Shoulder pain is one of the most debilitating pain you can experience in daily life.
Whether suddenly or over time, shoulder pain can make everything from putting on your seatbelt to lifting the kettle to make an afternoon cup of tea uncomfortable.
You might have been advised that your shoulder pain will disappear in a few days. But if months have passed and movement is becoming increasingly difficult, it’s clear that your issue isn’t simply having slept at a funny angle or needing a new pillow.
If your shoulder pain is turning the simplest task into a major problem, it’s time to stop waiting for it to go away on its own and bring in a professional.
Private physiotherapy can uncover why you have shoulder pain, and then create a personalised treatment plan to regain your function, mobility, and best quality of life again.
Shoulder pain is unique as it affects people of all ages but for very different reasons.
Younger people are often affected by a specific injury. However, for people aged 40 and over, who we specialise in helping, it is not as clear cut.
It just starts off as a niggle, affected by one specific movement. They wait in hope that it will just go away on its own, when it doesn’t the pain becomes more frequent, becoming sharper and always lingering like toothache in the background. It’s at this stage that they finally decide to do something about it.
A physiotherapist is able to quickly diagnose the culprit for your pain, which will either involve the tendons of the shoulder (the rotator cuff), the muscles around the shoulder, or the cartilage or ligaments surrounding the joint, which are the cause of frozen shoulder.
Shoulder pain is a debilitating pain because it turns the easiest of tasks into a painful chore. It’s felt mainly around the shoulder, varying from a sharp pin-point pain to a tight gripping feeling around your arm. We hear in the clinic people describing it as an annoying toothache like pain that just won’t go away on its own.
Shoulder pain makes people struggle with finding a comfortable position to sleep in at night, feeling the lying on the shoulder causes pain but also letting it hang across your body being just as bad. This steals your energy day to day, and makes you fearful pf any shoulder movement.
Because the cause of shoulder pain differs so much but the presentation is so similar, people often wait too long before getting help. Usually, this is no fault of their own. They are given advice by friends and family or even other professionals to try this or that, or get told “oh I have had that and this worked for”. You need a good physiotherapy assessment to clearly identify the cause of your pain and help improve it.
The longer the pain lingers the more frustrating it becomes. It makes the simple things like washing your hair difficult, trying to scratch your back becomes impossible and even trying to lift something overhead causes severe pain, for some people something as light as a tea cup becomes too heavy.
You might feel nervous about booking a private physiotherapy appointment. If you’ve had a bad previous experience or been recommended generic exercises that didn’t solve your problem, it’s normal to be apprehensive.
At Hamilton Physiotherapy, we focus on outcome over intervention. Shoulder rubs from family members are nice – but if a massage isn’t targeted, it won’t help your pain!
By starting physiotherapy for your shoulder pain, you can stop discomfort from dictating your life. Our treatment plans are fully tailored to your injury and can include manual massage, exercises, stretches, or even gentle exercise.
All that matters is finding the right method to ease your pain, without relying on medication to take the edge off.
Physiotherapy will help restore your freedom of movement again. We will focus on you being able to perform daily tasks that can suddenly become a struggle. That means freeing up movement so you can put a coat on again without flinching.
With a combination of hands-on therapy and a tailored rehab programme to your needs, we will help you rebuild your strength to provide a long term solution that allows you to get back to your favourite hobbies. It means you will have the strength to reach to the top shelf, push up from a chair, swing a golf club or just be able to lift and hold your children or grandchildren again.
When basic movements become painful, keeping your shoulder still and relying on your other arm to do all the work is tempting. However, this can only compound your initial problem and lead to your shoulder becoming sorer and stiffer over time.
Try to keep your shoulder moving in a comfortable way to avoid causing more damage down the line.
A quick Google or YouTube search will bring up hundreds of exercises for shoulder pain – but how do you know they are the right ones for your issue?
In some cases, doing the wrong exercises will make you feel worse! The best way to create a personalised exercise programme is to talk to an expert, who can create a progressive plan that builds your long-term strength, function, and mobility.
Above anything else, the most important thing you can do to tackle your shoulder pain is get a physiotherapy appointment!
Improvements can always be made to your quality of life. Working with a professional is the best way to start moving more independently, get a good night’s sleep, and enjoying your favourite hobbies again at last.
We don’t promise a magical fix for your pain if we can’t provide one.
The quicker you know the clear cause of your pain and what you can do the sooner you will feel better.
This is especially important for shoulder pain as certain conditions like frozen shoulder need to be diagnosed as swiftly to prevent long term suffering.
The majority of shoulder issues respond well to physiotherapy input preventing the need for surgery.
If your physio feels your issue can’t be helped they will identify this quickly and guide you on your next steps.
Shoulder issues respond extremely well to physiotherapy intervention and a guided rehab programme.
Once you are doing the correct exercises and getting the correct treatment, physiotherapy will make a significant difference to your shoulder pain.
Working closely with your physio means they will be able to guide you back into the activities you currently find challenging.
The pain that you start to experience during the night is a direct result of what you have done during the day. Figuring out what this is, specific to your condition, is vital in helping your sleep.
Your physio will be able to guide you with the movements that may be causing your sleep disruption and suggest modifications to help.
No. When it comes to aches and pains there is always something that can help improve your symptoms, increase your function and promote your independence.
It very rarely improves on its own though.
Getting the correct guided support gives you the best chance to regain and maintain your independence.
