Your shoulders called, they want you to take some action!
Sore, tight, tense shoulders. The biggest reason women seek out a massage, in my experience. As both a massage therapist and yoga teacher, I’m in a unique position to make suggestions on how to help your aching shoulders. So, if you can’t get a massage appointment as soon as you’d like, here are my top tips on self help for shoulder ache.
- Heat is my number one go to: lie on a hot water bottle or get in a warm-hot bath with your shoulders under the water. If you’re not a fan of heat, move on to step 2. If you can warm up your shoulders first, the muscles will likely respond faster to the steps below
- Pass the yoga block, or as you’re unlikely to have one at home, any brick sized book will do – Harry Potter or the dictionary are perfect. I really recommend a soft back version so it makes less noise when you inevitably drop it on the floor! Reach your left arm behind you as though you are about to unclip your bra. Taking the book in your right hand, reach over head and pass the book to your left hand. Switch arms. Repeat a few times. And then reverse. It’ll feel super weird. And likely harder on one side than the other. Hence you’ll probably drop the book. It feels weird because it’s probably not a movement you’ve done before, and as a result, the brain is having to work! This is great because not only are we creating space in the shoulders, but also space in the brain by forcing new neural pathways to be made!
- Take a belt or scarf. Holding in front of your in your hands, widen your hands so that they are 10 – 15cm wider than shoulder distance apart on each side. Begin to raise your arms towards the ceiling, holding the belt/scarf. Maybe your knuckles point towards the ceiling, maybe they don’t. Wherever you are, begin to make little, gentle forwards-backwards movements with your hands enabling the shoulders to open and “floss”. With practice, you may be able to/want to bring the hands closer together and increase how far back you can move the arms. Work with and listen to your body. What’s right for you will be different to others in your household. Go gently.
- Put two tennis balls in a clean sock and tie the end with a hair/elastic band. You want to be able to slightly separate the tennis balls with a gap of approx 2cms between them. This sounds extremely weird to support the shoulders but it really works. The key point is GO GENTLY. We are not trying to immediately work through any knots and tightness but to GENTLY ease into muscular and myofascial tightness here. Lie down on a carpet / yoga mat and ease the tennis balls under your neck. The balls should be either side of the spine and AT NO POINT should they be resting on the spine – this is why you have a gap between them. Adjust the tennis balls to ensure they are not resting on the spine or any other bone such as the shoulder blade. Slowly ease onto the tennis balls, which are pressing into the top of your trapezius muscles. Just rest here on the tennis balls and allow your body weight to ease into them. If the sensation is too strong and causing you to grit your teeth, tense up or generally feels too intense, back off. You can do this by supporting you head with a cushion. SLOWLY AND GENTLY roll down the tennis balls so they are an inch further down. Allow the body to ease onto them. Roll down another inch so they are between your shoulder blades. You can keep going all the way down either side of the spine if you like. The key points are:
- NEVER ON BONE
- GO GENTLY and ease up if the sensation is too intense – no muscling through pain as it just tells your nervous system to brace, which is not helping you to relax or release anywhere!
- The sock stops the tennis balls pinging out across the room, trust me, I know!
- Don’t spend more than 60 ish seconds in each place. Go slowly and see how the body responds.
5. Book your massage with an experienced therapist who sees your pain issue as part of a holistic picture and can use a variety of tools to support you.