Table of Contents
- Activities to Avoid or Change
- For Temporary Relief
- Stretches and Exercises for Longer-Lasting Relief
- Yoga Corner
Here, you’ll find ways to get relief on your own from nagging pain just inside the bottom of your shoulder blade. Also, you can read about how people describe this pain and activities that aggravate the condition in this post.
Activities To Avoid or Change:
Move!
As much fun as it is to shop online and lean in, Sit up straight!
Extended Laptop activities like Zoom conferences, doing finances, or writing blogs tend to create overstretch this muscle and aggravate it. Instead, don’t spend prolonged periods of time leaning on your elbows; get up and move around!
Additionally, anything that forces your shoulder blades back forcefully or for extended periods is a problem. Planks and push-ups are a problem when this muscle is weak, and you have trouble supporting your torso between your shoulder blades.
Find a Good Seated Posture for You
This post has a couple of different approaches to changing your desk posture to reduce pain. First, It discusses a good working posture for the active body. Then, it explores supportive accessories while seated. With those supports, you can set yourself up to work for long periods without creating pain and tension.
For Temporary Relief:
Pain Patch
If stretching isn’t convenient, you can place one of those little pain patches on your ribs, just below the armpit on the side that hurts. It should offer relief within 10 minutes or so. As a bonus, they’re easy to handle and don’t produce much of a scent if you’re at work or on a date. You can pick them up at most drug stores, grocery stores, or Amazon.
These self-care activities, like over-the-counter drugs, are not intended to replace appropriate medical attention. If you have concerns about these self-care activities, get help from a professional. Use these suggestions and strategies with discretion and at your own risk. See your doctor when your pain is severe, persistent, or not responding to these simple suggestions.
Stretches and Exercises for Longer-Lasting Relief:
Stretching for Relief and Better Posture
The stretches in this post can quickly and easily lengthen the serratus anterior to offer quick relief. For greater impact, apply a vapo-coolant like Icy-hot or BioFreeze on the ribs. As well, you can just swipe the area under your armpit with ice. It’ll be particularly shocking and aggravating in the area over the trigger point.
Tone Weak, Overstretched Muscle
These wall push-ups help build the serratus anterior. Gently drop your chest toward the wall and then press your upper back away from the wall for 2 seconds.
If you have those winged shoulder blades, get four sets of 10 with doorway stretches in between. In addition, you can do the middle position on the doorway stretches. Between 2 and 3 weeks, people see notable changes in their shoulder blades.
Walking Lunges
- Step forward so the front foot is in front of the knee and the back knee is behind your hips.
- Keep your shoulders back over your hips.
- Lower your torso until the front is level.
- Keep your knee behind your toes on the front leg.
- Widen your stance, turn your front toe in a tiny bit, and focus on keeping your hips between your feet if you are unstable.
- Step forward while minimizing how much your head and front shin lean forward.
- Do 6-10 reps on each leg.
I’d love your feedback on how this works for you and any suggestions you might have.
Email me at integrativeworks@gmail.com.
Yoga Corner
Proper Planks
This muscle supports the ribs in postures that face down like a plank. This picture shows how the ribs drop between the shoulder blades as the serratus anterior does not support the torso. Pressing the torso up through the shoulder blades strengthens the serratus anterior. The wall push-ups I mentioned above are a less difficult way to build this muscle.
Do three sets of 10 reps, with about a minute in between sets. Add this to your routine. Your back should feel better by the 3rd day and stabilize in less than three weeks. If not, see your bodyworker.
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Tony Preston has a practice in Atlanta, Georgia, where he sees clients. He has written materials and instructed classes since the mid-90s. This includes anatomy, trigger points, cranial, and neuromuscular.
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*This site is undergoing significant changes. We are reformatting and expanding the posts to make them easier to read. The result will also be more accessible and include more patterns with better self-care. Meanwhile, there may be formatting, content presentation, and readability inconsistencies. Until we get older posts updated, please excuse our mess.
