Shoulder Muscle Pain

You have had a good day at work and have had a fairly relaxed day. Dinner is great and after the usual routine, of Tv and perhaps a dessert and coffee, you hit the bed. You slip into deep slumber as soon as your back touches the bed. However, much to your alarm, after sleeping reasonably well, you wake up with pain in your shoulder. You circumspect - what might have happened. Is it the workout, an uncomfortable sitting position at work or was there something wrong in the way you slept? Well, there could be any reason, but the bitter sad truth remains that shoulder pain is something we can never avoid or take precautions against. Nevertheless, this is not to scare you off!I am positive that all of those reading this have experienced shoulder muscle pain sometime or the other. Let us again go deep into this issue!

Causes of Pain in Shoulder Muscles

From an injury to a repetitive physical activity, there a number of shoulder pain causes.

Bursitis
Bursitis refers to the inflammation of small sacks (bursae) filled with synovial fluid for smooth movement of joints. Shoulder bursitis is pretty common and one of the main symptoms of bursitis is pain in the concerned joint. This is one of the most common causes.

Tendonitis
This is related to Bursitis, but is not the same. Tendonitis does not involve fluid like bursitis does. It involves swelling and inflammation of tendons. The tendons in the shoulders and arm area are easily prone to this problem.

Muscle and Tendon Tears
Muscle and tendon tears again lead to pain in the shoulders. Pain is the most dominant symptom of all kinds of muscle and tendon tears - on account of strain, injury, etc. In case of shoulders particularly, rotator cuff injuries and problems can also lead to shoulder muscle pain.

Frozen Shoulder
Arthritis and associated problems or probably an injury is the reason for a frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder leads to considerable pain and discomfort. Middle aged and older people are most often than not prone to frozen shoulder.

Shoulder Dislocation and Separation
Shoulder dislocation, where the top of the arm bone is disconnected from the scapula (shoulder blade) can be really painful. When the joint between the scapula and clavicle is disrupted, it leads to shoulder separation.

We talked about the causes of shoulder pain. What exactly do these causes lead to, other than pain, obviously, you might ask. Well, most of these lead to symptoms like swelling, bruising, sometimes itching, soreness of muscles, inflammation, restriction of movement of the joint and in general discomfort in the concerned area. The gravity and extent of this will be dependent upon how serious the cause is. For now, moving ahead, let us delve into how to deal with shoulder pain.

Treatment for Aching Shoulder Muscles

Akin to the symptoms, the treatment for shoulder pain too will be decided upon the reason for the pain and how grave it is. Hence before you start any sort of treatment for your painful shoulder, it is crucial to know the reason behind it. However, there are a few general things which you can try out, for shoulder pain treatment which may work in some cases and would not prove to be helpful in some cases. Surely nonetheless, there would not be any harm done (in most cases), even if an improvement is not observed.

Fantastic Four
Rest, ice, compression and stretching are a good option to tackle the initial pain and discomfort. This treatment works well. Ice packs help deal with the swelling and inflammation and soothe the frayed tendons and muscles. Stretching will come a bit later once the initial pain and impact of injury dies down. Tying or compressing the area, and applying a heat pad too can help.

Other Options
In cases where there is severe shoulder pain and diagnosis reveals that the above mentioned formula would not help, perhaps a person may undergo surgery or so. If not that the doctor may advise non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and sometimes cortisone injections as well. Physiotherapy too has been proved to be greatly helpful in dealing with pain in shoulder muscles. The physiotherapist will suggest exercises for shoulder pain as per the condition of your shoulder.

Prevention, at the end of the day is not really an option when it comes to shoulder pain, as it can happen as a result of anything - an accident/injury, sudden, awkward pull and so on. In some cases like pain as a result of workout, proper stretching and warm up might help. All the same, we can always ensure that we keep ourselves fit, so that we can deal with the pain better! I sign off here! Take care!