I met a guy named Marcus at a supply house in Denver. Twenty-two years running electrical. Both shoulders shot.
“Want to know what killed ‘em?” He pointed at the ceiling. “That. Eight hours a day, twenty years.”
He wasn’t being dramatic.
What overhead work does to your body
Your shoulder isn’t one joint. It’s four. And when you’re running conduit overhead, hanging drywall, or pulling wire across a ceiling for six hours straight, you’re abusing all of them.
The rotator cuff—those four little muscles that hold your arm in its socket—gets worked like a mule. They’re not designed for sustained holding positions. But that’s exactly what overhead work demands.
Here’s the math: Electricians spend about 30% of their day with arms above their head. Drywallers? Closer to 50%. Over a 30-year career, that’s roughly 35,000 hours of overhead reaching.
Marcus had the MRI to prove it. Bone spurs. Partial tear in the supraspinatus. Inflammation bad enough that he couldn’t sleep on his left side anymore.
He was forty-four.
The mechanics of the damage
Two things are happening when you work overhead.
First, impingement. The space between your arm bone and your shoulder blade narrows when your arm is up. Tendons get pinched. Do that a thousand times a day and they start to fray.
Second, muscle imbalance. Your deltoids get strong. Your rotator cuff stays relatively weak. Now you’ve got a powerful engine with a transmission made of balsa wood.
“Nobody told me,” Marcus said. “You just do the work until you can’t.”
What actually helps
Marcus tried cortisone shots. Worked for about three months. Then the pain came back worse.
What made a real difference:
Mechanics first. He started using rolling scaffolding instead of ladders. Less reaching, more direct work underneath. Bought a rotary laser level so he wasn’t constantly looking up and reaching.
Strengthening the right muscles. Not bench press—that’s already strong. He needed external rotation work. Cheap bands, five minutes a day. Face pulls. Reverse flys.
Anti-inflammatory support. This is where he got skeptical but tried anyway. Turmeric and fish oil. “Figured it was hippie stuff.” Six weeks in, the morning stiffness improved. Coincidence? Maybe. But he kept taking it.
Companies like Built Daily Supply make joint formulas specifically for this kind of wear. Not magic pills—just the raw materials your body needs to fight constant inflammation.
The bottom line
Your shoulders weren’t designed for modern construction. They’re designed for throwing spears occasionally, not holding wire strippers overhead for 2,000 hours a year.
Adapt or pay the price. Marcus wishes someone had told him twenty years ago.