Tips for preventing shoulder pain in Grand Rapids, MI

Shoulder pain can prevent you from being able to fully use your arm. This makes it difficult to accomplish many simple daily tasks like combing your hair, getting dressed or cooking. When you’re unable to get through these kinds of activities due to shoulder pain, you may need to visit a professional for treatment.

Physical therapists can help reduce shoulder pain caused by a variety of conditions. While this is good for people who are experiencing shoulder pain, you may be wondering what you can do to prevent it in the first place.

Our team at Advent Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, can treat your shoulder pain, but we also want to help you prevent it from ever developing. That’s why we’ve included a few tips below that can help prevent shoulder pain.

Tips for shoulder pain prevention

Some conditions that cause shoulder pain are unavoidable, such as traumatic injuries or arthritis. However, there are some tips you can follow for preventing shoulder pain not related to these kinds of conditions, such as:

• Avoiding pushing through pain — A sore shoulder is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. This might be something minor, but if you ignore the pain and continue to use your shoulder for physical activity, your pain could get worse. This is especially important for athletes to remember since they constantly push themselves to improve their ability to compete.
• Always warming up before physical activity — Failure to warm up before activities like sports or heavy lifting is a common cause of shoulder pain. Warming up increases blood flow to the muscles and helps limber them up for heavy use. When the muscles are subjected to heavy use without warming up, they can easily stretch and tear.
• Changing the way you sleep — Sleeping on your side can exacerbate shoulder pain if your shoulders are sore. While you may normally be a side sleeper, you need to make some adjustments when you have sore shoulders to prevent shoulder pain. Try sleeping on your back with your arms slightly propped on pillows on each side of you.
• Regularly exercising and stretching — You don’t have to be a very active person to have shoulder pain. A sedentary lifestyle frequently leads to shoulder pain in the moments when you do try to use your shoulders for something like reaching a high object or lifting something heavy. Simple exercises and stretches every day or every other day of the week can help prevent shoulder pain from inactivity.

Visit Advent Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids for shoulder pain treatment

If you have tried to prevent shoulder pain using methods like these, but still have pain, you may need to visit a physical therapist for treatment. Our team in Grand Rapids is highly experienced in treating a variety of conditions that cause shoulder pain. Contact our team today for more information about shoulder pain treatment or to schedule an initial appointment.