Massage Therapy For The Shoulder Complex

Do you have a painful, tight, or immobile shoulder? What about a frozen shoulder, rotator cuff impingement, or nerve pain down the arm? A lot can go wrong with a shoulder, and today I’m going to walk you through how massage therapy can help.

Massage Therapy On The Rotator Cuff

The main joint of the shoulder is called the glenohumeral joint, or GH joint. It’s basically where your arm bone fits into the shoulder socket. The job of your rotator cuff is to hold the GH joint in place when the arm is in any position. The rotator cuff muscles all attach onto the head of the humorous, and the scapular (i.e. the flat shoulder blade nearby.)

Often times when a shoulder is painful, or frozen, massage therapy, trigger point therapy, and myofascial release on the rotator cuff directly can make a huge difference and rapidly increase mobility. In fact, there is also research showing that shoulders only freeze when there are trigger points in the subscapularis. If you have pain in your shoulder, find a massage therapist who can do a great job releasing your rotator cuff!

Massage Therapy On Scapular Sling

There are two flat bones that sit on top of your ribcage in the back. These bones are called scapula or commonly “shoulder blades.” Attached onto the scapula are 6-9 muscles (depending on how you count), known collectively as the “scapular sling,” responsible for moving your shoulder blades in many directions.

Tightness in the scapular sling can impact shoulder mechanics, so it’s a good idea to get those checked out as well – ESPECIALLY because a tight scapular sling can keep the rotator cuff tight.

Muscle of the scapular sling include: rhomboids, pec minor, traps (upper, middle, lower), levator scapula, serratus anterior, and subclavious.

Pec Minor - An Extra Naughty Shoulder Muscle.

Have you every had burning pain in the front of the shoulder or down the arm? What about nerve pain down the arm?

In any kind of shoulder pain, the pecs are often involved. What most people don’t realize is that there are 2 pec muscles: pec major, and pec minor.

Pec minor deserves special attention. There are two aspects of pec minor that make it an especially problematic muscle. First, the pec minor has a large bundle of nerves that move directly underneath it. If these nerves become adhered to the pec minor due to faulty movement mechanics the nerves can get tugged and cause pain at the pecs or, more often, down the arm. A skilled therapist will know how to release any nerve adhesion found here.

The second reason the pec minor is particularly problematic is that is actually attaches to your scapula in the front of your body, where the scapula hooks around. Because it attaches to the scapula and the ribs, the pec minor is in a great position to reck mayhem.

Massage therapy on the pec minor is often highly effective, and can leave you feeling like you have a new shoulder

Axillary Nerve Entrapment

Do you have shoulder pain that changes location, or just hurts all over?

I remember the first client I found an axillary nerve entrapment on. This client, let’s call him Fred, had ongoing debilitating shoulder pain the was keeping him from playing tennis. The interesting aspect of Fred’s shoulder pain was that he moved his shoulder one way, and his shoulder hurt in one location, and then he moved his shoulder in a different way, and it hurt in and entirely different area.

Since Fred’s shoulder pain wasn’t consistently in one place, I know it probably wasn’t a rotator cuff impingement. Impingements hurt in one place because the muscle is getting stuck in one particular area. Nerves, on the other hand, spread out over larger areas, and when they become stuck they can signal pain in multiple locations.

Fortunately, even though the axillary nerve spans a large area, there is only one major location near the armpit where it can become entrapped. I release the nerve entrapment area on Fred 5 times, and after the 5th time the pain entirely went away, and never came back!

Since Fred I have found, and corrected, many axillary nerve entrapments.

Solving Rotator Cuff Impingements

A common diagnosis for shoulder problems is “rotator cuff impingement.” Rotator cuff impingements happen when the tendons of rotator cuff (usually suprapinatus) get repeated jammed against another bone above, called the acromion.

Releasing tight, restricted areas in the rotator cuff and scapular sling can “free up” this area and help it work better. It is also likely, however, that there is a movement problem with the scapular sling, core, and pelvis that needs to be addressed through corrective exercise in order to fix this problem. After we reset your soft tissues with massage therapy, we should move into corrective exercise.

Summary

There are many places shoulders can get into trouble because they are such dynamic, mobile joints. Massage therapy has the potential to dramatically improve shoulder comfort by targeting many of these areas, including the scapular sling, rotator cuff, and more. That said, a certain percentage of painful shoulders will also be impacted by faulty movement patterns at the shoulder and below, even into the pelvis. For this reason, many shoulder pain clients will require corrective exercise after massage therapy. Learn more about how corrective exercise solves shoulder pain.

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