As a clinician, you may have been taught to evaluate grip strength following a shoulder injury. If you are a coach or athlete, you may have seen an at hletic trainer or physician do the same, and wonder ‘what does grip strength have to do with a shoulder injury?’
The human body is obviously a very amazing and complex machine. The mind controls every movement and action that the body takes. Even though we may not know it, the mind is constantly working to create movement, prevent unnecessary movements, and to protect the body.
When the human body sustains an injury, subconsciously the mind will begin to adjust to compensate and protect the injury. This is why we often experience spasm following a joint injury. The mind forces a muscle to spasm and tighten up in an effort to protect it from further injury.
The shoulder will work in much the same way. If an athlete sustains a rotator cuff injury, the hand will lose grip strength in an effort to prevent further injury. Subconsciously, the mind knows how much the injured shoulder can lift. At that point, it limits the grip strength to not allow the hand to pick up more than the shoulder can safely lift without causing further injury.
If you want to improve rotator cuff strength following an injury, especially with little disruption to the injured shoulder, simply improve grip strength. This is easily done by squeezing a tennis ball, stress ball, or gripper. It is especially important following shoulder surgery to keep the rotator cuff firing and improving blood flow and healing to the injured area.
As a Shoulder surgeon for 20 plus years there as definitely a connection with shoulder injuries and grip strengths deficits. Unfortunately,the connection appears antidotal. As I have not found any articles in the Orhopeadic literature documenting studies confirming the relationship.