FEATURE: Suitable exercise effective in stopping stiff shoulders

Getting stiff shoulders is considered by some people as having been a ''fate'' for humans ever since our ancestors started walking upright.

The malady is widely known in Japan as ''goju kata'' or ''50-someting shoulders'' since it often hits those who are in their 40s and 50s.

Men and women afflicted with goju kata get stiff shoulders or feel pain in the area from the neck to the shoulders resulting from a sense of tension in the muscles or aching of a joint and tendon.

Some people become unable to lift their arms or direct them to the back.

Tatsuo Ito, director of the Tokyo Women's Medical University Yachiyo Medical Center in Chiba Prefecture, said, ''Humans have evolved into what they are now by moving their shoulders as much as possible in order to utilize their fingers effectively. The shoulders have the largest moveable scope of movements in the joints of the body.''

''On the other hand, their structure is sophisticated and not as strong as the feet. People get stiff shoulders because shoulders are delicate to begin with,'' he said.

Aching shoulders topped all others as the most troubling symptom of ailment among women in a survey conducted in 2004 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, while men cited pain in the shoulders as the second most worrisome sign of illness after pain around the lower part of the back.

The number of women citing aching shoulders totaled 123 and men 58 per l,000 people, respectively.

There are two main types of stiff shoulders -- essential shoulder stiffness, caused by excessive use of muscles that leads to fatigue and mental tension and also by cold, and symptomatic aching in the shoulders, which comes from other diseases.

For instance, goju kata can be triggered by inflammation of a shoulder joint. Other origins include eye fatigue, and illnesses associated with ears and nose, heart and lung.

Such symptoms may be relieved if suffering people take a rest, warm their shoulders or carry out light exercise.

However, Ito warned, ''They must be careful about feeling more pain or losing power. If so, they must consult with doctors at medical institutions at an early date because it's possible a serious ailment such as a tumor may be in hiding.''

Daily exercise seems to be effective in preventing stiff shoulders. But Ito advises that people fully warm their necks and shoulders with a steamed towel and pocket body warmer beforehand to improve circulation of the blood.

He also recommends a ''stiff shoulder exercise'' comprising stretching designed to relax hard muscles.

A stick or rolled up newspaper is used to stretch. A person grips the stick, raises it over the width of the shoulders and brings it down from above the head to the back of the neck.

The person then brings up the stick and bends the shoulders left and right. This is followed by bringing the stick around the back and raising it from the back of the waist along the spine, and moving it left and right by extending the arms.

For muscle training, Ito suggests that a person hold plastic bottles containing water, raise them to shoulder height, and then raise them over the head, hold them still for five seconds, then bring them down. In the next step, the person holds the bottles downward, then raises both arms horizontally to the level of the shoulders, remaining still for five seconds, before bringing them down.

The movements should only be done if there is no pain, Ito said, recommending that the routine be repeated 10 times every morning and evening.

''According to a survey, an adult raises his or her hands over the head an average of only three or four times a day. The shoulders deteriorate'' by this lack of motion, he said.