I received a massage yesterday and the masseuse pointed out that my right shoulder was elevated about a half inch when compared to my left. I searched the site but I could not find any info on correcting this. If anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it
Joe
Tight upper trap on that side. It’s an anatomical adaptation. It can be corrected with stretching. Trying to find out why is a good idea ex. Always holding the phone with that shoulder, how you stand sit at work, how you sleep etc.
i have this, and need to get it sorted, it has also resulted in some scoleosis of the spine.
get a physio to have a look, or ever a chiropractor.
Because of Uni, work, and travel problems i end up carrying around large amounts of texts books. This has been causing me shoulder problems. I thought it was my lifting until my ex-gf pointed out i allways carry my bag over the same shoulder, etc. If this applies to you, drop the load, carry it over both shoulders and tighten the straps to fit properly. I had almost overnight improvement.
It could be due also to the diff. in the length of your collar bone as well as the tightness in the trap.
To relax the trap. you can try some trigger point release - get your thumb and fore finger in there either side of the trap and give it a good squeeze and massage, esp. where you feel ‘knots’ or hard points in the muscle.
As Miniross said though you want to get to a physio as they will help you correct the problem and also teach you how to stop it reoccuring - which is a million times more important. A good one will anyway…
Are you left or right-handed?
Usually your dominant arm will hang slightly lower than your non-dominant arm due to greater use/flexibility etc.
If that is not the case and there is no history of any injury,scoliosis, etc look at you daily activities to see if any of them result in postures/positions/repetitive movements that may be stressing one side more than the other. Modify these activities to eliminate the causative factor and then do some stretches and use unilateral training (DBs etc) to correct the imbalance.
Sure some postural deviations can result in further problems down the road, but don’t get too worked up over minor differences. Some people take these things way too seriously. It’s not as though you are Quasimodo or anything. As long as there aren’t other symptoms in conjunction with this finding, just follow the above advice.
Obviously you could see a chiro, PT etc to evaluate you, perform some treatment and get you started on a program to correct the problem. However, don’t buy into the 3X/wk for 6 mo crap.
Take care,
Ryan