Unfortunately, injuries in circus and aerial arts are common, and the most affected joint is the shoulder (McBlain and Davies, 2023).
So what are some things about the shoulder that make it so prone to injury when it comes to living our best circus life? Knowing that requires a deep dive into shoulder anatomy.
Most people call the shoulder the glenohumeral joint, where the arm (humerus) meets the glenoid of the axial skeleton. But the shoulder is made up of two other joints, the scapulothoracic joint (where the shoulder blade moves around the thorax), and the acromioclavicular joint (where the collarbone meets the top of the shoulder blade).
These joints are all controlled by muscles that keep our shoulders moving harmoniously.
Supraspinatus: Helps lift and rotate the arm, and keeps the upper arm stable
Infraspinatus: The main muscle that allows the shoulder to rotate and extend
Teres minor: The smallest rotator cuff muscle, which helps turn and rotate the arm
Subscapularis: Holds the upper arm bone to the shoulder blade, and helps rotate, lower, and hold the arm outstretched)
Photo reference: The Circus Doc
However, if any of these muscles stop working, we start running the risk of injury. For example:
Scapulothoracic rhythm
For example, to reach overhead, to hold on to our straps or aerial hoop, the scapula (shoulder blade) must move around the ribs 1 degree for every 2 degrees the arm moves upwards. If the serratus (the muscle that controls this movement) isn't doing its job, this puts more strain on the rotator cuff and can lead to pain, tendinopathy, and tears (Nagai et al., 2013).
Upper trapezius dominance
Have you ever felt the muscles between your shoulder and your neck are tight? Those are your upper trapezius, where tightness can be common. This can affect our shoulder movements. For example, if these muscles are always tight when we want to use them in our hangs, they're more likely to fatigue quicker, which can lead to overuse injuries (Sungkue et al., 2024). It can also stop the lower and mid traps from firing off correctly when we are doing our inverts, which in turn may strain the other muscles of our shoulder in the chain of muscle activations.
So how do we fix it? A circus physiotherapist is always on the lookout for how we can improve your overhead movements by assessing which muscles are doing what they should, and what muscles need more work. This will lead to a targeted strengthening program to reduce your injury risk moving forward, whilst improving your circus skills. That's a win/ win right?
References:
McBlaine, T., Davies, B. L., & Davies, B. (2023). Exploratory Characterization of Injury in Recreational Aerial Circus Arts. Circus: Arts, Life, and Sciences, 2(1).
Nagai, K., Tateuchi, H., Takashima, S., Miyasaka, J., Hasegawa, S., Arai, R., ... & Ichihashi, N. (2013). Effects of trunk rotation on scapular kinematics and muscle activity during humeral elevation. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 23(3), 679-687.
Kaur, N., Bhanot, K., Brody, L. T., Bridges, J., Berry, D. C., & Ode, J. J. (2014). Effects of lower extremity and trunk muscles recruitment on serratus anterior muscle activation in healthy male adults. International journal of sports physical therapy, 9(7), 924.
Our blogs and articles are not designed to replace medical advice. If you have an injury, we recommend seeing a qualified health professional. We offer both in-person assessments and online consultations!
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