Rotator cuff pain in the shoulder blade is considered to be normal for those of us who have had rotator cuff injuries. For the record I have rehabbed two torn rotator cuff injuries and while I don’t seem to have much trouble or pain in the actual shoulder I do have recurring pain in the shoulder blade. Many times, it is a feeling of discomfort more so than pain; however, it still prompts me to take action immediately to get rid of it as soon as possible.

I remember vividly the horrific pain that I had from a twice torn rotator cuff and how difficult it was to rehab it both times. The tears were caused from weight lifting and basically over training. I managed to do workouts, but they were seriously modified to accommodate the shoulder. It was too painful to push or lift weight; however, I could pull it, which surprised me.

When I talk about pulling weight I am referring to lat pull downs, seated rows and bent over rows. To get the weights in place, though, I could only use the good arm, so carried just one weight at a time. I did a good bit of trying this and that to find out what I could do that didn’t cause pain and in time devised a workout that became my physical therapy.

You do what you gotta do, since I wasn’t about to give up my workouts and I had previous physical therapy with few bouts of shoulder tendonitis, so I basically knew how to rehab the shoulder without worry of a re-injury. However, I never advise anyone to attempt to rehab a torn rotator cuff if they don’t have a clue as to what they are doing or they can possibly make the injury worse.

Now, it is some years later and I still have the old nagging rotator cuff pain in the shoulder blade, nevertheless, I have figured out, once again, how to magically make it go away at least until next time. Albeit, it took some trial and error, just as it did when I was rehabbing it, but it was worth the time and effort to do so.

The first thing I do is slowly stretch the muscles and tendons every which way possible in that area, first without weight, then with weight to get full range of motion. As with any past injury the shoulder will cramp up due to poor circulation, which is common in old injuries.

If it’s stubborn I apply moist heat and massage the area, to increase circulation, then repeat the stretches.

Step three, you roll shoulders forward and backward and follow with shoulder shrugs without weight first then with weight. It’s simple and it works every time. If I happen to be in the gym when rotator cuff pain in the shoulder blade recurs I do lat pull downs and seated rows to stretch it out and it is gone in seconds.

If you have recurring rotator cuff pain in the shoulder blade these tips should work for you as well, but if not, get busy and find out what will.