Shoulder Joint Anatomy and Range of Motion

The shoulder is easiest to follow from its first step and its last step, and the first step is knowing what the joint is. According to Cleveland Clinic, your shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint) is where your upper arm bone, shoulder blade and collarbone connect. The same source describes a joint as a place where the ends of your bones meet.

For a reader in Hawthorne, that definition is the common ground for everything below. Cleveland Clinic also publishes an explanation of shoulder sprains if you want to see how an injury to the joint is described.

Shoulder articles in reading order

Each article below places one shoulder problem in the sequence of steps and names the source behind it.

1. Shoulder Arthritis Grinding and Stiffness looks at shoulder arthritis, with grinding and stiffness as the starting question.
2. Shoulder Bursitis With Overhead Reaching looks at bursitis, starting from the overhead reaching that brings it to attention.

The next rung to read

Start with the article that matches what you notice, then compare it with Cleveland Clinic's page on shoulder arthritis, which sets out that condition from the source's side. Before any appointment, note which movements are hard and how long they have been hard.

Each article ends on a question that tells you whether you are near the next step. Answer that question before you read further up the ladder.