Shoulder Pain Archives - Health Tips From The Professor

Relief From Shoulder Pain

September 20, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

A Simple Self-Treatment For The Infraspinatus Muscle

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

This summer has been HOT! HOT! HOT!

High temperature records were broken not just in the USA, but all over the world! The funny thing is it was sometimes hotter up north than down here in Florida. A snowbird client came in several weeks ago and told me they came back to Florida because they don’t have central air in their house up north (never needed it before). That’s pretty incredible.

Now, I won’t say it’s cool outside, but September is not quite as hot as the summer months. Which brings me to my treatment of the month – shoulder pain.

With it so hot I believe that a lot of people are getting relief be being in a pool, or a lake, or the ocean. People are enjoying swimming, and if you are swimming a lot, you could easily get shoulder pain. There is a muscle called the Infraspinatus that is a key muscle for swimmers, so let’s chat about it.

A Swimmer’s Nemesis And Power – The Infraspinatus Muscle

This is what the back of your left shoulder looks like if you took off your skin – fascinating!

There are 16 muscles that all insert into your shoulder, each pulling your arm in a different direction. Each is important and you use them all every day. But we won’t go into all of them this month, we’re just looking at the large muscle inside the red circle. (I’m not an artist so saying “circle” is just using creative license – LOL)

This is the Infraspinatus, which originates on the surface of your shoulder blade (the scapula). It inserts into the tip of your arm bone (the humerus), and when it contracts it pulls your arm back.

Think of taking a tennis serve, or doing a backstroke in the pool, and you can visualize the movement this muscle makes.

How A Muscle Works To Move A Joint

Did you ever play “tug of war” with a stick and rope when you were young? Basically, that’s how muscles work together to move our joints. When the side that is on the right is pulling on the rope, the stick moves to the right. The only way the stick moves in the opposite direction, in this analogy it moves toward the left, is the right side needs to stop pulling and the left side starts to pull. When that happens, the stick moves toward the left.

This is exactly what happens in our body when we want to move a joint. Two muscles insert into a bone that is at the joint. One muscle (let’s say the infraspinatus) pulls on the insertion point at the tip of the shoulder on your arm bone (humerus), and your arm moves back. A muscle in the front of your shoulder/chest (pectoralis major) needs to release for your arm to move in that direction.

Then, when you want to bring your arm forward, the pectoralis major contracts and pulls on your humerus, and the infraspinatus must release tension so your arm can move. It’s pretty simple, and it’s exactly what happens with every joint in your body.

In my books, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and The Pain-Free Athlete, I show you how to self-treat all the shoulder muscles. This month I’m going to share with you how to self-treat the infraspinatus muscle.

A Simple Self-Treatment For The Infraspinatus Muscle

As I mentioned, there are 16 muscles that move your shoulder in all the directions you do every day. It is important to have each of the muscles free of spasms in order to have full range-of-motion. With that said, here is the self-treatment for the infraspinatus muscle.

You can use a slightly used tennis ball to treat the muscle, although it may be too soft to be effective. I’ve found a new tennis ball may be too hard. I strongly recommend that you never use a lacrosse ball as it is much too hard and could easily bruise the bone. A bone bruise can cause pain for up to a year, so it’s certainly something to avoid.

I prefer my Perfect Ball because it is solid in the center and has a layer of softness around the outside. This softness enables you to work deeply into the muscle without potentially bruising the bone.

The pictures below show you where the muscle is located and where to place the ball. You can either lean into the ball on a wall, or you can lie on the floor as shown below.

When you locate a “hot spot,” where it hurts as you press on the point, just stay there for 30 seconds.

Next, release the pressure for 5 seconds to allow blood to flow into the muscle, and then press into the muscle again. Continue this until it no longer hurts, and then look for another point. Repeat this on each painful point to enable a full release of tension and relieve pain and stiffness.

Even without working on the other muscles of the shoulder, you’ll get considerable relief by treating the infraspinatus muscle.

Have You Listened To My TEDx Talk?

The title is “The Pain Question No One Is Asking.” It points a finger at a HUGE missing piece in our health care, one that affects millions of people. The topic is controversial, so much so that it almost wasn’t approved because it asks a question that certain people don’t want brought to light.

