Shoulder pain is a common complaint, yet often misunderstood. Many people grapple with not just shoulder discomfort, but also tightness in their chest, neck, and even their elbows.
Understanding these connections and the origins and causes of your pain may help you unlock the key to effective relief.
Video is on its way …
In the meantime, read the transcript?
here it is…
Tired of waking up with sore shoulders? Or struggling to reach behind your back? Do you sometimes catch yourself slouching?
It could be your ribs and upper back, keeping you in a cycle of shoulder pain!
Hello and welcome. I’m Sarah Gowans, remedial massage and cranio-sacral therapist and Emotional Integration facilitator at Blossoming Me and the Healthy Learning Lounge.
Here we are a sanctuary for you to tap into and nurture your journey to health, wellbeing, and a positive mindset. We focus on helping you to clear stresses, tensions, and blocks that can hold you back from living your most fulfilling life.
Today, I’ll show you 2 ways to test your rib mobility, and 3 simple ways to restore smooth movement, with less pain, today!
Self-Test:
- Stand and try to twist your torso gently
- To the left and then to the right
- Notice how it feels.
- Does one side feel easier to move than the other?
If one side feels restricted, your ribs may need mobilising. This restriction happens because the ribs are designed to rotate slightly as you turn. If they are stiff or misaligned, they can limit your ability to twist, forcing your shoulders and neck to work harder to compensate. This compensation can lead to strain, tightness, and pain in those areas.
A restricted ribcage can also cause uneven movement patterns, making one shoulder feel tighter or weaker than the other.
Three Easy Movements:
Here are three easy movements you can do to unlock your upper back, free your ribs, and start easing your shoulder pain today. Let’s get started!
Exercise 1: Shoulder Reset
- Bring hands to shoulder height, and rest them flat against the wall or door
- Focusing on your shoulder blades, Roll your shoulders up, back, together and down.
- Hold for a few seconds, then repeat.
Exercise 2: Thoracic Extension Stretch
- Place a rolled-up towel on the ground.
- Lying down so that your spine is lying along the towel
- Feet are flat on the floor,
- Knees are up in the air, and
- Hands on chest with elbows out, or your full arms outstretched.
- Steady yourself, to be as comfortable as possible, and take deep breaths.
- This helps open up your upper ribs and improve mobility.
Exercise 3: Seated Rib Mobilisation – Self-Hug Twist
- Sit tall and place your hands on your opposite shoulders.
- Slowly rotate your torso side to side.
- This gently restores movement in your ribs and relieves tension.
Try these daily and feel the difference!
If you need further assistance to release your shoulder and rib tension and pain, bodywork, and energy-based therapies may help support your healing. Relieving pain faster and reducing the chances of it coming back.
These therapies don’t just treat the symptoms, they support your whole system, helping your body unwind tension, restore balance, and heal from the inside out. With the right support, lasting relief truly is possible.
Start by doing one of these exercises daily, and you’ll notice a huge difference!
If you found this helpful, hit ‘Like’ and subscribe for more tips to nurture your health, wellbeing, and positive mindset. So you can start living your most fulfilling life.
To help you even more
And to help you even more, I’ve created a video: “Meridian Magic” for easy meridian brushing through your triple heater, meridian, gallbladder, and bladder meridians. To help reduce your shoulder pain, headaches, rib, arm, chest, or back pain! I will leave a link to it in the description box below.
From my heart to yours,
Namaste.
Sarah xx
At Blossoming Me, we’ve worked with so many people who feel stuck in cycles of pain and frustration. But the key to lasting relief often starts with understanding your body, not just where you hurt, but why.
Book your appointment here:
Interested in further reading?
Relaxation Revolution: The Secret to Alleviating Lower Back Pain and Enhancing Your Well-being
How Stress Affects Your Shoulders and Jaw – and One Simple Tip to Relieve It
The Unexpected Link Between Your Shoulders and Wrist Pain
Release Shoulder Tension and Unblock Energy Flow in Your Lung and Large Intestine Meridians
About Blossoming Me
BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Cranio-sacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage.
Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.
ional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and, if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.