Shoulder pain is all too common. The shoulder joint is designed for a very wide range of motion, which is both its glory and its downfall.

The same shallow joint design that allows for the shoulder to move in so many different ways also allows it to move out of alignment easily. There are many different muscles that play a part in shoulder motion, and so there are a lot of things that can go wrong.

If you're suffering from a shoulder injury, before you try surgery, you might want to try some less invasive treatment techniques (assuming your doctor concurs).

Massage and PT for Shoulder Pain
Massage can definitely help with some types of shoulder pain, especially when combined with exercises to correct the underlying imbalance. A physical therapist can help you determine the best exercises for your particular problem.

Massage therapy might include Swedish massage, myofascial work, and/or trigger point therapy. Trigger point therapy to the rotator cuff and associated muscles can sometimes have amazing results. Definitely worth trying before you go under the knife, in my opinion.

Shoulder Pain Home Treatment
But are there things you can you do to help yourself? Lots.

• Internal and External Shoulder Rotator Rebalancing
  Many shoulder issues are caused by over-developed or shortened internal shoulder rotator muscles and weak external shoulder rotator muscles. Because the internal rotators are naturally more powerful than the external rotators, this imbalance in the shoulder joint develops easily. The imbalance between the muscle groups can pull the bones of the shoulder out of their proper position relative to each other, which leads to pain, dysfunction, and shoulder injury.

  Stretching the internal shoulder rotators (scroll down the linked page to find the instructions for the doorway chest stretch) and following a careful, gentle program of incrementally strengthening the external shoulder rotators gives many people shoulder pain relief.

  If you follow the external shoulder rotator exercise shown in the link, start without weights and only slowly build up to a very light weight, if desired. You don't want to make the problem worse by overdoing it in the beginning, and in fact you may never have to do more than very light work to correct the problem. The exercise should be done no more than 3 times per week, slowly building up the number of repetitions.

  Both exercises and stretches should be pain-free. You may find that it helps to ice afterward.

  Of course, if doing these exercises causes your shoulder issue to worsen, stop doing them.

• Shoulder Un-Rounding Exercises and Stretches
  Look at your posture. Are your shoulders rounded forward? If so, try to correct that, both siting and standing. Correcting posture can be hard, but it can be done. Thinking about it and willing yourself to do it only go so far. You'll need to stretch your pectoralis major and minor muscles, and strengthen the rhomboids in the upper back.

• More Classic Shoulder Rehab Exercises
  Here are some general shoulder exercises for rehabilitating an injured shoulder (often also called rotator cuff injury):
  • Wall Walk Exercise
    Stand a little less than arm’s length from wall, with affected shoulder toward the wall. Starting at waist height, touch wall with fingers of affected arm. “Walk” fingers up the wall very slowly, stopping at the point of pain. At this point, slide hand back down wall to starting position and repeat. Try to go a little higher each time. 3-10 reps at least once a day, according to comfort. If shoulder responds positively, continue for 2-4 weeks.

  • Shoulder Pendulum Swing
    Hold onto the back of a chair placed about one foot away. Bend forward at waist, letting affected arm hang loosely. First swing the arm forward and backward. Next, swing the arm in a circle, gradually making the circle larger, within the limits of comfort, and then gradually making the circle smaller again.

    Repeat in opposite direction.

    Finally, swing the arm from side to side in front of body.

• Acupressure
  

  You can try acupressure on the following classic points for shoulder pain: LI-15, LI-14, LI-11, LI-4, and SI-9 and SI-3.(Click on the link to go to a site that will show you where these are.)

  In the legs, GB34 and ST 38 have also been found to be helpful.

• Mobilization
  Use the shoulder as much as you can without causing further pain. Anytime something hurts, our unconscious tendency is to stop using it. Consciously make sure that you continue to take it through whatever pain-free range of motion you have.

Always seek and follow the advice of your physician for serious shoulder pain. And, of course, don't continue with any of these techniques if they cause your shoulder pain to worsen.

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