You can see it by going to YouTube and putting in “Julie Donnelly, Pain”.

Please “like” and “share” it with others so TED will see that this is a subject people want to know more about. Thanks!

Looking Ahead To October

Next month we will be looking at the #2 most prevalent pain problem in the USA. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is debilitating, and incredibly painful. I know because CTS shut down my therapy practice in 1997. I’ll tell you the short version of that situation and how it was the catalyst for me developing the self-treatments that reversed it for me. I’m happy to say that the self-treatments I developed have also helped hundreds of people around the world eliminate this problem from their lives.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

www.FlexibleAthlete.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

How I Treated My Frozen Shoulder

January 18, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Why We Get Shoulder Pain

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy New Year

I love the holidays! It’s wonderful to see family and friends, and there’s always such good food and fun, but I’m also happy when the New Year begins. Of course, every day is a “new year”, but January 1st is like starting a whole new book of life, with unlimited possibilities.

This year, I’m not only writing goals, I am also doing something that was suggested by Pegine Echevarria. I’m looking back on this past year and writing down as many of my successes as I can remember. Goals are the roadmap for the future, but remembering past successes lifts our confidence that we’ll be able to achieve the goals we have set.

In fact, this year I’m going to look at each day and write down a success that I’ve had that day. How wonderful it will be on New Year’s Eve to look back and read 365 successes for 2020!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you’re also eager about starting 2020. Here’s to a year of adventure, joy, health, prosperity, and fulfillment of all your dreams!

Why We Get Shoulder Pain

For some reason I’ve had a LOT of clients come in with shoulder issues this month, more than normal, so it made me decide that this month’s topic should be about the shoulder.

The shoulder has more muscle attachments than any other joint in the body, which Is the reason we have such a wide assortment of movements we can make with our shoulder and arm.

There are 16 different muscles that impact your shoulder and cause movement and stability to the joint. Each muscle is pulling in a different direction, and that’s a blessing, and a potential problem.

For example, when one muscle is trying to pull your arm forward, and the muscle that pulls your arm back is in spasm, you will have pain every time you try to move your arm to drive a car, type at your computer, or lift anything up. And the pain can get severe if it’s not treated properly and quickly.

How I Treated My Frozen Shoulder

In 1993 I had the worst case of frozen shoulder I’ve ever seen in anyone before or since.

Every one of the 16 muscles had gone into a sudden spasm, pulling in 16 different directions. It locked my elbow to my waistline and even the slightest movement in any direction caused excruciating shoulder joint pain. Nobody could figure out what to do and I ended up tying my arm to my body to stop the stabbing hot knife pains I felt with even the slightest movement. It was horrible! I knew what I would do to help you, but I couldn’t find anyone who could do those same treatments for me. What to do?!

You know that voice that’s forever running in your head? I was frantic and said out loud, ”What the heck am I going to do?” And a voice in my head said to me “treat yourself!” Really, now how was I going to self-treat all these muscles when I had absolutely no movement in my left arm? The voice said: “figure it out!” So, I did!

It wasn’t easy, and it was definitely painful, but step-by-step I worked out how to treat each muscle using a ball, and my fingertips. It took me five months to get back to 100% mobility, but I did it. Next thing I knew every client who came to my office was suffering from shoulder pain. Nobody was as severe as I had been, but their situation was still very painful and limiting them in many ways.

I realized that I wouldn’t have gotten full range-of-motion back if I hadn’t been self-treating several times a day, so I started to teach my clients how to help themselves. I didn’t have any pictures yet so I could only show them one or two techniques each time they came in, but it made a huge difference. People started getting better, and I moved on to a new aspect of my therapy practice -– teaching people how to self-treat for permanent pain relief.

Eventually I took pictures of each self-treatment, and I hand wrote a description of what the picture was demonstrating. I didn’t have a computer yet, but that’s another long story about how it all became my first book (the title was so long, even I don’t remember it!). I learned to have short titles for each book, and now every treatment I teach is in either Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living, The Pain-Free Athlete, or The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution.

