Chronic shoulder pain

Life after a shoulder injury is not an easy one.

After a few months, when the pain is still present, you may already feel tired — tired of being unable to do daily activities without pain, tired of worrying whether the pain will flare up during work, and tired because the pain does not allow you to participate in sports.

The real struggle often begins when two years have passed and the end of this suffering still seems nowhere in sight.

After consulting orthopaedic doctors, you may learn that there are surgical options to repair certain structural issues in the shoulder. However, if you have researched enough, you may also know that MRI findings do not always correlate with pain, and surgery may require at least one year of rehabilitation.

Conventional physiotherapy — such as resistance band exercises, massage, dry needling, or cupping — can help, but often only to a certain point. After a few sessions, progress may plateau.

At that stage, it may feel as if everyone is too shy to admit that all options have been exhausted and that you simply have to accept living with pain forever.

But it does not have to be this way.

One possible reason recovery is limited is that you may not have received treatment targeting the fascia. Every major injury also affects the fascial system. One of the properties of fascia is that it can become rigid as a response to trauma. To release densifications that may contribute to pain, weakness, numbness, or joint clicking, a specific and precise manual technique is required. The tissue must be properly warmed and treated with targeted, sometimes firm, pressure. This is why a regular massage often does not bring lasting results — it is usually too general and too gentle.

Another important reason persistent pain may remain is fear. Pain is generated by the brain, and it can be produced not only due to actual tissue damage, but also due to perceived threat.

After an injury, the affected area can become hypersensitive. You may lose the sense of control and awareness of what is happening in your shoulder. This altered perception can itself contribute to ongoing pain.

To restore normal function, the nervous system needs repeated, safe feedback that the shoulder is no longer in danger. This can be achieved through specific manual therapy combined with movement therapy — not random exercises, but interventions tailored to the individual needs of your nervous system.

To help find this article through Google:

Physiotherapist for chronic pain in Jumeirah, Umm Suqeim 2, Dubai.