Sleeper Stretch For Shoulder Pain

The traditional sleeper stretch involves laying on the side of your sore shoulder with your arm at a 90 degree angle to your body and your elbow bent 90 degrees.

You then push your forearm toward the table into a position of shoulder internal rotation.

However, laying directly on a painful shoulder is one of the main complaints of people with shoulder pain, and often causes people difficulty sleeping at night or shoulder pain in the morning.

Furthermore, the position of shoulder internal rotation with the arm at 90 degrees is precisely the position that causes pinching, or impingement, of the rotator cuff tendons.

Therefore, if you already have shoulder pain from a stiff shoulder, doing the traditional version of this exercise can be painful.

A New & Improved Version Of The Sleeper Stretch For Shoulder Pain

Despite the problems mentioned above, the sleeper stretch actually is a good exercise for shoulder pain, but a few modifications can make it better so that you DON'T cause pain while doing it.

Use the tips below to make the sleeper stretch even better:

1. Lay on the side of you sore shoulder just like the traditional version of the sleeper stretch, but make sure you roll back onto your shoulder blade instead of lying directly on your shoulder.

2. Use the palm of your non-painful shoulder to push on the ball of the painful shoulder. This helps keep the ball centered in the socket in order to prevent pinching of the rotator cuff tendons while stretching.

3. Rotate the forearm of your painful arm toward the table and use the elbow of the other arm on the back of your wrist to GENTLY hold it in place.

4. Don't push too hard, just hold a GENTLE stretch for a long time (ideally 20 minutes or longer, but start with what you can do comfortably).

Make sure to watch the video above for a full demonstration.