If you have been to see me for therapy, you know that I teach you what to do at home. That’s definitely something most massage therapists don’t do, but my feeling is I’m only successful if you are out of pain and you stay that way.

One Important Shoulder Self-Treatment You Can Use First

We’ll demonstrate on the left arm:

Put a ball in your right hand and then bring your hand under your left armpit or you can place the ball as shown in the picture.

Lean onto a wall, moving until you find the “hot spot.”

Stay there for about a minute, either staying still or moving very slightly.

Take the pressure off the ball to let blood get into the area and repeat several times.

Move about, bringing the ball up further into your shoulder blade, and down toward your armpit (treating the latissimus dorsi muscle).

There Is So Much More

As I mentioned, there are 16 muscles involved in moving our shoulder and arm, and this is only one technique to ease pain and stiffness. In my opinion, this is the #1 treatment I always teach because it helps so much, but the others are important too.

You can get every self-treatment in Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and The Pain-Free Athlete.

I’m also opening a weekly Zoom gathering that comes with 24/7/365 access to all the tools you need to find and release aches and pains from your head to your feet. You can get information about it by going to www.Pain-FreeAthlete.com.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

A Novel Treatment For Shoulder Pain

February 16, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

My Mission Is To Help You Live Pain-Free

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Valentine’s Day

When I lived up north, February was the worst month of the winter – cold, gloomy, and while it’s only 28 days long, it seemed endless. If you’re in the cold weather, I hope you stay nice and warm, and that you also find some fun outdoor activities to help this month end quickly.

Here in Florida, this is one of our best months! No humidity, no rain, no bugs, and lots of sunshine. We love February!

February is also thought of as a month to show love for another (it should be every month, but we’ll leave that alone for now). Lovers go out to special dinners, sometimes buying expensive gifts or flowers. And many people send sweet cards to friends and family.

But the actual origination of Valentine’s Day isn’t such a loving story. The day is named after St. Valentine, a Christian martyr who was executed in ancient Rome on February 14^th in the 3^rd century A.D. There was also a pagan ritual that had to do with fertility, and where women put their names into an urn for bachelors to pick from. Somehow the two merged over the years and brought St. Valentine’s Day into the more romantic sphere.

In any case, it’s now a multi billion dollar business that has nothing to do with anything religious but can be fun for loving couples to celebrate.

A Letter From A Reader

This past week I received an email from a reader of this newsletter. I’ve asked people to send me a message if they have any aches or pains that they would like for me to discuss. This is a topic I’ve never discussed before, and since it’s causing this woman distress, I decided it’s the perfect discussion for the month.

Suzie was feeling pain across the front of her shoulder, and she had painful points along the bottom of her clavicle (collarbone). The subclavius muscle is a short muscle that originates on your 1^st rib and inserts into the underside of your clavicle. You can look at it on Wikipedia (https://bit.ly/2KV7lT8) if you’d like to see how tiny it is and where to find it when you are self-treating for pain.

As shown in the graphic above, it is interesting to think that such a small muscle can cause so much pain in the front of your shoulder, and down your biceps to your inner elbow. Even more interesting is that most people aren’t aware of this muscle, so they search other places when they are feeling pain across the front of their shoulder. As a result, they don’t get relief, and they may even turn to pain medications.

A Novel Treatment For Shoulder Pain

If your pain starts in the front of your shoulder and radiates down your bicep, the pain may be caused by your subclavius muscle. If, you are in luck. The treatment for this muscle is so simple you can do it any place and at any time.

Simply press your fingertips as shown in this picture. If that exact point isn’t painful, move your fingertips a bit to one side or the other.

It will probably feel like a sharp pain, and you may even feel the tiny bump that is caused by the spasm.

Hold the pressure for a minute or so….

Release the pressure (but don’t move your finger off the point)…

Press deeply again and hold.

Do this several times until it doesn’t hurt to press on the point.

I have been working with people suffering from chronic pain and/or sports injuries since 1989. One thing I have found is that while I can find and successfully treat the muscles causing pain when people come into my office, it’s vital for them to continue their treatment at home.

