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Stop Shoulder Pain Fast: 3 Expert Tips
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in November 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/3RGGOlbYfkQ
Brad: Shoulder pain. Shoulder pain. That's what we're going to look at today. So I've decided to go to three of our top experts that we like and we've used their particular techniques. Mike's holding the books that they have written. These books are written for the layperson. Mike, can you talk a little more about them?
Mike: So we're going to give you the best expert advice from each of these. We have Dr. Kirsch here, we have Robin McKenzie, and our friend Rick Olderman.
Brad: There you go.
Mike: So we're going to show you the top exercises from each of them, the ones that are our favorites.
Brad: Well, actually, you know, every shoulder injury's a little bit different. These are more for chronic shoulder pains. I want you to go through each of the exercises, and if it irritates you while you're doing it, it's almost certainly not the right one. If it feels good while you're doing it and then after you get done, it feels more relaxed and better, that's going to be the one you're going to want to continue with. So go through all three of them. There may be more than one that's going to be appropriate for your shoulder pain.
Mike: So for the first couple, we're actually going to go back in time. We're going to bring Bob back into the equation here. So we'll show you a couple of these tips then.
Brad: Yeah. So this is kind of like "Doctor Who", we're going to go back again. Woooo...
Bob: This one's a really easy one. You just use a belt, and you're going to go ahead and, let's see, how do we do this here?
Brad: This is a little challenging to get set up. Use a belt that is smooth and shiny because you're going to do it with clothing, and you'll find out why in just a second here. Sometimes I have a little help. There we go. That's where you want to get to.
Bob: That's what I was trying to do.
Brad: So the left arm is relaxed.
Bob: All I'm going to show you is that quite often, what you're going to find is the tight arm is down here. With the other arm, I can put it way up here.
Bob: And so I want to get this arm up to equal that one. So you're just going to go pressure on, pressure off. This belt really does work well once you get it set up. Takes a little bit of doing, but it slides really well.
Brad: As a matter of fact, we did a video a number of years ago on a patient who was set up for shoulder surgery, and then she said, "Can I do therapy?" And the surgeon said, "Well, go ahead, you can do it." Within four visits, she was doing this exercise, no surgery needed.
Bob: Wow.
Brad: Her shoulder mobility improved, canceled surgery, and I still see her, and it's still in good shape.
Bob: Wow. Nice. Yeah, there are some miracles every minute in the Bob and Brad clinic, right?
Brad: There you go.
Bob: Alright, the last one we're going to do is this one. You're going to need some equipment. I mean, you need a place to hang. And Brad and I have become big fans of this.
Brad: But yeah, you just need a hanging bar, and you're just simply going to relax and hang. And you know, when I first heard this, I thought, "This is crazy. It's going to make the impingement worse." But once I read the book, understood the mechanics, and I started trying it, and we start working with people doing it, and it's like, "Yeah, this, this can be really effective."
Bob: Yeah. We've become big fans. It's such an easy thing to do if you have the equipment and you can wear gloves. It'll make it easier. So the book is "Shoulder Pain? The Solution and Prevention." It's by John M. Kirsch, MD.
Brad: He is an orthopedic surgeon. As a matter of fact, he does his practice 30 miles from where I grew up in Wisconsin.
Bob: Does he really?
Brad: Yeah. Stevens Point.
Bob: Oh, cool. Yeah, my daughter went to Stevens Point.
Brad: There you go. It's a nice town. It's got a river running through it and everything.
Bob: Go to Stevens Point, too.
Brad: There you go. So here you are going to hang 10 to 30 seconds, depending on what you tolerate. Up to three repetitions of that, depending on how you respond to it. So the first time you do it, you might get sore, but after you do it for a few days, you'll be able to do it two to three times per day, and we've really had good success with it.
Bob: And you still said seconds. Remember, we promised seconds, and yeah, so it's 30 seconds. out of your day, and you can make a great improvement.
Brad: Oh, that's right. We've got to stick with our titles.
Bob: All right. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Remember, we can fix this about anything.
Brad: Except?
Bob: A broken heart.
Brad: There it is.
Bob: But we're working on it.
Brad: We'll never stop. So now we're going to show you, we went through Robin McKenzie's. We went through Dr. Kirsch. And again, these books are available, and they're very detailed. They'll help you out if you want to learn more details about their treatments. Now, Rick Olderman, this book is a relatively new book, about one to two years old. Rick wrote it along with Bob Schrupp. And it's called Top 3 Fix, the top three exercises, that Rick recommends for different parts of the body. So we're going to talk about shoulder pain and how he recommends for the best success. Go ahead, Mike. Show him. Show him the door.
