3 Best Tips to treat scapular pain caused by cervical spondylosis

Scapular pain refers to discomfort around or between the shoulder blades, often caused by poor posture, muscle strain, or underlying medical conditions. This type of pain may radiate across the upper back and limit arm mobility—especially during lifting or stretching.

One common cause of scapular pain is muscle imbalances. Long hours at a desk or overuse during workouts can strain the rhomboids, traps, or rotator cuff muscles. Physical therapists often recommend targeted exercises to restore balance and reduce tension.

Poor ergonomics also contribute to scapular pain. Incorrect chair height, slouched posture, or screen misalignment puts pressure on the upper spine and shoulder area, triggering inflammation and stiffness.

In some cases, scapular pain is linked to nerve compression or degenerative issues such as cervical disc herniation. Symptoms may include tingling, weakness, or chronic discomfort in the upper extremities.

Treating scapular pain early can prevent long-term complications. Methods like stretching, ice therapy, and ergonomic adjustments can reduce flare-ups and support healthy shoulder movement.

1. Do you have pain in the shoulder blade ?

This morning, a friend sent me a private message saying that he had pain in his cervical spine and back , especially in the shoulder blade area, where the pain was particularly severe.

I don’t know if you have the pain here. I have met several friends in the past few days who all have the pain in this location.

This patient has had it for nearly a year, and he has been receiving treatment, mainly massage.

After each massage, he will feel better. If you have recurring attacks, then there must be something wrong with your treatment method or the assessment is not correct.

Then it will easily lead to three consequences.

1. Repeated pain 2. Insomnia 3. Unable to do anything

The pain in the shoulder blade gap recurs repeatedly for a long time, which is most likely to cause sympathetic nerve excitement and lead to insomnia. Therefore, when you have cervical spine problems, insomnia is most likely to occur.

Of course, your pain will prevent you from doing many things, especially if you are a computer worker or often use your mobile phone for e-commerce.

Pain in the shoulder blade joint will affect these activities.

2. Why is your treatment ineffective?

1. No evaluation

There is no doubt that you have not been evaluated during the entire treatment process of cervical spondylosis.

Because the first thing you do is massage, there is definitely no assessment . They just press wherever it hurts, or treat wherever it hurts.

Shoulder blade pain is definitely not treated in this way.

2. The wrong treatment method was chosen

The treatment method is chosen based on the problem you are assessing. For example, if you have a dislocation of a small joint .

Then your treatment method must be American chiropractic or traditional Chinese medicine to correct your misalignment.

Instead of getting a massage or applying plasters, because these two will aggravate your symptoms.

3. No self-training

Back pain must be induced by posture and caused by incorrect posture , so you must do self-exercise to correct the wrong posture.

Do you do any self-exercises to treat your shoulder blade pain? It must not be the rice character exercise. Here you need to correct the wrong posture.

This is the key point.

After a week of exercise, he felt that his neck pain was much relieved . He had a fascia problem.

Therefore, correct exercise is very important, which can double the effectiveness of your treatment.

3. How to do it to achieve results.

Step 1. Evaluation

The assessment of pain in the scapular joint must include posture assessment and fascia assessment.

Both of these assessments can be done by professional rehabilitation institutions. Only after evaluating what problems your posture and your fascia have, can targeted treatment be provided.

This kind of treatment will be more effective. You must treat your condition according to its cause, otherwise the treatment will not be effective so quickly.

Or some even have no effect after several months of treatment, then your treatment method is definitely not correct.

Step 2: Choose a treatment method

If you have posture problems, you need to correct your posture. This can be achieved through some muscle training.

If you have dislocation of small joints , then you must correct it. You can do American chiropractic treatment or Chinese medicine bone setting, but I recommend American chiropractic treatment.

If you have a fascia problem , you just need to release the fascia. There are many ways to release the fascia.

For example , tendon needles, floating needles, ultrasound, ultrashort waves , etc. are all possible.

However, it is necessary to assess which fascia is the problem before performing fascial release, because fascial release has higher requirements relative to the treatment location.

Therefore, the treatment location must be accurate.

Step 3: Muscle training.

This step is actually very important. I recommend that you do core muscle training, that is, spinal muscle training.

If you are doing it in a rehabilitation institution, you can directly do set suspension training . This method can strengthen the strength of your cervical spine muscles.

When your muscles are strong enough, your pain will definitely be relieved. It usually takes 15 days to see the effect, but its effect lasts for a long time.

Step 4: Self-training.

For self-training here, I recommend the wall standing training .

I have been giving this lecture for two years since last year, and many people have seen improvements through this training. Last night when I was giving a lecture, some people felt much more comfortable in their cervical spine after doing it.

First, press the back of your head, back, and buttocks against the wall, with your heels 5 to 10 centimeters away from the wall.

Secondly, your chin should be vertical to the ground. It cannot be raised or lowered. Then, behind your shoulder blades, try to feel as if they are sticking to the wall, which is equivalent to retracting your shoulder blades.