Painful shoulders
Pokohiwi mamae
Shoulder pain is common and can affect you at any age.
Your shoulders are the most mobile joints in your body. They're ball and socket joints, but the sockets aren't deep enough to hold the balls securely – they need the surrounding muscles and tendons to keep them stable.
The muscles and tendons that hold your shoulder in place are called the rotator cuff. Each rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and their tendons.
As well, a tendon of your biceps muscle attaches nearby and there is a bursa (a fluid-filled bag) that helps your rotator cuff glide over the nearby bones.
Common causes of shoulder pain include arthritis, rotator cuff problems, bursitis, frozen shoulder and neck injury.
Self-care for shoulder pain
Most shoulder pain will get better with time but there are some things you can do to help.
- Be patient – most shoulder pain will go away over a few weeks or months with no special treatment.
- Use ice – applying ice wrapped in a cloth (or a bag of frozen peas) to the area for 15 minutes at a time may help the pain.
- Keep active – you need to be gentle with your shoulder but if you rest it completely, it may get sorer and stiffer.
- Sleep well – make sure you sleep in a comfortable position; you may need to rest your arm on a pillow.
Getting help for shoulder pain
If your pain develops suddenly and is worse at night, see your general practice team.
If your pain is not getting better after two to three weeks, see your general practice team or physiotherapist.
Your general practice team may want to do some tests such as an X-ray or ultrasound scan.
Your physiotherapist will be able to suggest some exercises and give you some treatment to help your shoulder pain.
Written by a Canterbury physiotherapist. Adapted by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed July 2022.
Sources
The information in this section comes from the following sources, some of which may be clinically complex or not available to the general public
Brukner P., Khan K., Clinical Sports Medicine, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Sydney (1993).
kmortho.co.nz – Frozen shoulder (https://kmortho.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FrozenShoulder.pdf), Why does the rotator cuff tear? (https://kmortho.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/WhyDoesRotatorCuffTear.pdf), retrieved August 2016.
Orthopaedic Outpatients Department, Christchurch Hospital. Anterior dislocation of shoulder – patient information (https://edu.cdhb.health.nz/Patients-Visitors/patient-information-pamphlets/Documents/Anterior-Dislocation-of-Shoulder-replaced-HI35483.pdf). 1 October 2008. Authorised By: clinical director/director of nursing. Ref: 0081.
Shoulderdoc.co.uk – Frozen shoulder, Rotator cuff, Shoulder impingement, retrieved August 2016.
Image and embedded video sources
Dislocated shoulder illustration from Can Stock Photos (image ID 11994934). January 2016.
Exercises for your shoulder images. Provided by Medical Illustrations, Canterbury DHB. April 2017.
Frozen shoulder illustration from Shutterstock (image ID 250569205). September 2016.
Rotator cuff tear illustration. Provided by Medical Illustrations, Canterbury DHB. September 2016.
Woman holding her shoulder image from Shutterstock (image ID 1786870223). May 2022.
Page reference: 298123
Review key: HISHI-13267