Shoulder Pain Rehab - Get Rid of That Nagging Pain

If you've ever had shoulder pain, you know that it can really affect your daily activities, how you sleep, and even your mood. You don't realize how much you need your shoulder until you can't use it without pain or discomfort.

Shoulder pain can be caused by a lot of different things, but there are a few diagnoses that are more common than others.

Treatment of shoulder pain is not completely dependent on the diagnosis because it really is based on each individual person's symptoms and impairments (range of motion limitations, strength deficits, etc).

In this article, I'll be sharing some common causes of shoulder pain, how to determine what's causing your shoulder pain, and some things you can do to get rid of your shoulder pain (no matter what is causing it).

Common Causes of Shoulder Pain

1. Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy/Bursitis/Impingement-this is definitely by far the most common cause of shoulder pain. If you are experiencing shoulder pain and you have not had a specific injury and are unsure of what caused the pain, this is likely the diagnosis. I lumped all three of these diagnoses together because they are all pretty much the same thing. The rotator cuff muscles are located in the back of the shoulder and the tendons (particularly the supraspinatus tendon) comes over the top of the shoulder to attach to the humerus. This tendon tends to get irritated with excessive or repetitive overhead movements (or other repetitive movements). When the tendon gets irritated and inflamed, it can irritate the bursa in the area (bursitis) and rubs against the bony prominence at the top of the shoulder (impingement). Symptoms are usually pain, especially in the front of the arm and traveling down the arm into the bicep area. Pain is usually worse when lifting the arm overhead, especially in the middle of the arc of motion. Stiffness and limited motion can also occur.

2. Frozen Shoulder-this is also a very common diagnosis. It is most common in women between the ages of 40-60. It commonly just starts to occur without any specific injury. It begins with a lot of pain and stiffness, then the pain subsides some but the stiffness continues, and then eventually the stiffness eases up. It can take 3-5 years to completely resolve, however.

3. Labral Tears/Disclocations-Disclocations and labral tears are less common, but they can still occur. The labrum is is a ring of cartilage that surrounds the shoulder joint and keeps the shoulder stable. Dislocations can cause tears in the labrum, causing the shoulder to become unstable. Labral tears can also occur from repetitive activities or just over time with age. Symptoms are usually pain, sometimes painful clicking or popping, and instability.

4. Osteoarthritis- Osteoarthritis is the wearing away of the cartilage in the shoulder joint. Arthritis in the shoulder is less common than arthritis in the lower extremities, but it still occurs. Symptoms include pain and stiffness.

How Do you Know What's Causing your Shoulder Pain?

There are several ways to diagnose shoulder pain. Symptoms and history (whether there's been a fall, etc) can tell a little bit about what's going on with the shoulder. It's also important to test range of motion (how well does your shoulder move in all directions) and strength of the shoulder. These tests can help narrow down a diagnosis. 

If it's still difficult to determine what's causing the pain, imaging like an x-ray or MRI may be needed.

Imaging is not always needed, however. Shoulder pain can be treated without an official diagnosis. Unless there was a traumatic injury, it's actually better to treat the shoulder without imaging at first. Most shoulder injuries improve with conservative treatment.

If you have tried conservative treatment for 6-8 weeks without any noticeable improvement (it doesn't have to be completely better), then it may be necessary to look into doing some imaging.

How Do you Treat Shoulder Pain?

In order to treat shoulder pain, it's important to find the person's strength deficits and range of motion deficits. If range of motion is severely lacking, it's important to work on improving the motion first before starting any strengthening exercises.

Reducing inflammation, addressing range of motion deficits, addressing strength deficits, and incorporating functional movements will help reduce pain.

Exercises that can Help Alleviate Shoulder Pain

Banded Bilateral External Rotation

Shoulder Scaption

Sword Pulls

Shoulder Abduction

Tools that Can Help with Recovery

1. Resistance Bands

2. Massage Gun

3. Foam Roller

4. TENS Unit/Muscle Stimulator

Prevention

The best way to get rid of shoulder pain is to never get it in the first place. These exercises can help get rid of shoulder pain, but they can also help keep your shoulders strong to prevent shoulder pain.

If you're looking for a few more exercises that can help, check out the video below.

Need More Help with your Shoulder Pain?

1. Grab my Free Shoulder Pain Guide

2. Watch my Free Defeat your Shoulder Pain Webinar

3. Grab my Shoulder Pain Program