Is massage good for shoulder pain: with illustrated self massage guide

Section One: Why massages just give short term relief, and how to do the more effective trigger point therapy

Trigger point therapy is much more effective

While the clinical trial results for general massage were not very encouraging therapy directed at trigger points gave much better results (2–4). To help you with trigger points we share the following resources.

What are trigger points

Trigger points are those deep tender lumps in your muscles that shoot pain when pressed upon. As we’ll discuss later in the section on overlooked caused of shoulder pain they cause pain by both:

• referring pain directly, or
• causing muscles to become tight and not work properly, affecting the mechanics of your shoulders.

For further information please see our resource article: What are trigger points

Professional trigger point therapies

For an evaluation of the professional therapies please see our article: What is the best trigger point therapy

Self trigger point therapies

There are very effective self trigger point therapies. We we encourage you to look at these to save money and enable you to get he amount of care you need to get properly better. Because there is a lot of practical demonstration involved we put together this video and a quick reference summary.

Quick reference video summary

Why we use vibration massage

We apply trigger point therapy with a vibration massager because it is:
• highly effective
• penetrates better
• safer, with no pain
• extremely easy

The basic technique

• find the trigger point
• apply vibration massage for 30-60 seconds

The individual shoulder muscles

Scientists have found that trigger points in any of 17 different muscles can cause shoulder pain. In the video we show how to do trigger point therapy on each.

How to stay safe and get the best results

Continue regular treatment

The initial trigger point therapy just relieves pain. Continue the therapy to eliminate the trigger points completely.

Do not use a massage gun (percussion massager)

percussion massagers are designed to pummel the muscle rather than deliver therapeutic vibrations, making them a lot less effective and potentially harmful.

How to find a suitable vibration massager

Unfortunately most massagers available are either massage guns, ineffective consumer massagers, or both. For how to choose a safe effective machine please see How to choose a massager. The machines we had purpose built got this therapy are:

• The general Purpose Massager
• The Ultimate Quad Head Massager

Section two: The two most important causes of shoulder pain that doctors commonly miss

Medical journals and medical education are heavily influenced by drug companies so doctors often don’t get told about anything that would reduce the sale of drugs. In the case of shoulder pain the two main scientifically proven causes of shoulder pain are omitted, and instead doctors are encouraged to prescribe useless drugs and therapies. To help you evaluate the resulting advice, we

1. summarise the omitted causes, and
2. in the next section the summarise the useless therapies.

For full details please see our article Why shoulder pain keeps coming back.

Overlooked cause two: (myofascial) trigger points

As mentioned above trigger points can cause shoulder pain by

• direct referral or by,
• causing muscles to be abnormally tight and not work properly, therefore causing abnormal stress and pinching.

In a series of trials, highly credentialed scientists have found that they are are a major cause of shoulder pain, and that treating them gives excellent relief (2–4,12–15). However, this is usually not mentioned in medical journals (16–18)⁠

Section three: commonly prescribed shoulder pain remedies that are of little use and can actually cause harm

Exercises alone are particularly stupid

The prescription of exercises to “correct” shoulder function deserves a special mention. Put simply, issues such as having a head forward posture or trigger points cause shoulder joints to function abnormally, creating abnormal stress and pinching that can eventually become painful. Exercises are prescribed rather than remove these impediments to normal function. Of course with the impediments still there function cannot return to normal so the shoulder continues to move in the same damaging way. It is not surprising that one trial of 148 patients found that both a supervised rehabilitation program and a home exercise program actually made the shoulder pain worse (20)⁠.

References

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2. Sergienko S, Kalichman L. Myofascial origin of shoulder pain: A literature review. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2015;19(1):91–101.
3. Hains G, Descarreaux M, Hains F. Chronic Shoulder Pain of Myofascial Origin: A Randomized Clinical Trial Using Ischemic Compression Therapy. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2010;33(5):362–9.
4. Bron C, De Gast A, Dommerholt J, Stegenga B, Wensing M, Oostendorp RAB. Treatment of myofascial trigger points in patients with chronic shoulder pain: A randomized, controlled trial. BMC Med. 2011;9.
5. Jcu R, Sakthi D. Clinical assessment of subacromial impingement-which factors differ from asymptomatic population. Musculoskeltal Sci Pract. 2017;27:49–56.
6. Alizadehkhaiyat O, Roebuck MM, Makki AT, Frostick SP. Postural alterations in patients with subacromial impingement syndrome. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2017;12(7):1111–20.
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12. Gordon CM, Andrasik F, Schleip R, Birbaumer N, Rea M. Myofascial triggerpoint release (MTR) for treating chronic shoulder pain: A novel approach . J Bodyw Mov Ther . 2016;20(3):614–22.
13. Hidalgo-Lozano A, Fernández-De-Las-Peñas C, Alonso-Blanco C, Ge HY, Arendt-Nielsen L, Arroyo-Morales M. Muscle trigger points and pressure pain hyperalgesia in the shoulder muscles in patients with unilateral shoulder impingement: A blinded, controlled study. Exp Brain Res. 2010;
14. Van Den Dolder PA, Roberts DL. A trial into the effectiveness of soft tissue massage in the treatment of shoulder pain. Aust J Physiother . 2003;49(3):183–8.
15. Perez-Palomares S, Oliván-Blázquez B, Arnal-Burró AM, Mayoral-Del Moral O, Gaspar-Calvo E, De-La-Torre-Beldarraín ML, et al. [Contributions of myofascial pain in diagnosis and treatment of shoulder pain. A randomized control trial]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19630975/). BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2009;10(1):1–7.
16. Burbank KM, Stevenson JH, Czarnecki GR, Dorfman J. Chronic shoulder pain: Part I. Evaluation and diagnosis. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77(4):453–60.
17. Burbank KM, Stevenson JH, Czarneck GR, Dorfman J. Chronic shoulder pain: Part II. Treatment. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77(4):493–7.
18. Holmes RE, Barfield WR, Woolf SK. Clinical evaluation of nonarthritic shoulder pain: Diagnosis and treatment. Phys Sportsmed. 2015;43(3):262–8.
19. Cloke DJ, Watson H, Purdy S, Steen IN, Williams JR. A pilot randomized, controlled trial of treatment for painful arc of the shoulder. J Shoulder Elb Surg. 2008;17(1 SUPPL.).
20. Gleyze P, Georges T, Flurin PH, Laprelle E, Katz D, Clavert P, et al. Comparison and critical evaluation of rehabilitation and home-based exercises for treating shoulder stiffness: Prospective, multicenter study with 148 cases. Orthop Traumatol Surg Res. 2011;97(8 SUPPL.).