Why Does Punching Hurt My Shoulder?

Hi, I'm Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical Therapy. I've been talking a lot recently about boxing. This time I wanted to do a video on shoulder pain while you're boxing, which I think most people assume is going to cause at least some level of discomfort in their shoulder. When they're boxing, obviously it's an impact sport with your arm and it doesn't shock people when they come back and they're a little bit sore. But what happens when that soreness goes from the sore sensation that you're used to from an exercise to a pain that feels like you might need to see a doctor, or there may be something wrong. And how does that process work? Because for most people, it sort of creeps up on them. They assume that the pain they're having is from the workout so they ignore it until it absolutely can't be ignored anymore. Then they contemplate stopping, doing the thing that they like doing, such as going to these boxing classes, because they don't want to hurt their shoulder.
You become very afraid that you're going to have a rotator cuff tear and who's going to do a sport off they think they're going to need surgery from just doing the sports. I'm here to tell you that there are many, many people boxing or punching in different venues. Between all sorts of MMA fighters, all every martial arts and just everything that’s out there right now, lots of people are throwing punches and not everybody's getting a rotator cuff tear.
So let's talk about how you can make sure that you're on the side that doesn't need the rotator cuff repair versus the side that ends up in surgery.