Recovery Tips for Athletes Dealing With Shoulder Tendonitis
Do you experience a sharp pain in your shoulders when you reach for a high shelf or unrack a barbell? You’re not the only one. Data shows that 49% of athletes suffer from overhead shoulder pain.
Don’t take that dull ache lightly; it’s the first hint that shoulder tendonitis is creeping in. Whether you’re a swimmer or a tennis player, that means more than just a little discomfort. It can affect your training consistency, limit your range of motion, and slowly chip away at your performance.
Many athletes with shoulder tendonitis try to push through it, hoping it will go away. But tendon issues rarely resolve on their own. Instead, the pain often lingers, worsens, and eventually forces you to scale back or stop altogether.
However, you don’t have to choose between resting forever and training through pain. There are quite a few things you can do to manage shoulder tendonitis and reduce pain.
Here, we’ll share a few recovery tips that can help you recover from shoulder tendonitis and get back to performing at your best:
1. Modify Activity Instead of Ceasing Completely
Athletes either push through the pain or stop all movement entirely. Both approaches are flawed.
Pushing through pain leads to further tissue damage and potential tearing. Complete rest beyond the first 48 hours is also damaging. It can lead to joint stiffness, muscle atrophy, and frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis). Movement acts as a pump. It circulates nutrient-rich fluids that accelerate the healing process.
Instead of ceasing activity, modify it. The goal is to stress the tendon enough to stimulate repair. But the stress must be low enough to avoid more inflammation.
If you’re a weightlifter, this might mean switching from a barbell press to a dumbbell press. For a swimmer, it might mean decreasing total yardage while avoiding certain strokes like the butterfly. This keeps the joint lubricated. It also prevents the surrounding muscles from wasting away.
Use a pain scale from zero to ten. A pain level of one or two is often acceptable during exercise. If the pain reaches four or five, the load is too high. You must then reduce the weight or range of motion.
2. Fix the Mechanics That Got You Here
Shoulder tendonitis rarely appears out of nowhere. In many athletes, it develops slowly due to poor posture and faulty movement patterns that quietly overload the shoulder over time.
Rounded shoulders, a forward head position, and a slouched upper back can all change how your shoulder joint moves, placing extra stress on your tendons.
Nurses are a great first point of contact when shoulder pain starts interfering with training. They can help you identify poor posture or painful movement patterns and educate you on basic posture correction.
No wonder these professionals are in huge demand. To meet the demand, many are transitioning to nursing through an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program. Since many are working professionals, they are opting for online ABSN programs to transition to nursing.
According to Rockhurst University, online ABSN program prepares professionals to become skilled nurses in as little as 16 months.
Nurses can also refer you to physical therapists for more detailed biomechanical assessments and targeted rehabilitation programs. Physical therapists can then address muscle imbalances, improve shoulder and upper-back mobility, and retrain proper movement mechanics.
3. Don’t Skip Mobility Work
It is a common mistake to treat shoulder pain in isolation. The shoulder is a part of a kinetic chain. Stiffness in the upper back (thoracic spine) or the back of the shoulder capsule forces the rotator cuff to overcompensate.
Full overhead elevation requires approximately 15° of thoracic extension. If the T-spine is stiff or hunched, the scapula cannot tilt backward. This creates a pinch in the shoulder joint, where the arm bone squeezes your rotator cuff tendon against the top of the shoulder blade.
T-spine drills, such as quadruped reach-backs, where you rotate the elbow toward the ceiling from a hands-and-knees position, are great. This targets thoracic rotation while stabilizing the lower back.
Overhead athletes, like pitchers, often face glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD), a tightening of the back of the shoulder that limits rotation. This stiffness shifts the joint’s alignment, increasing the risk of labral tears and internal impingement.
To combat GIRD, you should prioritize the sleeper stretch (side-lying with the elbow at 90°, pressing the forearm toward the floor) and the cross-body stretch.
Key Takeaways for Lasting Relief
Shoulder tendonitis can be incredibly frustrating, especially when training is your stress relief, passion, or livelihood. But you give yourself the best chance at a strong, durable comeback if you follow these tips.
Many athletes come back from tendonitis with better mechanics and stronger stabilizers. Just remember that healing isn’t linear. Some days will feel great; others won’t. What matters is listening, adjusting, and showing up for the recovery process with the same dedication you bring to training.
Eventually, you’ll be back doing what you love, stronger and more resilient than before.