A phenomenon called “muscle memory” will cause the muscle to begin to shorten as soon as we finish our therapy session. Left untreated the muscle will tighten again in as short as 2-3 days, and you’ll have pain again. However, if you self-treat the muscle you will continue to bring it back to its proper length, and ultimately it will stay, and the pain will be eliminated

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Headache Relief By Treating Your Shoulder

June 18, 2019 by Dr. Steve Chaney

A Headache Remedy Can be Treating Your Shoulder

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

When you experience the debilitating effects of headache pain, you just want headache relief.

Your head throbs. It’s hard to think. It’s hard to enjoy life.

What should you do?

You could take Tylenol or some other drug, but that offers temporary relief at best.
You could see a chiropractor, but it may take multiple visits to correct your problem.
You could get a massage, but the headache will probably come back.

What you really want is a natural protocol you can use to make the headache go away whenever it occurs. There is such a protocol. It’s called muscular therapy, and I teach people how to perform it on themselves whenever a headache or joint pain occurs.

What Is The Difference Between Massage And Muscular Therapy?

There is a difference between massage and muscular therapy as a headache remedy, and both are worthwhile. Massage is great for moving the fluids (like blood and lymph) through your body and getting muscles to relax. It’s perfect if you’re under stress and you feel like you’re going to explode. A good massage therapist can have a positive impact on your nervous system and blood pressure, and you’ll come out walking on air.

Muscular therapy, the way I do it anyway, is more focused than it is general. You’ve heard about spasms, but most people can’t visualize a spasm, so they ignore the term. You probably have an idea that a spasm may be painful, and it isn’t a great thing to have, but what is a spasm?

What is a Spasm

I explain it as a knot in the muscle. Through some very complicated physiology (that none of us need to know about) the muscle forms a knot in the thick part of the muscle, and it’s putting a strain on the two ends.

Both ends are attached to a bone, so the pressure causes a strain on the end points and you have pain at the bone. Most of the time the end points are just after the muscle crosses over a joint, so you end up with joint pain.

Too often people think this is arthritis and they are stuck suffering or taking strong drugs to mask the pain. But in the majority of cases it’s not arthritis, it’s just tight muscles pulling on the bones of the joint and preventing them from moving freely.

But, all you need is to know where the knot (spasm) is, and then apply direct pressure on it. Hold the pressure for 30 seconds or so, and then let go. Keep repeating this until it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Headache Relief

Let’s say you have headache pain. There are so many muscles that impact headaches that it would take a book (like my book: “Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living”) to discuss each of them. So, let’s just look at one muscle, the Levator Scapulae.

The Levator Scapulae is responsible for lifting your shoulder up. In fact, the nickname for the Levator Scapulae is “the shrug muscle.” But look at this graphic and you’ll see where the knots form (the round red circles) and where you feel the pain (the red shaded areas).

You may not think to press on your lower neck/shoulder when you feel headache pain. This muscle also causes the pain you feel in the middle of your back, between your shoulder blades.

And self-treatment is so easy!

You can put your opposite thumb into the front of your shoulder as shown in this picture, and your fingers in the back of the muscle. Then squeeze your thumb and fingers so they pinch the entire muscle.

headache relief shoulder muscle pressure using wall

Or you can put the perfect ball on the very top of your shoulder and then lean into the corner of a wall as shown in this picture.

What you are doing is forcing the acid (as in Lactic Acid) out of the muscle fiber so blood can fill the void and heal the muscle fiber. As you do this you are untying the knot and the pressure is removed from the joint. In most cases the joint can now move more freely and without pain.

All the self-treatments in my book are just this easy!

Most people have significant pain relief, and I am happy to say many get total and permanent pain relief. Try it yourself, self-treatment is easy. The worst thing that can happen is nothing, and the best thing that can happen is regaining normalcy.

Why stay in pain when it’s so easy to find the muscular source of the problem and eliminate it?

Get Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living . It is filled with over 100 pictures and descriptions proven to show you how to find and self-treat muscle spasms from head to foot!

Join the 1000’s of people worldwide who have discovered that tight muscles were the true source of pains they thought were from arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other serious conditions. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by releasing tight muscles.

Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living is your step-by-step guide to pain relief!

