How Your Feet Can Influence Shoulder Pain: Understanding the Connection

When you experience persistent shoulder discomfort, your first instinct is understandably to focus on the shoulder itself.

But movement doesn't happen in isolation.

The position and movement of your feet can influence what happens at the knees, hips, pelvis and trunk — which can ultimately affect how the shoulder blade and shoulder move.

I experienced this myself. I had been dealing with a persistent pinching and aching sensation in my right shoulder, particularly during overhead movements. Although working directly on the shoulder provided some relief, it didn't seem to address the full picture.

Looking at my movement more globally highlighted something interesting: there were also differences in how my right foot and lower limb were moving.

Starting at the Foot

The foot provides the body's contact with the ground and continually adapts as we stand, walk and move.

Pronation and supination are normal and necessary components of this process. Problems don't necessarily arise because these movements occur, but restrictions or excessive movement may influence how forces are transferred further up the body.

In my case, the position and control of my right foot appeared different from the left.

Rather than assuming this was simply a problem at the foot, I started considering how it might relate to movement elsewhere.

Understanding the Kinetic Chain

The term kinetic chain describes how different areas of the body interact during movement.

A change at one joint doesn't automatically cause a problem somewhere else. However, it can influence the movement options available to other joints.

For example, changes in foot and ankle mechanics can be accompanied by changes in tibial and femoral rotation. This can influence movement at the hip and pelvis, which in turn can affect the position and movement of the trunk and ribcage.

That becomes particularly relevant to the shoulder because the scapula — or shoulder blade — moves across the ribcage.

So rather than thinking:

Foot → shoulder pain

A more useful way of looking at it is:

Foot and ankle → knee and hip → pelvis and trunk → ribcage and scapula → shoulder movement

This doesn't mean that a foot position is necessarily the cause of shoulder pain. It means that the whole movement chain may be worth considering when symptoms persist.

What Changed for Me?

Instead of concentrating solely on the shoulder, I began addressing the movement patterns I had identified further down the chain.

This included improving mobility where movement appeared restricted, developing better control through the foot and ankle, and then incorporating that control into larger movements.

As my lower-body movement improved, my shoulder symptoms also settled.

That doesn't prove that my foot was the sole cause of my shoulder pain. The body is considerably more complex than that.

What it did demonstrate was the value of looking beyond the area where symptoms are being experienced.

Looking at the Whole Body

This is one of the principles behind the way I approach movement.

Pain tells us where you're experiencing a problem, but it doesn't always tell us everything about why that area is being placed under stress.

Sometimes the symptomatic area needs attention directly. At other times, movement restrictions or compensations elsewhere may also be relevant.

By assessing how different areas of the body work together, we can build a clearer picture of your movement rather than focusing on one joint in isolation.

The aim isn't to create a theoretically "perfect" posture or movement pattern.

It's to give your body the mobility, stability and control it needs to move better and feel great.