It's funny, but before I got involved in arthritis business after my own injuries, I used to think that our knees were easiest joint to injure. Of course, I now know that our knees carry about four times our body weight so certainly they are at risk. However, think about role your shoulders play in your life.

Greater Motion Capabilities Your shoulders are one joint that has more motion potential than any other. It allows us to stretch, throw, pull and swing. But problem is that shoulder's ability to allow us to do these things can be its downfall.

Rotator Cuff The shoulder has a large rotator cuff that consists of four muscles that come out of our backs. They wrap over our upper arm and this is what holds our shoulder joint which is made up of shoulder blade.

When you have pain in this area, it is going to be felt over top of your shoulder. As well, pain will sometimes be in front and it can affect outside of your arms. This is usually a form of tendonitis.

However, there are two other types of pain that we can have. The first is a result of a tear in tendon. When this happens, you will likely be able to spot it. Usually, you will feel a loss of strength and your ability to move shoulder is greatly reduced. The "noise" you hear is audible.

Most of us have been through this at one time or another. For a great many reasons, we can get hit with pain in our elbows that just drives us crazy.

What's up with elbow pain? Most elbow pain comes from some kind of overuse of our forearm muscles. That is not to say that this is only source of elbow pain but it seems to be a major complaint from those that have pain.

This is one area where rest is extremely important. In a great many cases, forearm muscles have been overworked or have been used in some way that has caused pain to begin with. It is a complaint you hear from tennis players and other athletes as well. Of course, it can happen to any of us.

The Simple Test If you have pain in your arm, and in particular around elbow area, stand up straight and let injured side hang straight down. Then, reach across your body to painful elbow using your other hand. If you feel anything at all protruding from injured side, you have what doctor is going to usually call "tennis elbow."

If "tennis elbow" is what you have, it is an inflammation of tendons. The tendons in your forearm are attached to muscles in your forearm. When you "push" things a little too hard, you are going to get inflammation in that area. And, it hurts.

Business or pleasure? This is a pain problem that can develop from sports activities or, it may happen just because you have worked that area of your body a little too hard. It may happen to construction workers, those who operate sewing machines, or simply those who work long hours at a computer.