Pain between the shoulder blades Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Are you experiencing pain between shoulder blades and don’t know what to do. Here are the causes, symptoms and treatment of this pains.

Like a knife stabbing you in the back, pain in the shoulder blades can be sharp and piercing. Shoulder blades are the two bone plates that make up the shoulder region.

The area is covered by muscles that make up the shoulder girdle. The most part of the girdle is made up by the trapezoid and trapezius muscle which can be very painful when they are swollen and sore.

The pain has a deep ache like that of a muscle crump and may feel like any other kind of back pain only that this time it caused by a problem originating from the shoulder girdle.

What Causes Pain between the shoulder blades?

Overstretched muscles:

when the girdle muscles are overstretched as in the ‘forward shoulder’ position, they become less able to perform their function effectively. Think of a rope in a tug of war.

 

The rope is stretched from both ends and in this case the rope has no elastic properties as the muscles, so just as the rope is overstretched so are these muscles and because they are elastic, they can lose that elasticity and be unable to function effectively such that they become saggy and painful.

The muscles are stretched to a point of tear but because the body has a way of protecting self, they do not tear but instead they “splint” themselves and body function is affected.

The pain can be experienced on both sides but it is not unusual to have the pain on one side of the body especially in people who overwork one side of their body while the other is dormant, mostly the athletes that are right handed and end up using that side alone.

Good thing is that you can easily avoid this overstretching and thus deal with the pain

Avoid the forward shoulder of forward arm position so as to not put a strain on the muscles

Get a well-trained massage therapist who will not only manage the pain but will also be able to point out the cause of the pain and

advice you appropriately

Try to constantly squeeze your blades towards your spine so as to maintain muscle elasticity

Practice to lift your shoulder blades and roll them backwards so that they are able to move up and down

Depressed shoulder blades causing Pain between the shoulder blades:

the shoulder bone has a flat like area that connects to the other shoulder bone, due to strain and stress on the shoulder, this area is likely to get depressed and causes the trapezius and trapezoid muscles to pull away from each other.

The effect is a weakened back that is unable to bear the weight of the arms due to the effect of gravity pulling the arms down, this causes the arms which are ideally meant to act as an anchor to pull on other muscles of the surrounding areas like the neck muscles which “collapse” causing a lot of pain on the shoulder blades, around the arm and neck

Keeping an ideal body weight and maintaining core strength (the correct body strength that worked at through exercises and a proper diet) is important in preventing this from occurring

Thoracic spine stiffness and misalignment:

The spine is a continuous bony structure that starts from the cervical bones (near the neck), the thoracic region, lumbar region and finally the coccyx(last bone of the back bone).

The part of the spine that is covered by the shoulder blades is called the upper thoracic spine, at this same area ribs are attached to the spine causing a lot of thoracic spine stiffness and bone misalignment which causes pain around the shoulder blades.

Bone realignment and chiropractic are recommended by the doctor to ease shoulder blade pain. A good properly aligned posture does help to reduce this kind of pain as well.

Referred neck pain:

referred pain is that pain which has a source in one part of the body but is felt elsewhere in the body away from the source, this is another reason for shoulder blade pain, the pain is initially In the neck because of overstretching of the muscles of the neck, ligaments and tendons but the pain is felt in the shoulder blades.

If the neck is misaligned and the blades are not resting in a proper position, there is likelihood of putting strain on the cervical bone muscles, discs and ligaments, as in the turtle head position where the head comes out of the shell in a forward position, this pain is referred to the blades and to prevent this pain, you needs to keep the shoulder backwards, chest out and avoid the forward head position

Pain between the shoulder blades Summary

The sole reason why you could be having this pain in the shoulder blades is all due to muscle weakness, muscles of the shoulder play a very vital role in the body, they help to maintain body posture, move the arms up and down, bear the weight of goods carried on the arms or even shoulders, such strenuous activities definitely call for toning of the muscles frequently as it helps to reduce tension on the muslces,a semi-hot shower also works to the advantage as it relaxes the muscles and improves circulation to the shoulder girdle.

Basically avoidance of the pain in the shoulder blades depends on you and therefore you need to be aware of your activities in order to identify the root cause of the pain and be able to avoid those activities that elicit that kind of pain and thus be able to enjoy your daily living that is absolutely free of pain!