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

About The Author

Julie Donnelly is a Deep Muscle Massage Therapist with 20 years of experience specializing in the treatment of chronic joint pain and sports injuries. She has worked extensively with elite athletes and patients who have been unsuccessful at finding relief through the more conventional therapies.

She has been widely published, both on – and off – line, in magazines, newsletters, and newspapers around the country. She is also often chosen to speak at national conventions, medical schools, and health facilities nationwide.

Frozen Shoulder Pain Treatment

July 18, 2017 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Regain Your Full Range Of Motion

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Recently I’ve had a client coming to me for frozen shoulder pain treatment. “Mary” is suffering from “Frozen Shoulder.” It doesn’t sound so bad, but don’t let the simple diagnosis hide the fact that this condition causes more than just pain. Mary’s shoulder joint was so frozen that she had minimal range-of-motion in any direction, and sleeping was a nightmare! Regardless of which way she slept – on her back or side, the ache would wake her up several times a night, often in tears from the pain.

Physical therapy wasn’t helping at all. Her frozen shoulder kept getting worse, and the only relief she had from the pain was by taking strong pain-killing drugs. The all-too-real fear of opioid addiction caused her to only take the drugs when the pain was unbearable. She is a hairstylist so this situation was having a very negative effect on her income and future. On a more personal note, it certainly wasn’t helping her intimate relationship with her husband. She was getting frantic for a solution.

Fortunately, the client of a co-worker had come to my office when she was in pain, and she gave Mary my card. That was the beginning of a long journey, but one that is helping her more than she’d ever imagined possible.

What Causes A Frozen Shoulder?

Your shoulder has more muscle attachments than any other joint in your body. Several muscles don’t attach right into your shoulder joint, but as they pull on your arm or shoulder blade, your shoulder moves. This is the reason that your shoulder and arm can move in so many directions. More than 15 muscles need to all work together to enable you to have a full range-of-motion with your shoulder and arms.

Frozen shoulder is caused by several, or many, of these muscles all being held taut because of multiple spasms. When one muscle contracts, another must lengthen to allow for the contraction.

For example, when you are swimming and the muscles of your chest are pulling your shoulders/arms forward, the muscles of your back need to lengthen. And, when you want to reach back to take a tennis swing, the muscles of your chest must lengthen. Or, when you want to lift your arm up to reach the top of your closet, the muscles that bring your arm down must lengthen. But, when you reach down to pick something up from the floor, the muscles on top of your shoulder must lengthen. It’s always a matter of opposing muscles both needing to do their part in order for you to move your shoulder and arm.

Frozen Shoulder Pain Treatment

Actually, there are too many treatments for me to cover in detail in this short article. If you have been receiving Health Tips from the Professor for some time, you have many of my treatments from previous blogs.

Basically, if you have stiffness in your shoulder, you need to look at the movements you can’t make. Next, think about the opposing muscle that needs to be lengthened in order to make that movement. This is the muscle that needs to be treated to start to release your frozen shoulder.

One treatment you can do is for your infraspinatus muscle. This is the muscle that pulls your arm back.

Put a ball on the belly of the muscle, which is at the center of your shoulder blade, and apply pressure. Hold the pressure for about a minute, release for 5 seconds, and repeat. Do this several times and then stretch that muscle.

To help people eliminate pain and stretch safely, I created a program called Focus Flexibility Training. This DVD program shows you how to treat all of the muscles of your shoulder and a whole lot more.

When it comes to Frozen Shoulder pain treatment, you’ll ultimately need to treat most, if not all of your shoulder muscles. It’s not a fast treatment, but it does work.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Frozen Shoulder Pain Relief

February 21, 2017 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Frozen Shoulder, Rotator Cuff Pain, No More!

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

A frozen shoulder is a mild sounding name for a seriously painful condition that prevents your shoulder and arm from moving. Muscles in your entire shoulder are responsible for frozen shoulder and rotator cuff injuries. Each one needs to be treated for relief, and each impacts the others so it’s important to treat all of them to achieve frozen shoulder pain relief.

Last month I showed you how to do the treatment for the Infraspinatus muscle in the back of your shoulder. This month we’ll talk about two muscles in your chest that prevent your arm from going back.

