Relieve Shoulder Pain

You probably came looking to relieve shoulder pain, from the page that helped you decide what kind of injury was causing your pain. Here are the simple, fast, basic exercises.

You need:

• a stretchy resistance band or rubber tube or bungie of some kind - only a few pounds of resistance (a kilogram or two) is necessary, and significantly more might set you back rather than relieve your shoulder pain
• a place to anchor one end of the stretchy thing at roughly waist height

Watch the doofus homemade video, or just read the next few paragraphs for instructions.

Your resistance aid (the rubber band or whatever) needs to be a few feet long - in addition to whatever length is needed to fasten one end securely.

Front Raise

1. Anchor the resistance thingie securely to something roughly waist height - stair rail, doorknob, big dog, mother-in-law's walker, other.
2. Grasp the free end in one hand - get a good grip that won't slip.
3. Face away from the anchor point, and stand far enough that the band is under tension (not slack) when your hand is down beside your leg.
4. Keeping the arm stiff, raise the arm to your front, until it is horizontal or slightly above. Do not raise it higher. Keep your shoulder low - do not permit your shoulder to rise toward your ear while the arm is being raised against the resistance of the band/tube/bungie/thingie.
5. Pause for a second at the high point, then smoothly lower the straight arm until the hand is down by your leg.
6. Repeat for approximately fifteen repetitions.

Always remember to stop if the shoulder ache becomes significantly worse while you are exercising.

Switch arms and do it over with the other arm, giving your first arm/shoulder a little time to recover.

Side Raise

1. Switch your grip on the end of the resistance band/tube/bungie back to the first hand.
2. Grasp the free end in that hand - get a good grip that won't slip.
3. Stand with your side facing the anchor point and the side with the grip on the resistance away from the anchor. The band/tube/bungie should be slightly stretched across the front of your thighs (or the back of your thighs if you prefer), and the gripping hand should be, as before, down beside your leg. Stand far enough that the band is under tension (not slack) when your hand is down beside your leg.
4. Keeping the arm stiff, raise the arm out to your side, stretching the band/tube/bungie tighter, until it is horizontal or slightly above. Do not raise it higher. Keep your shoulder low - do not permit your shoulder to rise toward your ear while the arm is being raised against the resistance of the band/tube/bungie/thingie.
5. Pause for a second at the high point, then smoothly lower the straight arm until the hand is down by your leg.
6. Repeat for approximately fifteen repetitions.

Always remember to stop if the shoulder ache becomes significantly worse while you are exercising.

Switch arms and do it over with the other arm, giving your first arm/shoulder a little time to recover.

Back Raise

1. Switch your grip on the end of the resistance band/tube/bungie back to the first hand.
2. Grasp the free end in that hand - get a good grip that won't slip.
3. Face toward the anchor point, and stand far enough that the band is under tension (not slack) when your hand is down beside your leg.
4. Keeping the arm stiff, raise the arm rearward, as high as your hand will comfortably go. Do not raise it higher than the joint allows (i.e., don't bend at the waist, don't do any contortions to get extra height - it's not needed). Keep your shoulder low - do not permit your shoulder to rise toward your ear while the arm is being raised against the resistance of the band/tube/bungie/thingie.
5. Pause for a second at the high point, which for the backward lift will be much lower than the front and side lifts, then smoothly lower the straight arm until the hand is down by your leg.
6. Repeat for approximately fifteen repetitions.

Always remember to stop if the shoulder ache becomes significantly worse while you are exercising.

Switch arms and do it over with the other arm, giving your first arm/shoulder a little time to recover.

Cross-body Rotation

The others are important to relieve shoulder pain and to set up the shoulder to work better and resist injury, but this one is very effective and needs the most concentration to perform. It's too easy to do it wrongly if you don't pay attention.

1. With the free end back in the first hand - get a good grip that won't slip.
2. Stand with your empty-hand side facing the anchor point and the side with the grip on the resistance away from the anchor. The hand with the grip on the band/tube/bungie should be in front of your belly, near the other arm. The elbow should be bent, and your upper arm should be vertical, beside your body. The band/tube/bungie should be under tension.
3. Keeping the arm stiffly bent at the elbow, and the elbow clamped firmly against the side of your torso, rotate the arm at the shoulder, causing the lower-arm and gripping hand to swing out like a door opening away from your body.
4. Continue the swinging-door motion, keeping your upper arm against the side of your torso, until the horizontal lower arm is turned out to the side, pointing away from your body, as far as it can comfortably rotate. Keep your shoulder low - do not permit your shoulder to rise toward your ear while the arm is being rotated against the resistance of the band/tube/bungie/thingie. Do not permit your elbow to lift away from your body or to drift to the front or back. All rotation is at the shoulder, and all lateral movement is the lower arm swinging like it was on a hinge.
5. Pause for a second at the farthest outward rotation, then smoothly rotate the bent arm back to its starting position across the upper belly.
6. Repeat for approximately fifteen repetitions.

