Shoulder Pain? Three Causes and Three Cures

There are many possible causes for your shoulder pain.

Do you carry a heavy purse or bag?

I have done many, many therapeutic massages on people who carry a heavy bag around. Sometimes it is work or school related, sometimes it's just a huge, heavy "purse." (More like a suitcase, actually.)

I have had happy women leave my clinic, smiling that their "shoulder pain is all gone now." And, then I have to say, "Hey! Why are you hiking that shoulder up?" Well, the reason is because they've tossed the strap of their purse over their shoulder and hiked that shoulder up to keep the strap in place. Not good.

Do you have weak or poor posture?

If you have a forward head posture (your head is out in front of your body rather than over your shoulders) that puts a lot of strain on your poor back and shoulders. Forward head posture causes shoulder pain (and neck and back pain, and carpal tunnel pain, too.)

Are your chest muscles short?

Short or tight chest muscles pull your shoulders forward, rather than letting them be out to the sides of your body where they belong. Chest muscles can get short from posture habits that we have developed. They can also shorten when we use our chest (or pectoral) muscles way more than our back muscles. This causes pain in your shoulders, too. It doesn't allow you to use your shoulders in the neutral fashion they were designed to work in.

What can you do to correct shoulder pain from these causes?

In the case of a hiked shoulder:

Carry a lighter bag (you really do not need everything in the immediate world for every possible event in your purse, honest. There are stores all over the place!) Or, if you need a large bag for work, consider a rolling suitcase or bag on wheels. (When I suggested that to a male client, he said, simply, "I can't. I'm a guy." But he could.) Or, instead of a shoulder bag, use a "fanny pack" or a "tummy pack." Maybe not so easy to find, maybe not too stylish, but I love 'em. Hands-free carrying so I can swing my arms and shoulders or use my hands to do things other than carry a purse. Or, carry your purse in the crook of your elbow, like a football.

In the case of forward head posture:

Begin a simple program to strengthen your whole backside. Think small. You don't have to strengthen your whole body all at once. You can find lots of helpful articles at Simple Strengthening . Search the older posts, too.

In the case of short chest muscles:

Begin a simple stretching program to open and lengthen those muscles. Gravity and your bed are good tools to work with. Let your arms carefully hang off the side of the bed while you lie on your back. You will feel the muscles in front of your shoulders and arms stretching, as well as your chest muscles. Also, strengthening your back will help lengthen your chest muscles, too.

All of these things will help you get rid of your shoulder pain, and that's a good thing.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Another Cause For That Knot In Your Back

Does your upper back pain feel like a "knot" or muscle spasm between your shoulder blade and spine?

Last time we talked about muscles in your torso that could cause this pain. Today we will talk about another cause, which is almost always overlooked.

The muscles that can cause that "knot" in your back are on the side of your neck. There is a set of muscles on each side of your neck called the scalenes.

When the scalene muscles get tight, or aggravated, they develop "trigger points." If you have a therapeutic massage to work out your knotty back problem, and it doesn't help, then the problem isn't in your back. (I am assuming here that your therapist worked ALL of your back and rib muscles, not just the knot.)

The problem is in your scalenes.

Trigger points in your scalene muscles are "firing" or causing pain in your upper back. If you get a well-trained massage therapist to work on your neck muscles and release the trigger points, your back pain will go away.

If you suspect this may be what is causing that knot in your upper back, you can try to release the scalenes yourself.

Press gently into the side of your neck. Using the pads of your fingertips, explore the muscles that run on the side of your spine, or neck bones.

If you feel hard, knobby things, those are probably the edges of your vertebrae, or neck bones. If you feel a pulse, move off it.

Thoughtfully and carefully explore the length of your neck from your jaw to your collarbone. If you run into a very tender area, gently hold pressure there for about 12 seconds. If it doesn't "release" or become less painful, move on. You can come back to that tender area a few more times, after letting it rest for a few minutes, to see if it will release.

If an area refers pain into your "knot" on your back, you have found the trigger point that is causing your pain! Apply gentle pressure with your finger pads for about 12 seconds and see if it lessens. You can repeat as needed.

As you explore the muscles on the sides of your neck, you may be surprised by all of the sensations you feel.

Many of our upper body muscles refer, or cause sensations, in our head, back and arms. You may even notice sensations in your carpal tunnel area.

Don't be afraid to explore. It's your body.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Back Pain - Spasm Between Shoulder Blade and Spine

You probably know the back pain I mean. It's that nagging, cannot-be-ignored pain between your shoulder blade and spine. It often feels like a knot or spasm.

It's usually on the side of your dominant hand. If you're right-handed, it will probably be on the right side of your back.

There are two likely causes and one that often gets the blame, but usually isn't the cause.

