How To Treat A Bruised Shoulder Video

A bruised or sore shoulder can be caused by an accident or repetitive motion. Learn how to treat a bruised or sore shoulder in this sports injury video.

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Apply ice packs
Ice to front and back of shoulder
Consult a doctor
Stretch frequently

About this Author

Russ Paine is a well-known physical therapist with the Roger Clemens Institute at Memorial Hospital. After getting his degree in physical therapy from Texas Women's University, he trained for several years under David Drez, MD, a renowned surgeon and sports medicine specialist. He has been a rehab consultant for the Houston Rockets, Houston Astros and NASA. He has given hundreds of presentations in his career in the US and abroad, and has published many chapters in text books and papers in peer review journals.

RUSS PAINE: Today, we're going to talk about a bruise or a sore shoulder. This is something that probably maybe you fell into an object or it could be a gradual thing to cause the soreness. Probably what's causing you to hurt if you didn't have a traumatic event is the subacromial bursa, as you see here. As you lift your arm away from your body, the rotator cuff tendon slides underneath this arch and this ligament has a very sharp edge, so as that bursa slides in and out and the bursa is inflame, and you lift your arm up in this manner and that arc of motion is called a painful arc. That's when your bursa is sliding in and out of that area. So a bruised shoulder probably means that you got a little bursitis in your shoulder. If we look at the shoulder model here, you can see again as you lift your arm away from your body and that bursa is very highly innervated, it can cause you to have a problem. So treatment for a bruise or a sore shoulder, ice is one thing that really is helpful at pain control in the shoulder. So ice application in the front and the back of the shoulder is very helpful, especially if you're having night pain. Obviously, if you have pain that lingers on, you need to seek medical attention but using ice application for a bruise shoulders is important. The other thing you don't want to do is let your shoulder get stiff. So there are some stretching exercises you can do to make sure that you do full range of motion or provide full range of motion of your shoulder. One thing you do is just clasp your fingers like this, Ross, and then put your hands behind your head in this position, and let your elbows go out and back in. Okay, so you're bringing your elbows in towards each other. So you go back in and out and that will help make sure your shoulder doesn't get stiff. Now, the other stretch we can do is you can just grab your elbow with one hand and pull your arm across your chest and that will help restore the main motions of your shoulder. Ice application is very, very helpful with a sore shoulder. Rotator cuff function or rotator cuff strengthening is very, very important because when you have pain in your shoulder, you have a 50% inhibition of your rotator cuff muscles, so we got to get rid of the pain and then do the rotator cuff strengthening.

How to Treat a Bruised Shoulder Video

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