Vanish Shoulder Tension Fast

If you’re over the age of say 30, many of you have tense shoulders from time to time. When you find yourself squeezing your tense shoulders you are instinctively trying to increase the blood circulation. If you’ve watched my video (Should I use ice or heat?) then you will know that dilated blood vessels (when the tissues are warm) allow more blood to the muscles, bringing more nutrients and oxygen. When the muscles are tense the blood vessels are constricted so they are squeeze the blood and oxygen out of the area allowing more tension to build up.

I like a good old fashioned should roll, Paula style. I always like to do my shoulder rolls in the backward direction. I like the idea of opening up the posture so I don’t do a lot of forward rolls. I like to open up because we spend enough time forward and hunched over our computer screens during the day.

You may like try these in the privacy of your own home so you can really go crazy with them. I like to really exaggerate the movements. I go way up to my ears, way back so you feel like you are sticking your bust out and all the way around. Start off with a good 5 or 6 in a row. You may actually get a little tired just from doing this.

Then you can start putting your whole body into the movements. I bend my knees, drop the head forward and backward; get into a rhythm with this. It feels great. Then I like to do a bit of ‘swimming’ with my shoulders (if you watch the video you will see what I mean), one at a time (back, forth, back, forth). Enjoy how good if feels. Motion is lotion (like oil is to an engine) I say to my patients.

I like to end, after the shoulder rolls with a pinch of the trapesius muscles, where all the knots develop. I start up close to the neck and I squeeze and hold, squeeze and hold, squeeze and hold going right out to the shoulder. The same on the other side, remember you are trying to increase the blood circulation. You can give your body a  gentle shake out (all over) at the end.