If you have had growing pain in your shoulder joint, followed by increasing stiffness and loss of motion, you may have frozen shoulder. Learning how to treat shoulder trigger points could help relieve your shoulder stiffness and pain.

Trigger points are hyper-contracted, hyper-irritable muscle "knots" that often refer pain elsewhere. They usually cause pain, weakness and stiffness elsewhere in muscle tissue. This is called "referred pain." So it's possible that the cause of your frozen may not be at the site of the pain and stiffness.

Trigger points are extremely common, so it's always worth checking.

Shoulder Trigger Point Massage
Trigger point massage can be very helpful in resolving cases of frozen shoulder. You can treat it yourself. (Or you can go to a massage therapist who is knowledgeable about trigger points and how to treat them. If you're in Tacoma, I can provide this treatment for you. )

How do you know when you've found one? That's easy. When you press it, it hurts! A lot! You'll probably say Ouch!, or breathe in sharply, or flinch. (I've had clients nearly jump off the table when I inadvertently found one.)

You can treat any trigger points you find in these muscles with your fingers or with a tool called a Thera Cane or a Backnobber, or by using your body weight to press the trigger points against a tennis ball placed between you and the wall.

Apply pressure for about thirty seconds, or perform six to twelve very short massage strokes, to the trigger points. Pressure should be enough to cause discomfort, but not enough to cause you extreme, teeth-gritting pain. Apply heat afterwards. Do this several times a day.

Where to Look for Shoulder Trigger Points

• Infraspinatus: This muscle covers the shoulder blade. Find your shoulder blade, and explore for extremely tender spots, then treat them as described above.

• Subscapularis: This muscle is on the underside of the shoulder blade. It's a little more difficult to treat, but fortunately, the common trigger points are near its edge. To treat it, put the hand of the shoulder that is frozen on the other shoulder. Place the hand of the non-frozen side in the armpit of the frozen side. Search around with your fingers until you find the bony edge of the shoulder blade. Using your fingers or thumb, press up into the edge of the scapula, pressing into the underside as much as possible. (This is easier on some folks than on others, so just do your best.) Find and treat tender spots. Be gentle--these can really hurt.

• Pectoralis Major: The pectoralis major muscle is the big muscle of the chest. It's easy to self-treat with the fingers. Look for frozen-shoulder-related trigger points in the upper corner of the chest, in a band of this muscle stretching from the middle half of the collar bone, crossing the armpit at a slant and ending on the top front arm, not far below the shoulder joint. The trigger points are likely to be in the first half of the muscle (closer to the collar bone).

• Supraspinatus: Supraspinatus is at the top of your shoulder blade. To find it, put your fingers on the big muscle at the top of your shoulder. Then, slide them over onto the back of your shoulders, searching for the bony ridge of the shoulder blade (called the spine of the scapula). Bring your fingers back toward the top of the shoulder a quarter or half inch, into the supraspinatus muscle. The heel of your hand will be resting on your collar bone. The muscle goes from the (spine) edge of the shoulder blade outward to the bony point of the shoulder. Search for trigger points near the inside edge of the muscle, and the outside edge (near the point of the shoulder). I find this easier to self-treat with a Backnobber or Theracane than with my fingers.

• Teres Minor: This muscle is also on the top side of the shoulder blade. Look for frozen shoulder trigger points in the upper outer edge of the shoulder blade.

You can find links to other self-treatment tips for frozen shoulder here.

I wish you ease and comfort and full range of motion in your shoulder, and I am confident that you will be able to feel better.

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