Is it over yet?

Almost. You are going to keep your grip on the stretchy thing and pivot yourself around and step away from the anchor point. Now, your elbow should be at your side, your arm should still be bent, and your fist holding the end of the resistance should be out away from your body. Hard to describe... hope there's a video...

This is the opposite rotation, where the band is under slight tension when it's away from the body, and you rotate your arm from the away (door open) position to the cross-body (door closed) position against increasing tension, then you relax as the arm (door) swings back open. Again, keep the movement strict. Don't allow the elbow to move out from your side. Your upper arm should remain vertical while the hinge of your shoulder rotates, and the "door" (your forearm) swings through its horizontal arc.

There, NOW it's over.

Always remember to stop if the shoulder pain becomes significantly worse while you are exercising.

If there is some pain (but not overwhelming) while you perform the rotation, try rolling/folding a small towel and clamping it in the armpit of the arm that is being exercised. Attempt to keep your elbow touching your waist during the rotation, despite the bulge of the rolled towel under your upper arm. Doing so pushes the ball of the shoulder joint slightly to the outside of the socket. If this doesn't help the discomfort, or if it increases the discomfort, then discontinue.

Switch arms and do it over with the other arm, giving your first arm/shoulder a little time to recover.

That's it. You've finished. Do the whole sequence at least once per day for a few weeks. You should notice a gradual improvement in range of motion and lessening of pain.

If it seems these exercises are failing to relieve shoulder pain and instead you notice the shoulder ache getting worse, or if the range of motion seems to worsen rather than improve and if you have not done anything silly, like throwing things or otherwise causing additional damage , then discontinue the exercises and see your physician, chiropractor or physio-therapist. Don't "tough it out" or "walk it off".

When else should I avoid these exercises?

In some cases, your attempt to relieve shoulder pain can make things worse. Not many, mind you, but pay attention...

Don't do the above exercises if your shoulder has been painful for some extended period of time and you are no longer able to raise your arm to/above shoulder level.

We're not so much talking about the pain stopping you, we're more interested in - hurting or not - your muscles simply won't raise your arm.

Test it

Try to keep both your shoulders down and level, then raise the affected arm forward, as high as it will go. Do (or attempt to do) the same, out to the side. Start with the arm loosely hanging by your side, and again, your shoulders down (not hunched up at all) and level (neither one higher than the other).

If the arm stops early (whether your shoulder is hurting or not), either because it just feels solidly blocked somehow, or because the muscles of your shoulder just don't seem to remember how, then you've got a problem that's a little too big for just the exercises on this page.

If you have enough muscle awareness of your own, or if you can get somebody to observe from behind, do your darnedest to raise the arm and see if, rather than the deltoid (shoulder muscle) being the most obvious lifter, it's maybe the trapezius. That is, in trying to raise your arm to the front or side (like you would if you were going to place a book on an upper shelf), if you end up hunching up your shoulder instead of smoothly lifting your hand and arm from the shoulder... then see a physio-therapist now.

You have injured yourself somehow, probably long enough ago that you don't even remember how you did it, and you've been compensating ever since until your regular arm-lifting muscles have literally forgotten how to work.

Only a physio or an osteopath will have the know-how to properly isolate the problem and provide the exact techniques you need to get your function back. Don't fool around, and don't delay... and don't bother with our little exercises from this page, which are for quite different conditions. OK? Get to it.

Quick Links to all our shoulder ache related pages

Here's the handy selection of our shoulder ache / sore shoulder related pages on this Men's Health Tips (MHT) site:

The MHT page	What the page is about
Sore shoulder?	The introductory page for this section about shoulder aches, what causes them, and what to do about them.
Relieve / Reduce Shoulder Pain (this page)	Simple, quick, EASY exercises to fix that shoulder

From this Relieve Shoulder Pain page, go back to the introductory "Shoulder Ache" page.

If this page wasn't where you wanted to be, then from this shoulder ache page, go back to the home page.

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