Best Shoulder Pain Relief Exercises | Chiropractor for Shoulder Pain in West Omaha, NE
Hey there, Dr. Jeremiah Sample and today I’m going to be talking about exercises that you can do to help reduce your shoulder pain and prevent it in the future. This is a condition that affects up to 25% of Americans every single year. Now when we’re talking about the shoulder, I’m of course talking about not just the arm itself and where it connects to the upper torso, but also the clavicle connection and the scapula connection that creates a whole shoulder complex here against the thoracic cage.
Properly Setting Your Shoulders
So the first thing we’re gonna utilize, is how to set the shoulders properly. So we’re gonna keep the head up above the shoulders, tuck your chin slightly, so you get that nice double chin that you don’t want in family photos, then you’re gonna bring your shoulder all the way up. I hold for that two Mississippi, then while keeping them elevated all the way back for two Mississippi, and then let them drop. That is naturally where your shoulders should be with your body. Now, to help eliminate some of the shoulder pain you might feel from either overuse or a lot of underuse, we’re first gonna do a cross the chest. If you can take your arm parallel to that line where your shoulders are, we’re going to cross your chest and use the other hand behind your elbow to just gently pull it, feeling the stretch across your shoulder. Depending on your position of your hand, you can feel it with different musculature in your shoulder. Utilize this for no longer than a minute, each side, at least once a day, and that will help keep these muscles loose to release some of the inflammation that tends to gather in the shoulder.
The Neck Release Exercise
The second exercise that we’re going to show today and stretch is called the neck release. All the muscles of the shoulders and the hands are all supplied by nerves that come out of the cervical spine in the upper thoracic spine. Often, we’ll find that problems in the shoulder maybe aren’t actually in the shoulder, but are originating somewhere closer to the source. So what you’re gonna do is, again, tuck your chin, and then we’re taking our head all the way to the side. This allows for the stretching of the musculature, their relief of tension for the nerves and blood vessels that flow from the neck. Another way to increase this stretch is to gently post your hand on the side of your head, not to yank your head down, but then to provide resistance against head, which will give you an extra stretch. Holding this anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute, at least three times per side will help keep your neck stretched and relieve the inflammation that tends to gather in this area. Finally, what we’re going to do is what we call the rotator rotations.
Rotator Cuff Exercises
Rotator cuff muscles are what basically hold and encapsulate your shoulder to keep that bone attached to the rest of your body. Now the shoulder provides for a lot of range of motion, however very little stability. So the first thing you’re going to do for your rotator rotations is keep the arm at 90 degrees the whole time. Starting from here, we can do all the rotations we need to work out for our rotator cuff muscles. So first thing we like to do is start at 90 and then bring it in 45 degrees for internal rotations. You can do this with a weight, you can also utilize bands if that’s easier for you. If you’re more of acute state and for your pain, maybe not use a weight at all, in fact, just use the motions themselves. So after I go in and out at least 10 times we’re going to do external rotations. Same thing with at least 10 repetitions and utilizing with both shoulders, even if the other shoulder isn’t sore. Now what we’re going to do is what we call a forward rotation starting at 90, bring your arm out 45 degrees, and then back. Then for the last the rear, start here the 90 again 10 to the rear. What this will do is work all of the muscles that help hold that shoulder in place and allow for greater range of motion with more strength and stability.
Rear Delt Excises
Finally, what we’ll do is call the rear delt exercise. So the shoulders for most of us tend to go forward and down. That’s because we spend a lot of time on computers, we spend a lot of time on our phones, or even driving. All of this just tends to be the the “American Posture” so to speak. So we always have your weight or your band at your side. And you don’t even need to utilize much weight for this one. For rear delts, 10 to 15 pounds at most will be plenty. So just have your arms straight down and what you can do is take it back 15 degrees or 45 degrees, just to the rear, at least 10 times each side. You can do these two or three times a day. This will help keep your shoulders back, keeping them healthy, keeping the natural in space, and ultimately reducing the inflammation that tends to happen from general overuse.
Now, if you have other questions about your own shoulder pain, or the shoulder pain of a loved one, please reach out to us!
