Shoulder pain?? (Read 633 times)

Yes, I've had that experience, especially starting out. It will get better as your body gets more used to running. Little transient aches are normal I think when first getting started. Likely some muscle fatigue as your body adapts. Make sure you do some weight training a couple times a week to keep your uppper body strong too.

I used to get this when I first started running (and when I started back running again... and when I started running again the third time ). What worked for me somewhat was to just gently stretch the area (swing your arms, pull your arm across the front of your body, whatever will stretch the area that hurts most) and also gently massage it when it hurt. Focus on relaxing the muscles - try letting your arms hang down by your sides for a minute or so - anything to change the strain on the muscles and let them relax. Eventually you'll build up strength there and one day you'll notice you did a run without your pain. I don't know if it's fatigue or a cramp, but it will go away.

Wow thanks for your replies, it's good to know I'm not alone. I actually did notice that in my run just now it was aching a lot less, so hopefully it's going away already!

Try to relax your shoulders. Do some upper body strengthening. It will help.

I've been having similar issues since I began running two months ago. I've had upper shoulder knots for years, and they get better and worsen all the time. Usually, the ones on my right shoulder get worse when I'm doing a lot of typing/computer work for school, since I'm a righty. But running made the knots so much worse! I had a friend tell me to relax my shoulders, which didn't help at all because that was essentially like asking me to run with my arms completely limp and dangling. I need to use my muscles to keep my arms up! However, after doing some reading, I've found a method that seems to work all right. I was actually holding my arms up at a much sharper angle than I originally thought. Try lowering your arms a bit, and widening the angle between your upper and lower arms. While my issues haven't disappeared, they were there before I began running, so I don't expect them to go away. But they definitely don't get nearly as bad now that I lower my arms a bit.