Shoulder Pain

Please remember the advice we give is general and not meant to be used as a substitute for professional medical or health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you want specific advice then please seek help from your doctor or local physio.

The purpose of this guide is to help you overcome any issues you have related to your shoulder. This may be shoulder or upper arm pain, or other symptoms such as clicking, clunking or grinding sensations in the shoulder.

Causes of shoulder pain

Shoulder pain has various causes. You may have been told you have:

Osteoarthritis
Rotator cuff tear/disorder
Cartilage tears
Impingement
Tendon problem (eg. tendonitis, tendinopathy)
Bursitis

Or, you may just have unexplained pain around your shoulder.

What to do about shoulder pain/problems

Whatever the cause of your shoulder pain, it is important to find ways to keep being physically active. Continuing with the program is likely one of the best things you can do to help it.

Rest assured that exercise is safe and healthy for your shoulders, whatever problem you have been diagnosed with. Even for “severe osteoarthritis” and "full thickness rotator cuff tear" the research shows us that strength and fitness exercise is beneficial and safe.

The majority of cases of shoulder pain do not require any specific diagnoses or specific treatment to overcome. Most musculoskeletal pain gets better with time. And pain itself is rarely a sign of anything serious.

There are plenty of shoulder exercises in the program, meaning you probably don't need to add in any extra shoulder exercises to overcome this pain. Just keep going with the program as best you can.

In order to continue with the program, modify the exercises to make them tolerable. There is no right and wrong here, it will be personal for each individual.

When it comes to symptoms other than pain, such as clicking, clunking or grinding sensations in the shoulder, our approach should be the same. Much like with pain itself, these symptoms are infrequently a sign of anything serious. We encourage you to continue with the exercise program, modifying movements as needed.

How to make the program exercises tolerable

The goal is to modify the exercises in order to make the tolerable, so that you can continue. The use of the word tolerable here is intentional. This doesn't mean the exercises have to be completely pain-free. Some pain with exercise is ok. It just has to be tolerable for you.

There are 3 general rules to follow when modifying exercises:

Reduce the weight that you are using
Reduce the range of movement
Vary the movement or find a similar alternative

Often, the overhead pressing type exercises are the most problematic when it comes to shoulder pain. So check out this article to to learn how to modify overhead pressing movements: How to modify overhead pressing movements

If none of these modifications are working for you, and you find certain exercises are just too painful, then it’s okay to just skip those exercises for a while. Keep going with all the other exercises in the workouts as best you can. Then try to gradually reintroduce the exercise that was previously too painful, starting with the easiest possible version and slowly progressing.

Things to look out for...

There are some signs & symptoms to look out for that suggest further medical investigation is warranted. So if you have shoulder pain and any of the following, it's a good idea to speak to your doctor before continuing with exercise:

Constant/severe pain
Pain that is progressively getting worse
Pain during the night, especially if it wakes you up
Trauma (eg. a fall or injury to the shoulder)
Swelling/redness
Pins & needles or numbness in the arm

Summary

We hope you have found this guide helpful for overcoming your shoulder issues and giving you the confidence and know-how to continue with exercise.

If you want to take a more detailed look at shoulder pain - click here to read our shoulder pain blog