Shoulder pain: Is it really my shoulder that hurts?

Here's the scenario: You are having right shoulder pain located at the top of the shoulder going down the shoulder/deltoid area into your biceps area.  You haven't had really bad neck pain since this shoulder started hurting and you haven't seriously injured your neck before either.  But you do rub your neck quite a bit throughout the day. You have a hard time lifting your arm up with weights either in front of you or to the side, reaching in front of you, sometime even holding a glass or cup of coffee.  It's been coming on little by little and has gotten to the point where it's really affecting your normal day.

So which is it?  is it your shoulder or something else???

In a this type of scenario, you want to get your shoulder looked at first and do some basic strengthening for the shoulder.  This includes scapular stabilization exercises, scapular retraction exercises, stretching all your tight muscles (pecs and lats and teres), then some isolated strengthening for the rotator cuff both in static and dynamic positions.  

But after about 2-4 weeks, it's gotten a lot better, but still hasn't fully resolved.  What else could it be?!?!?

Well, when you go to an orthopedic doctor who specializes in the shoulder, more often than not, they are focused on the shoulder and the problem at the shoulder.  They may even get imaging at the shoulder as well to verify their findings.

But more often than not, there is also a component relating to the neck that might be the culprit.  This is due to a cervical radiculopathy, which in lay mens terms is a mild impingement at the neck that makes the shoulder weak and also be painful.

Treatment for this is pretty easy once you've identified it as this.  A physical therapist or a trained professional can perform gentle joint mobilizations to the neck, more specifically to the two vertebrae which are locked/impinged to loosen them up.  Also you will want to retrain your neck muscles to find midline again without any deviations.  Once you are aware that your neck is stronger, then you will want to slowly incorporate functional movements with keeping your neck muscles engaged and in midline while slowly incorporating shoulder strengthening so that you're whole system begins working together again.

Now your shoulder problem/pain should decrease.  But remember, strengthening quickly does no one any good.  Strength can take about 6-8 weeks to make a substantial change.  And most of all, remember that your neck muscles are endurance muscles, so the exercises should be repeated at least 2-3 times a week just to keep them in check!  =)