There are some common problem areas that I see in my desk workers that cause their shoulder pain.
If we’re talking about somebody that sits at a desk for work, a lot of times their ergonomics aren’t perfect. They might have their hands too far forward or too high, and their shoulders are elevated for hours and much more.
A lot of desk workers continue to come in with the same aches and pains so we had to work on fixing their desk ergonomics, as well as giving patients self-treatments.
Tension in the upper trap
One of the most common issues are the upper traps being sore and tight all the time. Often, times there can be a nasty bumps right around the base of the neck or the top of the shoulders. This type of trigger point or muscle tightness can cause tension headaches and just general aches and pains in the neck and shoulders.
If these headaches or aches and pains are something you deal with, try the stretches we go over in our video. These stretches help to decrease tension within the upper trap muscle.
You can also buy something called the Theracane to help decrease tension within the muscles of the upper back and neck.
Rotator cuff pain
Another common area that has a lot of tension is on the back side of the shoulder where the posterior rotator cuff sits. A trigger point here can cause pain that travels down the arm. With the back side of the shoulder being tight, we like to use a sleeper stretch to help relieve tension in the muscle. Check out our video to see how to perform this stretch.
If that does not work for you, another solution we like to give is using a lacrosse ball on the backside of that shoulder. This also helps work out tension and trigger points in that rotator cuff muscle.