Muscles that Cause Frozen Shoulder and Rotator Cuff Injuries

The muscles are your Pectoralis Minor and Pectoralis Major which are on the front of your shoulder. If you put your hand on your chest as shown, you are right on top of both muscles. You can also move your hand down a bit to treat the rest of the two muscles.

The deeper muscle is your Pectoralis Minor which goes from your ribs up to the top of your shoulder. This muscle pulls your shoulder forward and causes your back to round. When it is in spasm, you have poor posture and can’t bring your shoulder back.

The surface muscle is your Pectoralis Major which goes from your chest bone (sternum) to your upper arm. When this muscle contracts normally, you bring your arm in toward your trunk and/or across the front of your body. If it is in spasm, you can’t bring your arm out away from your body.

You can see how these two muscles will cause frozen shoulder by holding your arm tight to your body.

Since they both move your shoulder and arm, while they aren’t technically rotator cuff muscles, they impact your rotator cuff. So, these muscles have to be addressed as well for frozen shoulder pain relief.

Frozen Shoulder Pain Relief Treatment and Rotator Cuff Injury Treatment

Place your opposite hand onto your chest as shown. For example, if you are treating your left shoulder, you will put your right hand on the bottom. Press your fingertips into your chest and place your left hand on top of your right hand. Press into the muscles with both hands to add strength to the movement.

If you don’t feel the tender point at first, just move your fingertips around and keep pressing. When you hit a sore point, you are on top of the spasm. Hold the pressure for 30 seconds and repeat. Do this 2-3 times, and then look for another tender point.

It is most beneficial if you combine this treatment with the treatment for the Infraspinatus that was shown previously.

There are so many shoulder treatments involved in the release of frozen shoulder and rotator cuff injuries that I can’t show all of them. If you suffer from shoulder pain or limited flexibility, I suggest you look at my book Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living. This book will help you with frozen shoulder pain relief.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Painful Shoulder Relief

January 17, 2017 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Surgery Is Not the Only Option

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

I was at my sailing club and a man was sitting watching the water, rubbing his painful shoulder. I asked him what was wrong and he said he had a sore shoulder for the past three months. He told me he desperately wanted to find some pain relief. He loves to sail and this sore shoulder pain was preventing him from going out on the water. He’d already been to a massage therapist, a physical therapist, and a chiropractor. He finally went to an orthopedic surgeon and was told that surgery was the only way to get relief from his painful shoulder. However, he had decided that he didn’t want to take that path…yet.

Why Muscles Can Cause a Painful Shoulder

I use an analogy that makes it clear why muscle spasms in your shoulder will cause joint pain. If you pull your hair, your scalp will hurt. But, you don’t need to massage your scalp or take aspirin for your headache, and you definitely don’t need brain surgery. You simply need to let go of your hair!

Your shoulder has more muscle attachments than any joint in your body.Each muscle pulls your shoulder in a different direction. As any of the muscles get tight it puts pressure on the bone. Your painful shoulder is the end result – just like pulling your hair hurts your head.

To get relief all you need to do is release the tension in the muscles.

Stretching WON’T Help Ease a Painful Shoulder!

It is important to untie the knots (spasms) in the muscles before stretching. Think of what happens if you take a 12″ length of rope, tie enough knots in it so it is 11″ long, and then try to stretch it back to 12″ without first untying the knots. This is what will happen to your muscle fibers if you stretch without first releasing the spasms.

I’ve worked for years with people who not only have sore shoulder pain, but also have pain in every joint. Frequently pain is caused by repetitive muscle strain while working or playing sports and it needs to be released. Working with athletes it was vital to teach them how to do self-treatments they could use during a race or competition. And my other clients have found self-treatments give them permanent relief from aches and pains.

This has led to several books and DVD programs, including Focused Flexibility Training. On one DVD I demonstrate how to self-treat every muscle, from your head to foot. And then, on two DVDs (1 Upper Body and 1 Lower Body) Ana Johnson, a fantastic yoga instructor, leads you through self-treating the muscles you will be stretching followed by a 30-minute yoga program. It works to quickly eliminate a painful shoulder, as well as pain and stiffness throughout your body.

