In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix your
shoulder blade pain in a very easy to follow, step-by-step
guide. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over
easy exercises that can offer both quick and long-lasting
relief for shoulder blade pain and I'm going to show this in a
very easy to follow step-by-step guide. While each
step is different, they are meant to work together and
hustle in order. So, to get the best results, start with the
first one, work your way towards the last. As a bonus,
all of the exercises can be done at home required no
equipment and you may find gives quick relief, even within 30 seconds.
So, let's get started and fix your shoulder blade pain right
now. So, the first thing that we need to do is warm up the
muscles and soft tissues. Just get everything loosened up so
it's a lot easier to do the other exercises in this video.
I really really like this exercise. I call it the 3D
shoulder blade activator. It can not only offer quick pain
relief but also pinpoint motions that will give you the
most relief and you can do this one in bed or on a floor. To
get into position, just lie on your side with a painful side
up towards the ceiling just like this. I like to bend my
knees, have my body in a nice, straight line. Take your other
side's hand and support your head just like this. It makes
it a little bit more comfortable. The first
movement, what I'm going to do is put my arm and fingers
straight upward towards the ceiling just like this and
then, what we're going to do is drive our hand and fingers
upward towards the ceiling trying to move through our
shoulder blade. It's really important to move through our
shoulder blade with this exercise. You should feel a lot
of muscles start to fire the more that you go up. I really
feel it below my armpit right here over the serratus anterior
muscle and also towards the shoulder blades. So, what I'm
going to do is hold this comfortably for five seconds
when I can't go any further and you don't want to go to the
point of pain if you start to feel pain back off a little
bit. Hold this comfortably for 5 seconds. Now, what we're
going to do is go in reverse. We're going to drive that
shoulder blade down towards the better of the floor as much as
we can, you're going to notice it hits the muscles just a
little bit differently. Again, a five-second hold and then,
you're going to repeat this process for five times and with
each repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more.
The next movement is going straight out in front of us
just like this and then, we're going to repeat. Again, moving
through our shoulder blade. Try to reach out in front of you as
much as you can. Hold for five seconds and drive that shoulder
blade back leg this as much as you can for 5 seconds.
Repeating this five times in both directions. So, this is
how we're going to take it to the next level and do this as a
3D exercise to pinpoint some really good motions that can
give us some good relief. So, instead of going straight up
with it, angle your hand back like this and then repeat that
process. We want to do is just put your hand at different
angles. So, go down with it, go up with it, and then also you
can do this pretty much going out in any direction you like.
Almost treat it like a hemisphere at this point. So,
you're going to find that one certain spot, one certain angle
just really pinpoints that spot of tightness, achiness, or
pain. At that point, you want to stop and keep throwing
repetitions in until that tightness finally goes away.
Again, it's just a really good way to warm up the muscles and
find the spot that needs the most attention. So, after we
have the muscles warmed up, we're going to move on to most
important part strengthening exercises so don't skip this
part. What we want to focus on is getting everything stronger,
more stable for long-lasting pain relief. Here's a really
easy exercise that you can do daily in bed. This is called
the shoulder blade pump. To get into position, you're going to
lie on your stomach. You want to position your shoulders and
head straight off the edge. What we're going to do first is
take two fingers, put them on our chin, and drive the back of
our head straight upward towards the ceiling until you
feel a really good activation of the muscles in the neck.
You're going to hold this position during this exercise.
From there, you're going to straighten your arms behind you
like this, palm side facing towards the ceiling and just
like the name applies, what you're going to do is just pump
upwards with your palms. The more that you go up, the more
that you're really going to feel it in the upper back
especially around the shoulder blades but really try to focus
on feeling it around the shoulder blades. You want to
hold this for 5 seconds, you're going to relax. On the next
repetition, what you're going to do is now pull your arms off
to your side kind of like a T. Make a fist with a hitchhiker
side with your thumbs upward towards the ceiling and then
you're going to repeat this. Taking your thumbs upward
towards the ceiling really trying to pinch your shoulder
blades in the back. I'll hit the muscles just a little bit
differently. Again, a five-second hold. The next
position, we're going to take our hands and then put them on
the back of our head and for this one, I really like to
drive my head upwards, lifting my chest off of the bed right
here and then, I'm going to wing my elbows upward to the
ceiling trying to pinch my shoulder blades once again.
