Pain between shoulder blades is probably one of the most common symptoms I see at our clinic when it comes to spinal pain. Many times, when someone has neck pain, it stems from tightness in the muscles between the shoulder blades. That, in effect, creates tension on the neck muscles and viola! you have neck pain. Today I want to quickly talk about what you can do to treat those painful muscles between your shoulder blades to decrease pain and improve life.
Stretch
Start by getting a bath towel and rolling it tight. Next, lay it on the floor and rest the painful part of your shoulders perpendicular to the rolled towel. Lace your fingers behind your neck with both legs out completely straight, flat against the floor. Last, gently pull your chin towards your chest making sure to keep your shoulders against the floor and legs flat. You should feel a stretch of the muscles underneath the towel. You might even feel some joints POP! All of that is good. You can continue to flex your chin to your chest with the towel under your back as much as needed to get those muscles to relax. I recommend at least once a day for 5 minutes, more if you have time.
Roll
Get a tennis ball and a firm surface like your floor. Put the ball on the floor and roll your tender shoulder parts on top of the tennis ball. At first it may be pretty sore to put all of your weight over the ball. I recommend putting more weight through the ball incrementally to give your body a chance to habituate to the pressure. You can do this as much as you want. I recommend at least once a day for 5 minutes, more if you can.
Dry Needle
Sometimes the ache or soreness is more than you can handle on your own. I get it. I have my staff and my wife treat me all the time in this exact place. If the first two options aren’t doing it for you, see a qualified physical therapist about some dry needling for those tight painful muscles. It is a fast, effective way to get rid of the pain in a relatively painless manner without drugs or injections.
