Introduction
Do you have annoying shoulder blade pain?Through out the day it can be annoying, You tried digging into areas that seem to be the problematic areas. To no avail. can Watch this video to learn why this is so.
Usual Muscles Involved
Throughout the years, I have noted a typical pattern of muscle involvement when it come to shoulder blade pain. There are three muscles/muscle groups that are primarily involved. The powerful pectoral muscles include Pectoralis Major and Minor. The Rhomboid group consists of Major and Minor. Another involved muscle is Serratus Anterior, which sits on the side of the rib cage in the armpit.
A Short Breakdown of Dysfunction
The pectoral muscles are very powerful muscles, stronger than the rhomboid muscles. The Pectoral muscles are your chest muscles. They are involved with rotating the upper arm towards the mid-line. They also draw the arms from an “outwards” position towards the mid-line. The rhomboids are postural muscles. Their function is to draw the shoulders back. The last muscle, Serratus Anterior brings the shoulder blades “outwards” on the rib cage.
Both the Serratus Anterior and pectoral muscles draw the shoulder blades laterally on the rib cage. Shoulder blade pain ensues when the rhomboids become overworked because of the powerful actions of the pectorals and Serratus muscles.
The pain that one feels between the shoulder blades is due to the rhomboids becoming lengthened and weak over time.
A typical patient is one who works in front of their computers with bad posture. Their shoulders are generally rounded and have a head forward position.
This posture shortens both the Serratus and pectoral muscles. The body is wonderful at adapting but I always say, sometimes it does it too well.
Contributing and Exacerbating Factors
Shoulder blade pain can have a number of exacerbating and contributing factors:
- Tight pectoral fascia. The fascia is the connective tissue that lies underneath the skin. It wraps around bone, muscles, organs, nerves and it connects everything together. When the fascia becomes tight, it is usually from bad posture. This tightness can cause biomechanical changes such as the drawn in shoulder position. The issue become magnified. The shoulder blade pain become chronic and the pain seems to be constant over time.
- Trigger points from muscles such as the Serratus Anterior. Although this muscle isn’t directly between the shoulder blades, it can cause referral pain between the shoulder blades. I call this a “ninja” trigger point. It is a point that actually sits at the side of the rib cage. This is versus right between the shoulder blades.
- Shoulder blade pain can have exacerbating factors. These include muscle spasms from other muscles that attach to the shoulder blade. In this scenario, we have to assess to see what muscles can be contributing or exacerbating the condition.
Treatment Goals
With shoulder blade pain an important aspect is to correct the patient’s posture. usually postural habits are the root of this type of pain. This can be addressed through stretching the pectorals and Serratus muscles, while strengthening the rhomboid muscles.
In regards to the actual hands on techniques. If the issue has developed over a shorter period, we will generally focus on relaxing the muscles. These muscles are located between the shoulder blades. This is more the focus.
However with more chronic issues, we will delve into aggressively working more the pectorals and Serratus. These muscles are usually very tight. No matter how much work you do on the rhomboids, the relief will be temporary. The condition will return after a day or so.
In this manner we are addressing more the root versus just the symptoms.
If you are encountering shoulder blade pain and it is chronic, please contact us to discuss treatment.
More resources:
Check out this video. It will help you stretch your chest muscles. It will also decrease pain and tightness in the shoulders and chest. Have you suffered annoying pain between the shoulder blades? Contact us to discuss deep tissue massage to relieve your pain.
