Frozen Shoulders & Neck Pain

Do you happen to work either at a computer or a lab bench all day? I have severe recurring tendinitis-like pain in both of my shoulders (some have told me that it is frozen shoulder) from doing this kind of work, and I definitely have neck tightness/soreness with it. It gets very bad when I am sleeping, but only when it was already stiff/sore during the day. Here is what I do to deal with it (pick and choose if any of these sound helpful):

1.) Exercises to stretch the muscles between my shoulder blades.

By far the one that helps me the most is this: make fists with your hands and place them so your knuckles are just behind your ears, with your palms facing forward, thumbs down towards your shoulders, and your elbows straight out to the sides of your head. Keeping your hands where they are, bring your elbows forward and try to touch them in front of your nose (keep your knuckles touching your ears/head), then move your elbows back to the sides - do this motion slowly. If you have trouble touching your elbows together in the middle, then your back muscles are WAY too tight - this happens a LOT to people who work at computers or in medical labs when you sit for long periods of time with your shoulders pinched together. Do 10-20 repetitions of this exercise at least twice per day until you can easily touch your elbows together, then do 10-20 reps whenever your shoulders feel a little sore.

Another good one is corner wall-pushups. Stand facing the corner in a room, with your feet about 1.5-2ft from the corner, and place one hand on each wall, a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Do a slow pushup into the corner, easing your nose into the corner and feeling the stretch through your shoulder blades. Press out of the corner slowly, then repeat, 10-20 times. For added stretch, when you press and lean away from the wall, straighten your arms and then round your back outward (arching your spine in a C shape, with your shoulders and hips close to the wall and the middle of your back/shoulder blades pushed further away from the wall).

2.) Strengthen your back and shoulder muscles.

You can do this with pushups, planks, or by using resistance bands from your PT (they'll be able to demonstrate exercises better than I can describe them).

3.) Apply menthol liberally and take ibuprofen when it hurts.

Obviously only do this if menthol and ibuprofen work for you and don't cause problems. I've been using BenGay (the one that has the massage applicator), but I'm thinking of switching to BioFreeze because it seems to work better. For me ibuprofen (advil or generic) is the ONLY thing that helps ease the soreness; I take 600mg in one dose (that's 3 pills of normal-strength ibuprofen), no more than twice per day, and only when it really hurts - right before bed and right when I wake up on nights that my shoulders really bother me.

4.) Regular deep-tissue massages

By far I think the #1 thing that has helped my shoulder pain is regular 60-min sessions of deep-tissue massage at one of my local massage parlors. The massage therapist I've been going to (once per month for about 15 months now) has been great about understanding and finding exactly which muscles in my back and neck give me problems. The massages leave my muscles sore for about a day, but I have had far fewer flare-ups of severe pain since I started getting them. Sometimes she even applies BioFreeze for free during my session.

Best of luck!