Relieving Shoulder Pain: Unveiling the Impact of Sleep and Desk Habits, Plus Simple Exercises for Posture Improvement
Shoulder pain! So frustrating and always seems to take forever to heal!
There are 2 really common things that can irritate an already sore shoulder…
Your sleeping position. Obviously, it makes sense not to sleep on your sore shoulder right? But even if you’re not sleeping on it you need to be aware of your sore shoulder’s position. Allowing your shoulder to roll forward and come over in front of your body can irritate the already inflamed muscles and joints. Try sleeping on your back but if you are a die-hard side sleeper make sure your sore shoulder is in a neutral position. You may need to support your arm with a pillow to stop your shoulder rolling forward or another trick is to put your arm inside your PJ top!
Your desk set up. Here are some things for you to keep in mind:
Your feet should be planted, firmly and flat on the ground or on a stable footrest.
Thighs should be parallel to the ground.
Your lower back should be supported by either the chair or a small cushion.
Elbows should be supported and close to your body.
Wrists and hands should be in line with your forearms, and
Your shoulders should be relaxed.
If you’re using a mouse on the side of your injured shoulder, consider swapping sides. You might be surprised at just how quickly you can learn to work with your mouse on this new side, not only is it good for your sore shoulder, but it’s actually good for your brain too!
Interestingly most shoulder problems stem from a really common postural problem – internal rotation of the shoulder aka forward hunched shoulders or bad posture. This postural problem is incredibly common because of the time that we spend looking down and working on our mobile phones, mobile devices or playing handheld devices which naturally creates forward rounded and hunched shoulders.
The good news is that this is super easy to correct! Firstly come and see your friendly chiropractors here at Bespoke Chiropractic and get adjusted to free up any restrictions in the spine especially in the upper middle back and lower neck regions.
Then all you need to do is stretch out the muscles through the front part of the chest and strengthen the muscles in the upper part of your back, at the back of the shoulders and between your shoulder blades.
So how do you do stretch and strengthen?
First to stretch! A Pec or chest stretch to be precise
Stand against a doorway or the corner of a wall
Bend your elbow to 90 degrees and raise your arm to shoulder height so your upper arm is parallel to the floor and your forearm and hand is pointing up towards the ceiling.
Gently rotate your chest away from the door until you feel a stretch happening across the front of your chest and the front of your shoulder.
Hold for 60 seconds
Repeat on the other side.
Now to strengthen using a shoulder squeeze!
Stand tall with good posture (think of tucking your shoulder blades down into your back pockets)
Bend your elbows to 90 degrees and raise your arms so they are parallel to the floor
Gently squeeze your shoulder blades together, focus on contracting the muscles in between your shoulder blades, hold this for five seconds and relax.
That’s one repetition so you are going to do 5 reps.
Now you should do these 2 exercises three to five times a day. These are great for correcting forward hunched shoulders so you can expect to get some relief from your shoulder pain. It also means anything else you’re doing to help your shoulder pain will be more effective.
If you have any questions - please reach out! And also rememeber that any information here is general, and you need to speak to your health care provider for information specific to you!
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