Best Way to Solve Your Shoulder Muscle Pain

Shoulders are a fragile area that could be injured quite easily and cause excruciating pain to the sufferer. There are a few different causes for shoulder muscle pain, including:

Frozen shoulder

This condition is very painful and it will reduce the ability for the shoulder to do its normal movement. This condition is commonly affecting middle-aged and older people.

Acromioclavicular joint disorders

This is the joint that’s located at the top of the shoulder. When it’s injured or affected by some unwanted conditions like osteoarthritis, it could cause some serious pain. This is a condition often suffered by those who actively involved in contact sports, like rugby, martial art or soccer, or sports that involve a lot of shoulder movements, like bowling, volleyball or tennis.

Broken/fractured bone

A broken or fractured bone anywhere on the body is obviously a very painful condition for Shoulder Muscle Pain.

Shoulder instability

This is a condition where the shoulder has an unstable and unusual range of movement, or also known as hypermobility. This is also a condition often suffered by athletes who involve in contact sports or other sports with a lot of shoulder movement.

Rotator cuff disorders

Rotator cuff contains a group of tendons and muscles that help to keep the shoulder joint stable. This is also a condition of Shoulder Muscle Pain that’s commonly found in middle-aged or older people.

Poor posture

This is a bad shoulder condition due to genetic factors.

However, in some cases, shoulder pain is not even caused by any of the above conditions that affect the shoulder joint or other parts of the shoulder, instead, it’s caused by a condition in other areas of the body, like a terrible neck pain that often also felt in the shoulder.

Shoulder muscle pain treatments

There are a few different types of treatments to get rid of shoulder muscle pain, but basically you either can do the treatment yourself or go to a physician. The right kind of treatment would depend on the cause of your shoulder pain, if it’s only caused by minor injuries or muscle soreness, then you can treat yourself at home, but if the pain is so severe or it’s caused by heavy injuries, then it’s best to get proper help from a physician.

DIY remedies to relieve shoulder muscle pain

Some shoulder pain conditions actually only require simple treatments that you can do yourself. These treatments are quite effective to get rid of minor pain due to light injuries or other minor causes. These DIY remedies include:

Avoiding activities

Sometimes all you need to do in order to get rid of your shoulder muscle pain is to rest your shoulder. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything with your shoulder, but you should avoid some activities like vigorous stretching or other intense movements such as bench pressing or overarm throwing.

Ice packs

Using ice packs on your shoulder could help to reduce pain and inflammation. Besides ice packs, you could also use a bag of frozen peas or frozen meat. Just cover the ice pack with a damp towel so it won’t cause ice burn on your skin.

Painkillers

There are various painkillers that you can get without prescriptions. For minor shoulder pain, these painkillers should be really helpful.

Get a professional help

As said above, if your shoulder muscle pain is so severe or a result of a bad injury, then you should get professional help. Some treatments that you can get from a professional physician to alleviate your shoulder muscle pain might include:

Corticosteroid tablets

This medicine contains steroids, which can reduce pain and swelling. Corticosteroid tablets could provide short-term pain relief but the medicine also comes with a few side effects.

Corticosteroid injections

If the pain is so severe, your physician might recommend giving you Corticosteroid injections rather than prescribing tablets.

Hyaluronate injections

This is effective to reduce pain, but most physicians believe the Corticosteroid injections work better even though there might be some side effects, like thinning of your skin, lightening of your skin and temporary pain.

Physiotherapy

This method might involve shoulder exercises and shoulder massage.

Arthrographic distension

This is a common professional treatment for frozen shoulder. The patient will be injected with a special fluid that will show up on X-rays. It will be used as a guidance to inject a mixture of local anesthetic, corticosteroid, and saline.

Surgery – For a very bad condition of frozen shoulder or broken bone, surgery might be necessary.