More than half of the American population lives and deals with some kind of body pain. Dealing with any kind of pain can be distracting and irritating, but pain near your shoulder blades can be especially annoying.
Luckily, there are some remedies you can take on to help limit the amount of pain you might experience. There are a number of exercises for shoulder pain that can help to alleviate soreness and discomfort in the shoulder blades.
What do you need to know about these various stretching exercises? How can they help to recover from a shoulder injury or push back against shoulder tightness? Read on and we’ll walk you through the basics.
Wall Slides
One of the best ways to combat shoulder pain? Wall slides. All you’ll need to do to try out this exercise is position yourself near an open doorway. If you can, it can be helpful to have a cloth in hand as well.
Place the cloth against the door frame and slide your hand up and down. Your hand reaches the top of this motion, leaning into the door. Do this repeatedly, stretching against the door and moving your hand through the motion.
Repeat this with both arms, or prioritize the shoulder you feel pain in if you’re only feeling it on one side. Moving through this stretch twenty to thirty times should provide some relief.
Planks
This exercise is a popular one in shoulder rehab pilates – and for good reason!
For this one, all you need to do is to get down into the position that you would if you were planning on doing a push-up. Keep your feet about a hip’s length apart.
Instead of actually performing push-ups, just hold yourself in this exact position for as long as you can. Ensure to keep your back flat during this duration, and pull your core in, to the best of your ability.
Holding this position should help stretch out your shoulders and remove some of that lingering soreness.
Bicep Stretch
Here’s another stretch that you can do with the doorway.
For this one, you’ll want to place your hand on the wall or doorway, at a height just above your hip level. Lean towards the wall until you’re perpendicular to it.
Once in this position, hold yourself still for as long as possible – at least thirty seconds, ideally. You should be able to feel a stretch of muscle as you move towards the wall or doorway.
This stretching should provide some quick relief when it comes to the kind of pain you’re experiencing.
Best Exercises for Shoulder Pain
If you’re uncertain about how best to handle your existing pain, you may want to look into the above exercises for shoulder pain. Practicing these exercises can help to ensure that you’ll be feeling better sometime soon.
Need more exercise advice and information? Keep scrolling our blog for more.