Focused Flexibility Training has a foundation of self-treatments that come from my book, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living. The exciting part is people from all over the world have confirmed that the treatments really work!

There are several treatments for sore shoulder pain. Each addresses a different group of muscles that move your shoulder and arm. There are uncountable motions you make every day without even thinking about it, and each muscle can be strained.

Treatment for a Painful Shoulder

The photo to the left show you how to treat your infraspinatus muscle. This muscle brings your shoulder back, like you’re taking a tennis serve. When your Infraspinatus muscle is in spasm, it causes shoulder pain as you try to bring your arms forward.

Place the Perfect Ball as shown in the picture, and lean your weight into the ball. Look for the “hot spot,” which will be tender. As you lean into the ball take the pressure off, and then lean again. You’ll find the painful shoulder becoming less and less painful each time you again add pressure.

Move the ball to different areas of your shoulder, finding the various painful points. Each one is a spasm that is causing your sore shoulder pain. You can enhance this treatment by slowly drawing your arm across your body while you are still pressing into the ball. Since the spasms have been released, this movement will safely stretch the muscle fibers. As you release each spasm, and then stretch, you’ll find pain relief and you’ll know how to stop pain quickly and easily should it return.

As for the man mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I taught him how to do the self-treatments. I’m happy to say that today he told me he slept through the night for the first time in weeks. He’s getting better every time he does the self-treatments and he’s back to sailing again. That is so fulfilling — I LOVE my work!

With some knowledge of how to find spasms, how to self-treat them, and how to stretch properly, you can Stop Pain FAST! This, of course, goes for a painful shoulder as well.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Shoulder Joint Pain Relief

October 18, 2016 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Shoulder joint pain was preventing a father from throwing a baseball to his son and he was very distressed. He needed should joint pain relief in the worst way. He was complaining to a friend of his who is a client of mine. Even though he had been recommended to go for surgery, his friend convinced him to give muscle therapy a chance. So yesterday “Frank” came in to see me.

He demonstrated throwing a ball, but he could barely lift his arm, and he definitely couldn’t bring it back. He said that his time with his son is precious to him, and that their favorite pastime is throwing a baseball. If I could just help him do that, he would be happy.

Why Muscles Cause Shoulder Joint Pain

Your shoulder has more muscle attachments than any other joint in your body. A muscle pulls in only one direction, muscles never push. When you consider all the movements you can make with your shoulder and arm, you can see why there are so many muscles involved.

The important fact is when a muscle is shortened from spasms, it will cause pain at its insertion point on the bone at the shoulder joint.

The reason is evident when you consider an analogy I frequently use to describe joint pain. If you pull your hair at the end, it hurts at your scalp. However, you don’t need to massage your scalp, you don’t need to take aspirin for the headache, and you definitely don’t need brain surgery! You just need to let go of your hair!

The exact same thing is true to stop your shoulder joint pain. You just need to let go of the tight muscles that insert into your shoulder.

The Muscles That Cause Shoulder Joint Pain

Perhaps you’ve heard of the rotator cuff muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. However, my experience has proven that there are a lot of other muscles that aren’t considered shoulder muscles, but that will cause shoulder joint pain. Those muscles are your biceps and triceps, your levator scapulae, and your latissimus dorsi (among others).

While not rotator cuff muscles, your biceps and triceps both originate deep within your shoulder joint. The other two muscles will move your shoulder blade (scapula). When they are in spasm, which shortens the muscle fibers, it will cause a strain to be placed on the muscle tendon, which will then cause a strain, and pain, on your shoulder joint.

How To Release Shoulder Joint Pain

There are so many muscles involved in shoulder joint pain that I couldn’t show all of them here, that’s why I wrote Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living.

However, I do want to show you how to do one treatment for your infraspinatus muscle.

But first, back to “Frank.” I treated each of the muscles mentioned, and then using Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living, I showed him how to treat each of the muscles of his shoulder. He was thrilled! He could easily, and painlessly, throw a baseball. In fact, he went outside and tried it just to make sure.

