The Hand to Shoulder Solution
Your new resource for hand, shoulder, and elbow pain. Together, we are giving pain the middle finger and gaining knowledge to live a better, pain-free life!
Discover what might be causing pain in your fingers, pain in your hand, pain in your wrist, pain in your arm, pain in your elbow, pain in your shoulder.
Learn about your body, arthritis, tendinitis, tennis elbow, fractures, golfer's elbow, and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Hosted by Carl Petitto, OT, CHT, and Certified Hand Therapist specializing in orthopedic conditions of the hand to shoulder. Also an expert in fabricating custom orthotics.
The Hand to Shoulder Solution
Quick Relief for Biceps Tendon Pain
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Hello and welcome to the show, The Hand to Shoulder Solution, with me, Carl Petitto.
If you are experiencing pain in your arms and hands, this is your resource.
Subscribe, listen, and share to help us 'give pain the middle finger for good'!
This is a resource to help you mitigate pain at home and become more educated on what to ask your doctors and therapists. No medical advice will be given, and you should always see your medical professional for any questions.
Thank you, and welcome to the show!
Welcome back to the Hand to Shoulder Solution, giving pain the middle finger. I'm your host, Carl Petito. Today I want to stay on track with shoulder pain and talk to you about another condition that causes pain in the shoulder. Firstly, it's very important to mention that you absolutely should be evaluated by your healthcare practitioner to find out definitively what exactly is going on with your shoulder, what is the root cause of the pain. But today let's pretend that it's biceps tendinitis, and I will show you what I direct my patients to do at home to reduce their inflammation. Remember, I just means inflammation, and in this case, it's inflammation of the tendon, tendinitis. Also, I want to take a moment to say thank you for your donations. Every little bit helps my team and me bring you content that is useful to decrease your pain. Now, the biceps tendon, there's actually two tendons, but we're going to talk about the long one first. And this tendon inserts at the top of the socket, and it goes through what's called the bicipital groove right here on the head of the humerus, which is the ball of the ball and socket. It travels through that groove right there and then turns into muscle below that. Now, this area, if you touch that on yourself, if you're having pain in the front of your shoulder, and you go down about that far, and that's sore, you can hold your finger right there, bend your elbow to about 90 degrees, and rotate your arm, which is your humerus right here. And let me show you on the skeleton. So, with that in place, and you bend your elbow, and this rotates spins back and forth, you're rolling your finger over the top of that, and that's one way to see if exactly it is biceps tendonitis or not. Another technique is to reach out straight, palm up, and then resist yourself. That's called speeds test. And if that hurts a lot right there, you probably have biceps tendonitis. Now, how do we decrease the inflammation on that? One very effective technique at home is to just get an ice cube. One nice way to get a nice big ice cube is a plastic Dixie cup or a paper cup. If it's plastic, just break off the top, take it right out, and hold the ice with a napkin. And then what you want to do is have your hand lying on your lap or just down by your side, and apply the ice directly to the skin, directly to the front round part of your shoulder, only until deeply cold. That should take 10 to 20 seconds. Not minutes, 10 to 20 seconds. That is much better than an ice pack for 10 minutes. An ice pack over the top of the shoulder is not a good idea because that will also catch several muscles, and ice shrinks, and that will tighten up any muscles that that are already tight. Also, I would do that ice. I have folks do the ice directly on the skin midday and at the end of every day, and that reduces inflammation very nicely. In the clinic, we use ultrasound and also cold laser. I've had much better benefit with using cold laser, bright red light penetrating the tissues to reduce the inflammation. One last thing is a stretch. So using a golf club, a stick, uh, a broom handle, anything, pushing the arm straight back until you feel a light stretch in the front of the shoulder, and I would hold that stretch for 10 seconds, then relax, then again for 10 seconds, pushing the arm straight back nice and easy. I would stretch first, then end with the ice, and that helps very nicely to decrease pain in the front of your shoulder if it is biceps tendonitis. Once again, you really need to have a thorough examination to ensure that's what it is. Thank you for watching. I appreciate you liking the episode and subscribing to the channel. Thank you.