Mike: We should mention Rick has a new book out called "Pain Patterns". Anyway, the first one we're going to do is you're going to need a doorway, or you can use a stick, if you have a pull-up bar, whatever. You're essentially going to be placing your painful shoulder up, hand is facing away from me, and then I'm going to bend my knees and lean into the doorframe. I'm going to get a good stretch in my shoulder blade region there. Now this is kind of similar to Dr. Kirsch's hanging, except that you're just doing one side. We're stretching this way, going out. We're getting in a little bit of lat stretching as well. So it's slightly different. So make sure to try them all and see which ones make your shoulder feel the best.
Brad: That's right. Again, if you don't happen to be the right proportion, So you can grab the doorframe above safely, or if you don't have safe woodwork, simply take a stick. If it doesn't have a rubber tip on the bottom, which you may not, put it in a shoe like this on a cupboard, reach up as high as you can, and then you simply do the same motion, hand is pointed away, bend your knee, allow that shoulder to stretch, and hold. You can stretch and hold. Again, it should feel good. A little pain at first might be okay, as long as the pain feels better and gets better the longer you stretch. If it just hurts more and more, you're going to stop and not do this one. So start out gently, use good judgment.
Brad: Let's go for our second exercise, Mike. Okay, the second exercise is quite simple. Oftentimes, the middle trap is weak, making the shoulder mechanics not work properly, creating pain. So Mike's going to show a simple prone exercise. You could do it on a bed, probably a carpeted floor would work better. For filming, we're doing it here. Mike, can you explain it?
Mike: So first off, when you're lying like this, make sure your pillows are folded up so you can breathe, or put your hand here on your forehead. So this is gonna be my painful shoulder. For beginners, what you can try to do is simply lift your whole arm off the mat. I'm squeezing my shoulder blade in, and I'm going to hold it for 10 seconds, and then I'm going to relax. I'm going to try to do that 10 times. It's really going to strengthen that mid trap muscle.
Mike: If this seems easy for you, what you can try to do is put your arm more out to the side. You can roughly go 45 degrees. So at your side is zero, and straight out is 90, kind of somewhere in between. The further out, the more challenging it's going to be. So again, I'm going to squeeze my shoulder blade, and then I'm going to do a little oscillation. So I'm going to go 10 one direction, stop, do 10 the other direction, and then come back and relax. And you can do that up to 10 times as well. It's really going to strengthen your mid-trap muscles.
Brad: That's right. You know you can do this, so go to the other shoulder and compare one side to the other. If you clearly notice one side is weaker, you really need to work on that because it is a problem. And the last stretch that Rick recommends is simply to help your posture. So oftentimes, as you get this rounded posture, people are not even aware of it.
Brad: But if you lie down on your back and then you use gravity, Mike is going to show you how to correct the posture by using gravity and stretching these anterior muscles, or the pectoralis minor and the pectoralis major muscle, so that you go from here to here. The shoulders work better, you look better, you breathe better. Everything's better with good posture.
Mike: So, for beginners, if you have a really tight neck or upper back and you can't even get your head to the floor comfortably, this hurts too much, you can place a pillow underneath your head to begin. You're going to put your palms facing upward, and then you have to have enough room, and you're basically going to make a snow angel. If you're not from the snowy regions of the world, this would make an angel in the snow, essentially. So you're just going to bring your arm straight up, trying to keep contact with the ground. If you are tight, your arm might start creeping up off the ground as you bring it overhead. That means that side is tight. Try to keep it down on the ground as far as you can. If you start to get pain, just go up to where you feel the pain and then go back down. Slowly progress up.
Mike: If this is easy for you right away, keeping in contact with the ground, ditch the pillow, and then you would do the same thing. Do 10 repetitions, when you're at the top, I like to feel a good stretch. Maybe even push the shoulders up a little more. As you get above your head, your elbows are going to creep up a little bit. Notice mine aren't touching anymore, but my shoulders and my hands are; that's okay. As I come down, my elbows will touch again.
Mike: If this seems easy for you and you're not noticing much, you can take a foam roller of sorts, put it underneath you; there are different densities. Pick which one's most comfortable for you, but you want one that is rather long so you can reach your buttocks all the way up to your head while you are lying on it. So I'm here in this position, same concept. It's just a lot more challenging. Obviously, my elbows aren't touching because that's pretty hard. But I'm going to try to keep my hands in contact with the ground as far as I can. Go up and then back down again. You may notice a difference side to side, especially if you have a painful shoulder.
Brad: Alright, you may not even need to get to the advanced and actually purchase a foam roller, but it does help, and it's a little more aggressive. So that's up to you. You could actually put a pillow here. Move your body once, Mike. I'm trying to save these people some money. Now throw the throw pillow, and it doesn't work as well, but it does elevate the chest and get a little more stretch. Do you concur?
Mike: I concur. It's not as much of a stretch.
Brad: He likes the foam roller because he has one at home.
Mike: I have that exact kind of home. It's very nice.
Brad: Once you get used to it, you really want to stick with it. I know how it goes. Alright, and if you want to get more information about Rick Olderman, he's got a wonderful website, rickolderman.com to find out more about Rick. We found him out about two years ago, three years ago. And he's just been a real delight to get some new information.
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