As a physical therapist, many people usually ask me for recommendations for shoulder pain relief. And I generally tell them that they are able to reduce or even eliminate their shoulder pain themselves. All they need to do is learn a few simple techniques and they will be home free. Once you learn how these techniques work and do them in a gentle step by step manner, you will see a significant change in how much pain free movement you have.
Whether you work on a computer or do heavy labor, shoulder pain can make your days ( and nights) miserable. The constant pain usually increases when you try to lift your arm or carry something relatively heavy. And, because the pain is so severe and constant, most people with shoulder pain think that there is something seriously wrong and that the only answer is surgery. But that’s not the case.
There is often some confusion about what really causes the problem. Because people have problems carrying things or lifting objects, the first thought is that the muscles are weak. So people think that the best approach is to lift weights and strengthen those supposedly weak muscles. But that’s not the answer.
What most don’t know is that the main cause of most cases of shoulder pain is strained muscles that lead to an imbalance in how the shoulder joint functions. The fact that your shoulder muscles are strained is what makes them appear weak. But they aren’t weak, they’re just overworked and need to be conditioned and rebalanced but not strengthened.
Proper conditioning includes stretching and learning how to stabilize the shoulder joint and all the muscles surrounding it. Rehabbing from shoulder pain is not boot camp. It doesn’t require aggressive strengthening exercises like the personal trainers will try to tell you. Lifting a lot of weights, especially the wrong way, will only make things worse. What most people need is a balanced conditioning program that targets the whole shoulder and focuses on restoring balance to the joint.
If you do have shoulder pain how would your every day activities change if you knew that doing a few gentle exercises would get rid of the majority of, if not all, your pain? Would you be in a better mood? Would you be able to get more done? And what’s more, you wouldn’t have to keep popping pain pills.
Remember, shoulder pain relief from strained muscles is a lot simpler than you think. I found that the best way to provide shoulder pain relief and eliminate pain is to help people recondition their bodies by using these super-effective techniques. The techniques themselves only take a couple of seconds to learn, but they will quickly start reducing your pain within the first couple of minutes, and gradually remove the pain as your body starts correcting itself from years of misuse and abuse.