Five second hold and then you're just going to go in
reverse and repeat this process. You want to do this
whole cycle for about five repetitions but if it feels
like you have a little bit more energy, you can always throw in
another set or two. So, here's another really good
strengthening exercise that you can do daily. This one is great
because you can pretty much do it anywhere. In fact, if you
have a couple free minutes, just do this a couple time
throughout the day because it can offer long-lasting relief
but also help improve upper back posture. It's known as a
scapular or shoulder blade lift off. We're going to use a wall
or a door for this one. To get into position, put your whole
backside flush up against that door. Have it nice and
supported. Put your feet together and have it spaced
roughly about a foot, foot and a half away from the door just
like this. So, we're kind of leaning our body weight into
it. We're then going to bend our arms roughly at 90 degrees
at the elbow and then press our elbows into the door. What
we're going to do is press our elbows into the door which will
cause our body to lift forward. It's really important during
this exercise not to round the back. Keep it straight, lift
forward just like this. You should feel the chest muscles
starting to fire but more importantly, it should feel
like the shoulder blades in the back are starting to pinch and
a really good activation of the rhomboid muscles. Hold this
comfortably for 5 seconds. You're going to relax and then
you're going to repeat this ten to 15 times and with each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more and
if it does feel like you have a little bit more energy, you can
always throw in another set or two. To make it more
challenging, just space your feet further away from the
wall. It will definitely make it a lot harder but if you
would really like to take this one to the next level, you can
turn this into a full-body exercise by adding in a wall
squat. So, for this one, have your legs roughly hip with
apart toes pointed out slightly. You're going to put
all of your body weight onto your heels and then you're just
going to slide down the door like this taking your bottom
down. Go to a point where it's a really good activation of the
muscles. You should feel it in your front part of the legs
right here over the quads and the glutes. You're going to
hold this position and then do that lift off. It's just a good
way to really fire a lot of muscles in a short amount of
time anytime throughout the day. In the last part, we're
going to focus on stretching. Stretches are perfect to after
strengthening exercises to keep the muscles loose but with
stretches, you can do them throughout the day anytime that
you need quick pain relief. Here's a really easy one that
you can do pretty much anywhere. We just need a door
frame. You can also use something like a squat rack, a
pull, even a tree. It just has to be sturdy enough to support
your body weight. So, the first movement, what I'm going to do
is put my feet together flush up against this door frame. The
arm that is furthest away from the door frame, you're going to
reach across like roughly chest level grip onto that door frame
so it looks just like this from here the movement is very
straight forward we're going to take our hip right here and
then just drive it away from that door frame leaning away
from the door frame as much as we can you should feel a deep
stretch form off to the side right here that's going to
target the latissimus dorsi or the lats. To take this one to
the next level let's take our other arm bend our elbow at 90°
and now reach across our body as much as we can really
focusing on scooping through our shoulder blade. You're
going to feel a really good stretch on this other side.
This usually feels really really good. I like to hold
this for 20 to 30 seconds but do the best you can. I know a
lot of people won't have the arm strength to do this for
that long but you just want to relax and then repeat this one
three to five times or as many repetitions as you like until
that tightness or stiffness goes away and then from there,
switch to the other side and repeat to keep every thing in
balance. So, let's take this one to even the next level by
now focusing on some more muscles including the rhomboids
which are a big instigator of shoulder blade pain. For this
one, I'm going to start facing the door frame and have my toes
flush up against it. I'm going to crisscross my arms like this
with my thumbs pointed down. Doesn't matter which arm is on
top. In fact, I would switch them up during this exercise
and see which one works better for you but I'm going to start
off roughly grip the door frame at head level from here I'm
going to tuck my chin towards my chest and then I'm going to
just lower my bottom away and down from the floor just like
this letting my body weight sag downward towards the floor in
the office here I have pretty wide door frame so if your
bottom right here does hit the other side to correct this just
angle your body out slightly like this you should have
plenty of room at that point but I like to hold this
position again for about 20 to 30 seconds for this one just do
nice slow control breathing too let out as much tension as you
can from there you're just going to relax and then repeat
this three to five times and with each repetition try to
build into it just a little bit more from here you can
experiment with different placements of your hands to hit
the muscles just a little bit differently so put your hands
higher above head level like this and give that a try you
can also go towards the chest right here you can also go a
little bit below chest level any of these positions offer
more relief where it's target tightness or pain. At that
point, you want to stop and throw more repetitions in. If
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get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching.