What helps shoulder pain from pickleball?
4 Minute Read
If you haven’t read the previous blog about My Shoulder Rehab Journey, check that out now. There I discuss what things I have been doing for an acute shoulder injury (me falling while ice skating).
Here I’m going to give you two quick movements to try to help your shoulder pain from pickleball..
Simple Nerve Glide for Shoulder Pain
First is a Nerve Glide. Many times there is tightness in the muscles surrounding the shoulder from various pickleball movements. This tightness is a protection pattern could be from the viscera (If you haven’t read the blog discussing Hierarchy of Protection yet, do this now!) or the peripheral nerves.
So this Nerve Glide (also called Nerve flossing) addresses the peripheral nerve.
One Often-Missed Piece: Nerve Mobility
The muscle tightness doesn’t allow the nerve to move through it’s full range, it gets stuck and causes pain during your range of motion. Doing this as part of your shoulder warm up before playing pickleball, will allow the nerve to move better through the shoulder, decreasing your shoulder pain while playing.
Shoulder Circles (That Are Different Than You’re Used To)
Next, If you read my previous post about Hip Circles (If you didn’t go HERE now!) you learned why exercises like these are so powerful!
The funny thing with THESE Shoulder Circles was that I had been using the Hip Circles for a few years before this really dawned on me. I have used Shoulder CARs and rotations in some form a bit but didn’t really get the same results as the Hip Circles. Same with different Nerve Glides. I liked some but again, nothing quite as powerful. One day I sat there and asked myself “What can I do for the shoulder/arm that would give me something similar result wise as the Hip Circles.”
Then it hit me…..I needed to really recreate something similar to the hip circle. So I started to have my clients rotate their shoulders in internal and external rotation and find the tension, hold that position THEN do the shoulder rotations. THIS was the magic!
Why these work so well!
First, these are also a Nerve Glide. If you have pain anywhere from your neck, shoulder, bicep, elbow, forearm or hand there is a good chance there is a nerve along that path that is being influenced and be causing that pain. So to make sure that the nerve is moving well along it’s path, nerve glides are commonly used. There are a few large nerves that originate from the Bracial Plexus from the neck and then begins to split off into most of the nerves that innervate the entire arm. So by rotating your shoulder/arm into external and internal rotation it places tension along different parts of the nerve. And this can be felt by which direction is harder to perform, internal or external rotation.
Second, again, as many people are stuck in front of their computers for excessive amounts of time during the day the shoulders are hunched over a computer and arms are reaching forward as well. So just starting to move the shoulder through it’s intended full range of motion is important because what we don’t use we lose!
And if they then go and play 3-4 hours of pickleball, chances are the shoulder isn’t going to feel great after a couple of overheads.
So it is super important that we continue to access that range of motion and use the muscle to move in those directions! We want to be able to reach things in the cabinet for years to come so being able to bring our arms overhead is super important! Same goes for being able to reach our back pocket!
Third, your brain has a map of every joint and where it is in space in each position (lots of maps!) Pain/injury can make that map cloudy. Circles in particular help clear up those maps so this give your brain better information….making it feel safe! (This is super important! If you have read my blog about the Heirarchy of Protection go read that NOW!) Figure 8s can have an even larger impact but, if we are struggling with circles….baby steps lol!
These have helped a ton with my overhead athletes like volleyball players to the recreational pickleball player! The look on peoples faces after doing this and their shoulder or elbow pain that has been giving the grief for the last 3 month is better, it’s amazing!
Key Takeaways for Pickleball Shoulders
Shoulder pain from pickleball isn’t always about a single muscle or tendon.
Often, it’s about how well the entire system — muscles, nerves, viscera and the brain, all working together.
Small, intentional movements done consistently can make a big difference.
If you are suffering from shoulder pain while playing pickleball (or any other activity). I help people in the Southbay get out of pain and back to activity! Click below to schedule a your Initail Assessment and start YOUR road to recovery!