The rhomboid muscle (there is one on each side of your back)often gets blamed as being the cause of that pain. The reason for this is probably because the muscle happens to be in the same area as your back pain. This is the muscle most massage therapists will probably try to rub out for you, but it may or may not (probably not) be the cause of your pain.

If this massage doesn't help, or the muscle "won't release," then the rhomboid muscle is not the cause of your pain.

A more likely cause is that the muscles where your knot is located are being overstretched. They are complaining about this by causing pain. Overstretched muscles will go into spasm to keep from being stretched further and torn.

Your back muscles can get overstretched when the muscles in front of your body (your chest and neck) are short and tight. Over-stretching can also occur when you work or play alot with your arm stretched out in front.

You can correct this by strengthening the muscles between your spine and shoulder blades. The stronger muscles won't be so easily overstretched and so won't go into spasm like they do now. Also, strengthen the muscles behind your neck so you won't go into "forward-head" posture, which also strains your upper back muscles.

Loosen, relax and open the muscles in front of your body, too, with stretching or massage.

Another likely cause of this back pain are the scalene muscles, which are located on each side of your neck. These muscles can harbor trigger points. Trigger points in the scalenes refer, or cause, pain into the rhomboid area.

Often a massage therapist will try to work out a pain by working where it hurts.

You can see in the two likely causes above, that the problem can be elsewhere. The pain between your spine and shoulder blade may be caused by muscles in front of your body being short or trigger points in your neck.

The first thing I would suggest today would be to begin a strengthening program for your upper back. This will help you get rid of that nagging pain between your spine and shoulder blade.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Work Place Stress? 7 Strategies To Reduce Work Stress

Do you have stress at work?

There are physical as well as emotional stresses. Some stressors make us feel powerful, in charge and are fun, and some make us feel anxious and cause pain.

If we run on stress-fuel most of the time, we need to give our bodies a break.

1. Watch your posture. When we slouch, we can't breathe as deeply. We don't get as much oxygen into our brains and bodies. Slouching makes us tired and stressed. Slouching makes our backs ache.

2. Feel your "sit bones" on the chair. Center yourself so your weight is equal on both sides. You want to feel your sit bones equally. Rock slowly and gently, rolling on your sit bones from front to back, front to back. This relaxes your back and neck. Let your head move slightly forward as your round your waist backward. When you round your tummy forward (closer to your knees)let your head move over your shoulders.

3. Get more sleep. If you are not sleeping as much as your body needs, your stress level will go up. You will be more easily irritated. Arrange your evening or morning schedules so you can get 30 or 60 more minutes of sleep.

4. Grab a funny story or joke to share or to laugh privately about. Laughter makes stress hormones go down. A good laugh is like a massage from the inside out. Sharing something funny makes us feel better.

5. Pretend you are chewing gum. Keep your lips together, teeth slightly apart. Open and close your jaw without opening your lips. Your teeth should stay apart. This relaxes tense muscles around your jaw and temples.

6. Sit up and close your eyes. Roll your eyes around. With your lids closed, look up and roll your eyes in a complete circle. Roll your eyes in the opposite direction, in a complete circle. Do this several times in each direction. Eyes have muscles, and they can get tired. This relaxes the muscles around your eyes.

7. Take a "re-focus break." Stop what you are doing and look around. Look at something at a distance. Look at something very close, perhaps your hand. Look far away again. Re-focusing helps tired eye muscles and gives us a quick mini-break.

Lots of little breaks reduce stress and actually help us be more productive, because we have less discomfort. When we take a lot of mini-breaks, we feel better and we get more done, not less.

Now you have several strategies you can use to reduce your stress at work.

Which will you use first?

In my experience, the people who are more proactive get the most benefit from a stress reduction program. Get started now!

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Work Stress--7 Steps To Get Rid Of Stress At Work

Work stress can cause pain, just like all stress can.

Since we don't like having pain, we want to eliminate as much stress as possible.

Here are 7 steps to start lowering your stress level now.

1. Start reducing your stress level outside of work. When you are calmer at home,that will carry over and you will feel more calm at work. The same tools that work at home will help you feel less stressed at your job.

2. Learn how to breathe for relaxation. Practice at home in bed. At work, sit up straight and do the same deep belly breaths you practiced in bed. Count to four on the inhale, slowly, hold for four, and exhale to the count of four. Let your neck relax. Let it rock gently front to back as you breathe. Repeat several times.

3. You are very good at what you do. Remember that. Keep reminding yourself. You are good! Negative self-talk causes stress.

4. Take frequent stretch breaks. Get your arms up and back. Open up the front of your body like a cat or dog does when they stretch. This will get the blood flowing again, you will feel more energized and less stressed.

5. Lift your shoulders up and roll them back, while your arms are hanging at your sides. You can do this often at your desk. It helps release muscle tension in your neck and shoulders. Less muscle discomfort equals less stress.

