Shouldering the load: A scoping review of incidence, types, and risk factors of shoulder injuries in weight-lifting athletes

Abstract

Lifestyles advocating for proper health and fitness have been trending in recent years, and as such, sports like weightlifting have become very popular worldwide. While these sports improve physical fitness and cardiovascular health, they carry an inherent risk for physical injuries, mainly to the shoulder. In this review, we aimed to explore the epidemiology of shoulder injuries in weightlifting using a systematic search of the literature. The databases PubMed, Google Scholar (pages 1–20), Embase, and SPORTDiscus were queried using relevant search terms to extrapolate all studies pertaining to shoulder injuries in these two sports. Shoulder injuries turned out to be common in both sports with varying incidence rates and were shown to occur to athletes independent of gender and age. Anterior instability and overuse injuries were the most common injury types, and presentation varied with regards to symptoms and severity. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors can contribute to shoulder injuries in the setting of these two sports, including incorrect implementation of techniques, age, vulnerable positioning of the shoulder during the lift, and overtraining which leads to overuse injuries.