Pain between the shoulder blades can often be traced to muscles being pulled too strongly when lifting. The arms are attached to the back by a strong girdle of muscles and their supporting groups of muscles. But they can be overloaded. Torn fibres here lead to inflammation and soreness. You must rest them.
Torn muscles only take three days to heal because of their efficient blood supply. If any pain lasts longer than this, then you can suspect you have involved ligaments belonging to the spinal vertebrae as well.
These then will need correction and you will feel fabulous as soon as you hear the middle spine click. The ‘ahhh’ sound of satisfaction coming from the patient tells its own story.
The subscapularis muscles, tucked away under your ‘wings’, can be difficult for the amateur masseur/euse at home to find to rub away any tension. That’s why we train to know exactly where and how to find the trouble. Experience is a great advantage.
The patient had sought orthodox treatment, but still the shoulder blade pain persisted. As he took his shirt off, it was noticed immediately that he was showing twisted ribs from misalignment on the left side.
Following the angle of the bones, it was then clear to see that his rib near the nipple line had strained at the front of the sternum (that’s the chest bone), rather than at the back where the pain was. There was a distinct ‘bump’ there which was very sore on pressure.
He was questioned about any fall or injury he had sustained a short period before the back pain annoyed him. Sure enough, he had suffered a heavy fall at the school fathers footy match. It hadn’t hurt much at the time, but! So the rib was adjusted from the front and the pain in his back reduced satisfactorily.
Remember the rib is like a bucket handle, it attaches from the back to the front. There are also the intercostal muscles to worry about when ribs are hurt.
When you take a large dog or two for a walk and they start racing ahead of you, the strain as your arm is jerked forward can cause front (anterior) rib strains (chiropractors call them subluxation). This is a common problem.
Then there is shoulder pain which in the chiropractors’ experience comes from an undetected sacroiliac (pelvic) sprain. When your pelvic girdle is out of alignment (perhaps from a fall on your hip) then the large anti-gravity back muscles take all the stress. They shorten and cramp. Correcting the pelvic problem releases the shoulder pain immediately, much to the patient’s surprise.

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