Is the pain in your hand and upper arm part of carpal tunnel syndrome?
Maybe. Maybe not. Muscles are largely responsible for carpal tunnel-type symptoms.
Muscles can be “too tight” or can develop trigger points. Pain from trigger points runs in typical patterns.
If you have pain in your upper arm and hand that meets the pattern, below, there is a fairly easy fix.
Sometimes the muscles that are causing symptoms are deep inside the body, hidden under bones or other muscles. In this case, the cause of this pain pattern is on the outside/backside of your shoulder blade, so that makes “treating” it easy.
When I give directions for locating pain on your arm or body, like “outside” or “front,” that means you are standing or seated with your thumbs rotated outward (or away) from your body. Your thumbs are pointed away from you, sideways. Your palms are facing forward. Then “outside” or “front” always means the same thing, because we are all in the same position.
Here’s the pain pattern:
The most painful area is usually on the outside (side) of your upper arm and on the front side of your upper arm, through your bicep muscle. (That’s the muscle that pops up when someone flexes his arm.)
A lesser amount of pain runs down your arm as far as the fingers (but just the part of your fingers close to your palm.) That pain is usually felt on both the back side and the palm side of the hand and arm.
You might also have quite a bit of pain on the spine side of your shoulder blade (the side closest to your spine).
You might also have head or neck pain at the base of your skull on the same side as the painful arm. Pain in both of these areas is caused by trigger points in the muscle on your shoulder blade and it will go away when the trigger point is resolved (gone.)
I say “usually” or “generally” because every body is different, and we all feel things somewhat differently or in slightly different places. We are not all built exactly the same, just similarly.
What’s a trigger point?
A trigger point is a hyper-irritable (really crabby) place
in a muscle that “triggers” pain elsewhere, sometimes quite far away.
What’s the fix?
The trigger points that cause this pain pattern are on the back side of your shoulder blade. The shoulder blade is easily as large as your hand. It has a bony ridge or “spine” that runs across it horizontally. Most people might think this is the top edge of the bone when they feel it.
So, the muscle that has the trigger points is attached on the back side of your shoulder blade.
1. You can ask someone to warm up the muscles around and on your shoulder blade with a little massage, and then ask them to apply pressure to your shoulder blade. A very tender place will probably be one of the culprits causing your pain, so hold that tender place for about 12 seconds. There might be more than one tender place. Get pressure on all of the tender areas you can find.
2. Go with this knowledge to a massage therapist and ask them to warm that area of your back and apply pressure point or trigger point massage to your whole shoulder blade, on your infraspinatus muscle. The infraspinatus muscle is the likely culprit here.
3. Place a tennis ball or golf ball on the floor beneath your back, and place your shoulder blade on it. Apply pressure to the tender areas. Don’t roll around, just find the most tender area and apply pressure without moving. Move slightly to find the next tender area and apply pressure again for about 12 seconds. It’s fine to go back to each area more times.
So, while you might also have a diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, at least now you can release the muscle causing this particular pain pattern. Next, you must get to the rest of the causes of your hand, wrist and arm pain and treat them, right?
That’s how you can get rid of the pain in your arm and hand, naturally!
“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”
For the last 4 weeks I’ve had pain in my upper arm and wrist and fingers. My fingers are swollen. The pain is especially bad in the mornings.
Hi Linda. Sometimes the swelling is as simple as the position you sleep in. If your shoulders and/or head are pushed forward, it can restrict movement of fluids to your hand and back. Which fingers exactly are hurting? On the palm side? Or back side? Front of upper arm by the bicep muscle or by the chest?
Hi Wayne, Thank you for the additional info. Here’s where to look. By look I mean explore with your other hand–or ask someone to do this–and press in. Press into the muscles (it’s all muscle except for bones but sometimes the muscles are so hard and tight that they feel like bones.)
Press in slowly and do some nice rubbing first to help the muscle start to soften and relax so you can press deeper.
Here are the areas of muscle I suspect. These are good places to start:
1. Go up under your collar bone.
2. Check out your ribs on your side.
3. The muscles on the back side and outer side of your shoulder blade.
4. Your upper chest and your chest near your arm.
If you discover areas of tightness/tenderness those will probably be very good places to do more pressing. Hold the pressure in an area for about 10-12 seconds. You may feel it become less tender. That means the muscle is relaxing. 🙂
I’m betting you WILL find those areas to be tender.
And go to the Video category. Start with the videos that are most easy for you. Gentle movement will help your body heal. It gets the circulation going.
Lift that arm up and back–again, slowly and gently. Start stretching those muscles and be thoughtful. FEEL what’s happening where as you stretch.
Maybe your back and hip surgeries are throwing your posture off. If those surgeries happened ‘for no reason’ (rather than accident or injury) then I would also suspect you have a short leg and that can certainly throw your posture off, too, and cause upper back issues.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions and how you start to feel.
Thank you,
Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach
kathryn, thanks for writing back, its more on the palm side of my hand but my whole arm hurts from my neck down, especially my shoulder blade. and all my fingers are semi numb. you should also know i have ddd in my back, 6 pins between L4-L5, a total right hip replacement and a total right femer bone replacement. im in constant pain but have been dealing with this for 15 yrs. ive learned to work through the pain but was also in a wheelchair for 2 yrs. when i was 30. anyhow my future as a chef depends on my health thanks wayne
Hi Wayne, Thank you for writing.
I’m guessing that you are right-handed. My next guess is that the muscles in the front of your right chest are tight. If you press into your chest muscles, especially toward your shoulder, are they tender? If yes, that means they are tight.
Tight muscles can press on blood vessels and nerves that run from your neck to your arm.
The good news is that muscles can be treated and you can even do it yourself.
I’m thinking that this may have started with the muscles in your upper chest and upper arm and (because everything in your body is attached) now the muscles in your upper back and below your armpit in back and on your shoulder blade are involved.
Something you can start to do right now is go to the Category on the right hand side for Videos. There are self-help videos that will help you loosen your tight muscles and strengthen your back.
Wayne, if you can tell me exactly which side of your arm hurts and which fingers and whether it’s on the palm side or back side of your hand I will be able to give you more specific instructions about which muscles. The more clues you give me, the better job I can do to help you get rid of this pain in your arm naturally.
Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach
i am 46 yrs old, had corpral tunnel in my left arm
15 yrs ago, no proplems since. now i have it in my right arm all the way up the shoulder down to my finger tips sharp pain and dull pain along with numbness. im a chef and have no health insurance or bank money, is there a soulition to this with out surgery. thank you wayne
Thanks for the great information. Many people don’t realize that more than just the hand and wrist are involved in the pain caused by carpal tunnel syndrome. The entire pathway of the median nerve must be checked from the point of origin in the neck down all the way down the arm.