Neck pain is one of the most common conditions we treat in our Lafayette and Boulder offices. Neck and shoulder blade pain are a common pattern we see in our patients who may have only neck or scapular pain but could also have neck and shoulder pain together. We call this scapular pain a Cloward’s sign which is a referral pain pattern from the neck but commonly missed as rhomboid pain or shoulder pain. We see patients spend time massaging this spot, rolling it out, and doing scapular exercises with minimal to no improvement or worsening symptoms.
This area of pain is often coming from the neck or the cervical spine and without proper assessment and treatment to the neck it will likely not improve. This pain is very common in everyday life especially those who spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer as well as our athletes who are doing overhead pressing movements in the gym and CrossFit work outs. Here are 3 exercises to help reduce your neck and shoulder blade pain as well as improve your neck mobility and strength.
- Banded cervical retraction 3×8-12 reps
- CTJ self-mobilization with chin tuck 2×10
- Thoracic and latissimus lengthening over foam roller with weighted shoulder flexion 2×10
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