Does your shoulder hurt?
If so, you’re not alone.
At least once every couple of weeks, I talk to someone who’s experiencing some sort of shoulder pain.
They’ve often spent some time with a PT or tried to get a more formal assessment, only to be told that nothing is really wrong with them.
Which is great.
But it doesn’t change the fact that their shoulder still hurts.
More often than not, their chronic shoulder pain also leads them to avoid certain daily activities, which ultimately leads to their shoulder getting even weaker, which results in more pain.
Like most injuries, it’s a pretty vicious cycle.
Now as you know, I’m not a medical professional.
But I have helped a lot of people improve their painful shoulders.
The pain doesn’t always fully go away, but it typically improves enough to where the person can return to enjoying their favorite activities.
And it’s not like I use some sort of magic system based on witchcraft or special rules.
When it comes to injuries, I tend to follow a pretty simple system.
As long as everything is fully intact and there isn’t anything deeper going on (which is why you should see a medical professional first…), then it tends to work pretty well.
Step 1: Figure out what hurts.
Step 2: Try to stimulate the hurt muscle or tendon without causing more damage.
Step 3: Increase difficulty as the muscle or tendon gets stronger.
That’s the whole injury recovery system.
And it all starts with figuring out what hurts.
A lot of the time, when I meet someone with shoulder pain, they don’t actually know what’s causing them pain.
Sometimes, they’ll even feel the most pain in a different spot than the primary problem because another muscle is doing an excessive amount of work to cover for it’s damaged compatriot.
If you’re going to get better, then step one should be accurately diagnosing the issue.
That’s why I made a video to help you work through shoulder problems.
It’s not comprehensive.
Shoulders are complicated.
Human bodies are complicated.
But it covers a lot.
So if your shoulder hurts (or you know someone whose shoulder hurts), then give it a watch.
And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
CLICK HERE for a podcast about this topic (episode 228 of Running Stronger)