A Sports Chiropractor’s Approach to Shoulder Pain
Shoulder Pain Isn’t Just About Your Shoulder
If you’ve tried band stretches, ice packs, or endless mobility drills without success, here’s the truth:
Your shoulder pain is likely the result of a problem elsewhere in your body.
Your shoulder is the most mobile joint in your body—but that mobility comes with a price: it relies heavily on stability and support from surrounding systems, specifically your spine.
Most recurring shoulder issues are connected to:
Weakness in the scapular stabilizers (the muscles that keep your shoulder blade in position)
Limited mobility in the thoracic spine, forcing the shoulder to compensate
Poor posture from hours sitting, driving, or on screens
Core and hip dysfunction that changes how force transfers through your body
Training errors—like pushing through pain or skipping stability work
Poor breathing and bracing mechanics
When you’re only focused on your shoulder, it’s difficult to see the bigger picture.
The Most Common Mistakes People Make With Shoulder Pain
❌ Mistake 1: Chasing stretches instead of building stability
Stretching may feel good AND provide short term relief. However, most painful shoulders result from a lack of stability (coordination & trust) and aren’t truly stiff. That “tightness” you feel is likely your brain trying it’s best to protect yourself from further injury. This is how endless stretching can often make your problem worse.
Instead of more mobility drills and “releasing it” start considering rebuilding the trust between your brain and your shoulder. Stability creates the foundation for pain-free mobility.
❌ Mistake 2: Ignoring the role of the mid-back
In our experience, most shoulder pain results from a lack of mobility and strength in the thoracic spine. If your thoracic spine (mid-back) isn’t moving as much as it should be, your shoulders will start doing more than they’re intended to do. This overload leads to irritation and injury.
Ignoring your thoracic spine while dealing with a recurring shoulder injury is one of the most common ways we see people let a small injury turn into a long term, chronic shoulder limitation.
❌ Mistake 3: Training through pain
While pain is simply a warning sign (a check engine light) that may or may not mean something is truly wrong, it’s not something to ignore. The challenge of pushing through pain and waiting for it to go away without addressing the root cause, is your brain’s memory of that pain. Overtime, this cycle of pushing through and waiting is how chronic injuries (and bigger injuries) are created.
A simple test to try while you’re reading this post to see whether your brain has a memory of your pain is to simply:
Close your eyes and think about your shoulder hurting.
If you can recreate your pain (even slightly) by just thinking about it, you are already in the chronic injury stage.
If you can’t recreate your pain by just thinking about it, you still have time to avoid a bigger problem.
Our advice: Stop waiting and start being Proactive.
❌ Mistake 4: Treating the shoulder in isolation
Massage, adjustments, dry needling, or ice packs can calm pain temporarily, but they don’t fix weak links in your chain. Long-term results require looking at the entire kinetic system.
Some of the most common areas we see contribute to shoulder pain are:
Postural disorders causing weakness in your shoulder stabilizers
Limited thoracic spine mobility
Poor breathing & bracing mechanics
Cervical spine mobility limitations
Poor hip, core, & low back stability/coordination
The Sports Chiropractor Difference
Here’s our sports chiropractors looks at shoulder pain differently:
Assessment Beyond the Shoulder
We don’t just test your shoulder. We thoroughly assess your entire body through a functional movement assessment to reveal patterns of dysfunction that may be driving your pain. From there we will determine exactly where your pain is coming from and determine whether that pain is structurally or functionally occurring.
Reset the System
A key aspect of fixing your shoulder pain is resetting your joints and soft tissue neurologically. We accomplish this through a specific routine of chiropractic adjustments and soft tissue work to reduce irritation and restore mobility. This combination of care creates an opportunity for your body to heal, and us to rebuild your capacity to move pain-free.
Rebuild for Resilience
The critical step that most clinics overlook is re-building your capacity to move from the ground up. Often when you’re injured and your nervous system is on alert to prevent further injury, it needs some help re-establishing trust. We use a systematic series of corrective exercises that target both strength and stability to help fix your pain and calm your nervous system.
Integrate With Real Life
Once your pain is manageable (or gone), your next step is to take your progress to the next step and return to activity. We use a variety of methods to do this but our philosophy is simple:
Make you aware of what causes your pain, and why. Train you to move correctly. And then build your capacity to move correctly.
This simple approach delivers pain relief, performance, and confidence when returning to the game.
A Quick Self-Check: How To Tell If Your Shoulder Is The Problem?
A really simple way to tell if your shoulder is the problem or the result of a problem is to lay down on the ground and do the same motion that hurts.
An example of this would be:
If your shoulder hurts while raising it over your head, lay down on your back and then raise your arm over your head until your hand touches the floor.
Keep in mind, there are many reasons why your shoulder may be hurting. For this reason we always recommend working with a professional to resolve it.
Real-Life Example
Mark, a 42-year-old recreational tennis player here in Chattanooga, came to us with shoulder pain that flared up every time he served or hit overhead shots. He had tried rest, ice, massage, and even physical therapy, but the pain always returned as soon as he got back on the court.
When we evaluated him, we discovered:
He couldn’t raise his right arm fully overhead without compensating through his low back.
He had limited thoracic (mid back) extension, which restricted his ability to rotate and load properly during a serve.
He had poor core control during rotation, causing excessive use of his shoulder during the serving motion.
He struggled to brace his core while lengthening which caused him to tighten his upper back and ultimately lose power while swinging.
All of this revealed a clear pattern of dysfunction—not just in his shoulder, but in how his spine, core, and overall body were working together. His shoulder was the victim of a series of weaknesses in his system
After three weeks of working together, his shoulder pain was no longer flaring up and he was able to play tennis lightly without pain.
Four weeks later, he was back on the tennis court serving full force pain-free—and told us he was hitting the ball harder than he had in years.
In sum, we spent a total of 9 weeks targeting the weak links in Mark’s movement system, rebuilding the foundation so his shoulder could do its job without breaking down.
The Reset + Rebuild Approach
The Reset + Rebuild system is designed to do more than get you out of pain—it helps you take control of your body so you can move with confidence.
Reset: Calm irritation, restore mobility, and create the opportunity for change.
Rebuild: Strengthen weak links, stabilize what’s been compensating, and retrain your movement patterns.
The outcome?
Relief that lasts beyond the moment
Freedom to train, play, and live without hesitation
Resilience that keeps old injuries from returning
Confidence knowing your body can handle what you ask of it
The Bottom Line
If your shoulder pain keeps coming back, it’s time to stop chasing symptoms and start addressing the system.
A sports chiropractor doesn’t just treat your shoulder—they help your whole body work together, so your shoulder can finally heal the right way.
👉 Don’t just fix what hurts. Build the foundation so it doesn’t come back.
Ready to put shoulder pain in your past? Click the link below to take your next step.