Menu
It is a common belief that shoulder mobility or flexibility can be improved only with specific exercises such as yoga classes, pilates classes, or any other type of shoulder training.
Instead, we can improve shoulder mobility or flexibility with targeted sports therapy, such as sports massage or deep tissue massage.
Sports massage can improve the muscles and joint biomechanics, and so ultimately sports performance.
Any joint’s mobility is linked mostly to these factors:
Considering the first and second factors, we could improve a certain movement by increasing the power of the agonist and improving the flexibility of the antagonist. By focusing too much on increasing the muscle power could be a sword with a double edge.
If you take for example the extreme case of the bodybuilder, their muscles have huge power but a reduced range of motion because of the reduced length of both agonist and antagonist muscles and big muscle volume.
Sports massage can act on this first factor ( agonist and antagonist muscle balance) by increasing muscle flexibility and reducing the stiffness of agonists and antagonist muscles.
By reducing muscle stiffness sports massage can increase muscle power output too, as it depends on the muscle fibres activation and their length.
By increasing the muscle flexibility of the antagonist’s muscles, sports massage reduces the mechanical opposition of the antagonist’s muscle during a certain movement activated by the agonist’s muscles.
The third factor ( Ligament Stability and Flexibility ) depends on the genetics of each individual and can not be modified with a sports massage.
For example, people affected by joint hypermobility syndrome have a very ample joint range of motion. It could be an advantage for some sports or professions such as ballet dancers, gymnasts, and musicians.
For some people, hypermobility can cause bad symptoms such as:
In case you are experiencing chronic shoulder mobility restriction or poor mobility we advise you to look for some medical diagnostic such as:
These are the best medical diagnostics to identify if you have a soft tissue or bone injury that has caused your shoulder mobility restriction.
At Mr Salus Sporting Lab in London, we have designed a tailored physiotherapy protocol for chronic shoulder mobility restriction, such as:
This physiotherapy protocol has been designed in our sports injury clinic in London, with the aim of treating not only the symptoms but also the causes of chronic shoulder mobility restriction.
Shockwave therapy has become an effective tool for myofascial release, helping to reduce the underlying causes of neck and shoulder pain, such as:
By delivering high-energy acoustic waves into restricted fascia and muscle, shockwave therapy for myofascial release promotes mechanical disruption of adhesions, increases blood flow, and stimulates tissue regeneration.
Research has shown that shockwave therapy can significantly improve pain, flexibility, and function in individuals with myofascial trigger points.
A randomized controlled trial comparing radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) to dry needling in patients with myofascial trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle found that rESWT significantly reduced pain, improved pressure‑pain threshold (PPT) and decreased muscle stiffness (shear modulus). PubMed
Another study found that shockwave therapy improved pressure-pain thresholds and muscle elasticity in patients with myofascial pain syndrome, highlighting its effectiveness for fascial release.
These findings support the use of shockwave therapy as a powerful, non-invasive method for restoring soft-tissue health and enhancing overall physical performance.
High‑power laser therapy (HILT) — a form of advanced photobiomodulation — can significantly influence the neck and shoulder girdle’s muscle tone with the following actions:
In individuals with chronic neck or shoulder discomfort, HILT appears to decrease muscle and fascial stiffness, improve range of motion (ROM), and reduce pain, thereby facilitating better muscle relaxation and functional capacity.
In patients with Subacromial Impingement Syndrome (shoulder impingement), a recent randomized trial compared HILT vs low-level laser therapy and found that HILT + exercise produced larger improvements in shoulder pain, disability, pressure‑pain threshold (PPT), and ROM than LLLT + exercise or control. PubMed
A placebo‑controlled long-term RCT in shoulder impingement syndrome showed that HILT + exercise resulted in better outcomes than sham + exercise in shoulder flexion, internal and external rotation ROM, pain (VAS), shoulder function (Constant–Murley score), isokinetic shoulder muscle strength, and quality‑of‑life measures — maintained at 12‑week follow-up. PubMed
A systematic review + meta‑analysis of HILT for subacromial impingement syndrome (shoulder girdle context) concluded that HILT significantly improves pain, function, and active shoulder abduction ROM compared with conventional therapy. PubMed+1
3 Reply on “Find out how sports massage can improve shoulder mobility”