Massage Therapy for Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain is common and can have many causes. Whether you injured your shoulder in a fall or while playing sports, or hurt your shoulder overdoing it on a home task like painting, shoulder pain can have a major impact on your quality of life. Shoulder injuries can cause pain, disrupt your sleep and affect your shoulder and arm function. Massage therapy can help you ensure that your shoulder injury doesn’t prevent you from participating fully in all aspects of your life.

Reducing Pain

Massage therapy is effective in helping people to reduce their shoulder pain, especially immediately after treatment, though there is some evidence for long-term benefit as well. Massage therapy is even more likely to be effective to help reduce shoulder pain when combined with regular exercises, which can be recommended by an RMT.
Manual therapy directed towards the glenohumeral joint for painful shoulder conditions can be effective in reducing shoulder pain measures such as pain level, which can ultimately have a positive impact on quality of life as well.

Improving Function

Massage therapy can also be effective for improving shoulder range of motion, especially flexion and abduction. Shoulder impingement syndrome is especially common in overhead athletes, which includes sports where the athlete propels the ball to the opposing team like baseball and volleyball. Massage therapy combined with resistance exercises helps these athletes improve strength in affected shoulder muscles.

Many people with shoulder pain also experience difficulty with their shoulder function, and manual therapy can increase both active and passive mobility of the shoulder. In addition to people being able to move their shoulder more easily after manual therapy treatment, they also have more willingness to move their shoulder and have an improved overall quality of life.

Frozen shoulder

Adhesive capsulitis, more commonly known as frozen shoulder, is characterized by stiffness and pain in your shoulder joint.

Manual shoulder mobilizations performed by a health professional like an RMT and stretching or other exercise you can do at home, which your RMT can recommend, are effective pain management strategies if you have frozen shoulder.
Manual therapy, like massage therapy, especially when combined with exercise can also help people with frozen shoulder increase their shoulder range of motion, improve their shoulder function and be less fearful and avoidant of movement.

Exploring Your Options

More people with shoulder pain and injury are consulting conservative treatments like massage therapy and exercise to both manage their pain and improve their shoulder function. An RMT can assess your condition and design a treatment plan based on your needs and preferences to help you manage your shoulder pain. You can visit RMTFind.com and search by postal code to find an RMT in your area.

References

Bervoets DC, Luijsterburg PA, Alessie JJ, Buijs MJ, Verhagen AP. Massage therapy has short-term benefits for people with common musculoskeletal disorders compared to no treatment: a systematic review. J Physiother. 2015 Jul;61(3):106-16.

Camarinos, J., & Marinko, L. (2009). Effectiveness of manual physical therapy for painful shoulder conditions: a systematic review. The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy, 17(4), 206–215.

de la Serna D, Navarro-Ledesma S, Alayón F, López E, Pruimboom L. A Comprehensive View of Frozen Shoulder: A Mystery Syndrome. Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 May 11;8:663703.

Hawk, C., Minkalis, A. L., Khorsan, R., Daniels, C. J., Homack, D., Gliedt, J. A., … Bhalerao, S. (2017). Systematic Review of Nondrug, Nonsurgical Treatment of Shoulder Conditions. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 40(5), 293–319.

D'Orsi, G. M., Via, A. G., Frizziero, A., & Oliva, F. (2012). Treatment of adhesive capsulitis: a review. Muscles, ligaments and tendons journal, 2(2), 70–78.

Sharma, S., Ghrouz, A. K., Hussain, M. E., Sharma, S., Aldabbas, M., & Ansari, S. (2021). Progressive Resistance Exercises plus Manual Therapy Is Effective in Improving Isometric Strength in Overhead Athletes with Shoulder Impingement Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial. BioMed research international, 2021, 9945775.

Yeun YR. Effectiveness of massage therapy for shoulder pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Phys Ther Sci. 2017 May;29(5):936-940. doi: 10.1589/jpts.29.936. Epub 2017 May 16. PMID: 28603376; PMCID: PMC5462703.

Yeun YR. Effectiveness of massage therapy on the range of motion of the shoulder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Phys Ther Sci. 2017 Feb;29(2):365-369. doi: 10.1589/jpts.29.365. Epub 2017 Feb 24. PMID: 28265175; PMCID: PMC5333006.

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