactivity.  Everytime I hit, I would get sharp, intense, nasty pain but I would be ok in about a week.  And the cycle repeated.  But I kept on playing for a year and now I'm almost fine with much less pain and the same thing happened with my friend who plays volleyball with me.  Below are some tips that can help:

1. Take some pain killer when you play, it not only kills pain but reduces inflamation and lessens the pinching.

2. Stretch your arms and shoulders regularly.  Flexibility reduces stress on joints and stretching can help widen joint space and help reduce friction and pinching.

3. Learn proper arm swing.  

I kept on playing and got better but could've damaged my shoulder even worse by using bad arm swing.

Our problem could have originated from using improper arm swing.  I used to be a shoulder hitter/thrower.  I used to throw hard and hit hard using my shoulder strength instead of using wrist/elbow snapping technique.  People who use shoulder strength to throw or hit hard , tend to extend their forearm prematurely or don't bend their elbows enough.  Make sure that when you hit, your hitting arm's bent elbow fully rotates in and points where you hit before straightening it.

Answer 4

Maybe the bones are rubbing together?

Answer 5

same thing happened to me. For me it was just a little bursitis. heat pack and some anti inflammatories and i was good to go.

Answer 6

You may be experincing some intense cramps but im pretty sure u have either strained a muscle or pulled a tendin i would suggest going to someone to get it checked and start streching before and after practices its very important. Try putting some icyhot on it.

Answer 7

just ice it alot and use heat. take some time off see a doctor if its continuing.try to not sleep on it either.