The key is self-treatment. Muscles will again shorten up until you train them to be their normal, longer, length. You can’t go to a therapist as often as necessary to make the muscles return to their proper length. However, you can treat yourself every day! That’s how you really stay flexible and pain-free — frequent self-treatment.

An Easy Treatment For Shoulder Joint Pain

The following pictures are from Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living

Step 1: To treat your left infraspinatus, put the Perfect Ball in your right hand and bring it under your arm, going back as far as you can so you are on top of your infraspinatus muscle.

Step 2: Lean into a wall. Find the “hot spot” (the spasm). You’ll know you’re on it because it will hurt.

Step 3: Stay still for 30-60 seconds, then move a little bit to roll the ball back and forth on the muscle.

Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living will explain this further, and will give you pictures and descriptions of how to self-treat the other muscles that cause shoulder joint pain.

It just takes a little bit of direction and effort to learn how to self-treat. But, I’ve seen so many times that you CAN stop shoulder joint pain!

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Shoulder Muscle Pain Relief

January 19, 2016 by Dr. Steve Chaney

You Can Enjoy Pain Free Living From Home

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Yesterday I was at my sailing club and a man was sitting watching the water, rubbing his shoulder and clearly in pain. I asked him what was wrong and he said he had a sore shoulder for the past three months and he desperately wanted to find some pain relief. He loves to sail and this shoulder muscle pain was preventing him from going out on the water. He said he had already been to a massage therapist, a physical therapist, and a chiropractor. He finally went to an orthopedic surgeon and was told that surgery was the only way to relieve the pain of his sore shoulder, but he had decided that he didn’t want to take that path…yet.

Shoulder Muscle Pain Cause

I use an analogy that makes it so clear why spasms in will cause joint pain. If you pull your hair your scalp will hurt, but you don’t need to massage your scalp, or take aspirin for your headache, and you definitely don’t need brain surgery. You simply need to let go of your hair!

Your shoulder has more muscle attachments than any joint in your body.

Each muscle pulls your shoulder in a different direction, but as the muscle gets tight it puts pressure on the bone. Your shoulder muscle pain is the end result – just like pulling your hair hurts your head.

To get relief, all you need to do is release the tension in the muscles. ‘

Stretching WON’T Help Relieve Sore Shoulder Pain!

My years of working with athletes who not only have sore shoulder pain, but also have pain in every joint caused by their repetitive strain. Working with athletes showed me that it was vital to teach them how to do self-treatments they could use during a race or competition.

This led to several books and DVD programs, including my Focused Flexibility Training. On one DVD, I demonstrate how to self-treat every muscle from your head to foot, and then on two DVDs (1 Upper Body and 1 Lower Body) Ana Johnson, a fantastic yoga instructor, leads you through self-treating the muscles you will be stretching, and then a 30-minute yoga program. It works to quickly eliminate sore shoulder pain, as well as pain and stiffness throughout your body.

There are several treatments for sore shoulder pain, each addressing a different group of muscles that pull your shoulder and arm in the wide range of motions you make every day without even thinking about it.

Self-Treatment For Shoulder Muscle Pain

The photo to the left show you how to treat your Infraspinatus muscle. This muscle brings your shoulder back, like you’re taking a tennis serve. When your Infraspinatus muscle is in spasm, it will cause shoulder muscle pain as you try to bring your arms forward.

Place the Perfect Ball as shown in the picture, and lean your weight into the ball. Look for the “hot spot,” which will be tender. As you lean into the ball, then take the pressure off, and then lean again, you’ll find the muscle becoming less and less painful.

Move the ball to different areas of your shoulder, finding the various painful points. Each one is a spasm that is causing your sore shoulder pain. You can enhance this treatment by slowly drawing your arm across your body while you are still pressing into the ball. Since the spasms have been released, this movement will safely stretch the muscle fibers. As you release each spasm, and then stretch, you’ll find pain relief, and you’ll know how to stop pain quickly and easily should it return.

As for the man I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I’m happy to say that today he told me he slept through the night for the first time in weeks, and he’s getting better every time he does the self-treatments I taught him. That is so fulfilling — I LOVE my work!

With some knowledge of how to find spasms, how to self-treat them, and how to stretch properly, you can Stop Pain FAST!

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.