5 Ways To Stop Shoulder Blade Pain?

I  bet that if you sit at a desk for the majority of your day you’ve had at least one episode of pain between your shoulder blades. It typically starts as a dull ache but by the end of your day it’s so nagging you can’t move your head or your arm without aggravating it more. Eventually it feels like somebody is sticking you with a hot poker right between your shoulder blade.  I don’t know about you but when I’ve felt this pain it was so bad that I thought “If I get that corner on the spot I could dig it out myself.” Then I spent an embarrassingly long time trying digging the corner of the wall into the painful spot between my shoulder blade and my spine. And even after bruising myself the pain was still there. It hurt when I let my arm hang by my but it hurt if I held my arm up too high.  When I turned my next a certain way and if I didn't sit exactly right I would feel that searing pain between my shoulder blade and my spine. And of course it was on the right side since I’m right handed and I had to move my right arm all day. ​

When I was a massage therapist I used to see people for this type of pain all the time. I had clients that would come in monthly and sometimes weekly because they held all their stress in their shoulders. Over the years I have found several ways to help clients stop shoulder blade pain to help them get back to working and their favorite activities. 


Here are a few quick suggestions to stop pain between your shoulder blades: 

1. Ice. Grab a bag of frozen corn or frozen peas (they’ll be more comfortable to lay against than large ice chunks) then find a comfortable chair that supports your head. Sit down and relax with the ice on the spot that hurts, for 10 minutes. The ice will help reduce the inflammation in the muscle that accumulates throughout the day allowing the muscle to relax. 
   
2. Stretch. A good upper body stretching routine (neck shoulders, chest and upper back) will help you find all the tight muscles that are pulling on the spot that hurts. Gentle stretches daily or even several times a day will calm down the muscle spasm between your shoulder blades.  
   
3. Work on your posture. By keeping your head over your shoulder you will reduce the stress on the muscle between your shoulder blades. While your head is directly over your shoulders the muscle between your shoulder blade and your spine doesn't have to work. The moment your head gets in front of your shoulders those muscles are turned on. So remind yourself to sit up straight throughout the day. 
   
4. Adjust your work space. Spending long hours in one position or doing the same thing over and over again adds stress to your body. I would never want to spend hours stuck in a squatting position (my thighs would be on fire after about 1 minute). But sometimes without thinking about it the way our work space is set up causes our arms or necks to be in awkward positions that we’ve gotten used to over time. However, those positions make the muscles between our shoulder blades work over time every day. Over time these muscles get tired and start to spasm (enter nagging pain); if we can make adjustments to our work space we will allow the muscles to relax and stop hurting.  
   
5. See Dr. Molly to help find the root cause of your shoulder blade pain. The quickest and simplest way to fix any problem is to first know exactly what is causing that problem. Once you know the root cause of the problem you can create a plan and fully and completely fix the problem.  Dr. Molly helps active adults permanently stop shoulder blade pain to get them back to their work life and play life without the stress of having to worry about when that pain will return. 
   

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