How to relieve back shoulder pain with a massage roller when doing weight training?
This is one of the most difficult areas to isolate with a roller, as the muscles are small and sometimes hard to feel. You’ll need pinpoint accuracy to avoid simply rolling over the bone.
The technique for relaxing your rear deltoids with a foam roller in weight training
The use of a lacrosse ball is almost indispensable here to perfectly target it.
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Positioning: Lie on your stomach with the arm to be massaged extended to the side at a 90° angle. Place the roller under the back of your shoulder, just behind the joint.
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The tilt (Crucial): Lying completely flat on your stomach, you won’t touch anything. You need to tilt your torso about 15 to 20 degrees backwards (to the opposite side of the arm being massaged) so that the roller can be inserted between your shoulder blade and deltoid muscle.
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Arm orientation: To expose the external rotators (infraspinatus/teres minor), rotate your forearm so that your palm faces the floor .
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The “windshield wiper” mobilization: Once you’ve found the sensitive spot (often a sensation of a “rope” jumping under the roller), keep your torso still. Rotate your forearm upwards, then downwards, like a windshield wiper. It’s the internal/external rotation under load that will “clean” the area.
Physiological and biomechanical analysis to relax the back of the shoulder with a roller
Massaging the back of the shoulder is not intended to “relax” a muscle, but to restore the neurological function of the rotator cuff.
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Autogenic Inhibition: By pressing on the muscular belly of the infraspinatus, the Golgi tendon organs are activated . According to research by Behm & Wilke (2019) , this constant pressure saturates the mechanoreceptors, which forces the central nervous system to decrease the resting tone (the “stiffness”) of the muscle.
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Fascial Interface: Luigi Stecco explains that the shoulder fascia is multilayered. Rotational massage under load creates local heat and friction that liquefies the hyaluronic acid. This allows the posterior deltoid to glide more easily over the scapula, thus preventing subacromial impingement.
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Starrett’s “Smash” concept: In Becoming a Supple Leopard , Kelly Starrett emphasizes that the back of the shoulder is often “stuck” in internal rotation. The roller acts as an anvil to force the tissues back into their functional external rotation.
Precautions and realism for properly massaging the back of the shoulder with a roller
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The Axillary Nerve: It passes through the quadrilateral space, just below the back of the shoulder. If you feel an electric shock or numbness radiating up your arm, you are too low or too deep . Move the roller one centimeter upwards.
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The Acromion: Do not roll it on the bony tip of the shoulder. It’s unnecessary and painful. Stay on the soft tissues located just behind it.
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Roller effectiveness: Let’s be honest, the roller is often too large to accurately target the infraspinatus. If you feel nothing, it’s one of the rare cases where I recommend switching to a lacrosse ball against a wall for surgical precision.
Conclusion: 90 seconds of active mobilization per shoulder is enough to restore space to the joint.