6. Learn to meditate, visualize or pray. Take a few minutes every hour to recharge your mind by going to your safe place, in your mind, for a mini-break or to bask in the warmth of God's grace. Sit up straight, close your eyes, breathe. Relax.

7. Be grateful for the day, your job, your wonderful body, your life. Gratitude knocks out negative thoughts. Negative thinking causes stress. Think, "I am grateful for..." Say, "I am so fortunate that..."

Which of these tips will you incorporate into your life today?

Will you practice breathing tonight, so you can do it tomorrow? Will you practice rolling your shoulders to reduce your stress?

Choose any three of these tips and use this stuff.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Waking Up With Head Pain? What Causes Morning Headaches?

Do most of your headaches occur during the night, or as soon as you start to get out of bed? Then it's possible that sleeping positions and movements that strain your neck are responsible for your head pain.

It always amazes me that we can hurt ourselves even in our sleep, but we do.

Sometimes it's a matter of sleeping with your head tilted (Your chin is tilted toward or away from the bed. Your neck is not in line with your spine.)

Check your neck position before you fall asleep. You may need a different pillow, or even a pile of small, flat pillows stacked to fit you better.

If you're a back sleeper, just use a small roll behind your neck to fill in the natural curve of your neck. Use as little as possible behind your head.

If you sleep on your tummy, that can cause a lot of strain for your neck muscles.

Some people tell me that they just cannot change their sleeping habits, or cannot fall asleep in a different position.

Perhaps practicing relaxation techniques laying flat on the floor would help their muscles get used to being in a different position. It's worth a try.

Perhaps deep breathing using their whole torso, chest and belly, would allow them to slip into sleep in a different position.

Perhaps a stretching or yoga class, to wake up all of their muscles and help get muscular balance, would be their ticket.

Sometimes we wake up feeling fine, but by the time we get out of bed, we have a headache or migraine. What's happening?

Here's one possibility.

I would wake up feeling well. Then I would twist my neck and stretch my head around to see the alarm clock. That twist and stretch aggravated my neck enough that I would get instant migraine!

It actually took me quite a long time to figure that out. It happened several times before I realized the cause of those migraines. When I quit doing that twist and stretch, of course the head pain quit also.

Could that be your possibility? Or, perhaps you can think of something else you may be doing to cause your headache to start when you woke up feeling fine.

If it feels like you're straining your neck by sitting straight up, try rolling to your side and push yourself up with your arms while keeping your neck in a straight, neutral position.

One of my clients always awoke feeling fine, but by the time she was in the kitchen with her coffee, her head pain started. Right after she took the first deep drags on her cigarette, her headache started. Every morning.

What do you suppose was the cause of her headache?

Because she was a smoker, and because she inhaled strongly, using the muscles in her jaw and temples (the temple muscles are related to the jaw muscles) she caused those muscles to become tight and restricted. That caused her morning headaches. Like many morning headaches, once they started, they tended to stay all day.

So the plan is to avoid your headache in the first place.

Pay attention to what's going on that may be creating head pain for you. Change the position, posture or movement you suspect and see if that makes a difference.

A simple change could make all the difference in the world. Awareness is the first step in the right direction.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better"

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - What Causes Carpal Tunnel Pain?

In my land of "the way things ought to be," we would all be in perfect physical (and mental!) balance.

We wouldn't have any pain, of course, because most pain--about 90% of all pain--is caused by out-of-balance muscles. That includes carpal tunnel pain.

You might have thought that you have pain or numbness in your hand, wrist, fingers or arm because you are doing a lot of repetitive movements.

The real reason is that you are doing a lot of repetitive movements incorrectly.

Hmmm. If you were using all of the rest of your muscles, you would be pretty well balanced. If you were pretty well balanced, you would hurt less.

But we don't.

We use only about the same 60 or so muscles over and over. Most of us haven't used ALL of our muscles since we were young kids.

And we have a LOT of muscles.

So, there are two parts to relieving your carpal tunnel pain when it is caused by repetitive movement (also called repetitive stress or motion.)

1. Doing repetitive movements in an incorrect way, for example, over-stretching your muscles. The cure for this would be to explore and find the least damaging ways to do repetitive movements.

For example, holding our elbow close to our body instead of reaching out with our arm. Holding our arm close to our waist causes less muscle strain, and so less pain in our arm and hand.

2. Being physically out-of-balance in general. When some of our muscles are being over-stretched and some are allowed to shorten--due to poor posture or habits--we get symptoms of pain, discomfort or numbness.

When we strengthen our back and the back of our arms and neck, we take a lot of pressure off the structures that cause carpal tunnel pain.

You can find a lot of simple strengthening movements by clicking here.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"