Shoulder Pain: Exercises, Medical Assessment and the Role of Your Pillow

Which exercises make sense for shoulder pain depends on the cause. A doctor or physiotherapist should work that out, which is why you won't find a list of exercises here. Instead, we explain how your pillow should suit your shoulder.

Why is there no list of exercises here?

Shoulder pain can come from the muscles, tendons, the joint or the neck. The same exercise may suit one cause and make the pain worse with another. After an examination, exercises belong in the hands of a professional.

If the symptoms persist, wake you at night or spread into your arm, have them assessed by a doctor. This also applies if you have already tried exercises from the internet.

What does the pillow have to do with your shoulder?

Side sleepers lie with their shoulder on the mattress. The pillow has to fill the gap between your head and the mattress. If it is too low, your head sinks down. If it is too high, your head is pushed upwards and your shoulder has little room.

The right height brings your head and cervical spine into a line and leaves room for your shoulder. It is not a cure. A pillow replaces neither an examination nor exercises. You can read more at Pillows for side sleepers and at Pillow too high or too low.

What does the right pillow height depend on?

Pillowise determines your size with three measurements:

• Shoulder width: around the curve of your back, with the tape measure not pulled tight.
• Neck circumference: once all the way around.
• Neck length: from the underside of your ear to the tip of your shoulder.

Then there are your sleeping position (back, side, stomach) and your mattress (soft, medium, firm). From this information, an algorithm chooses one of six sizes. Each has its own colour: pink, orange, green, blue, red or purple.

Behind it is Thijs van der Hilst. As a physiotherapist, he specialised in neck and shoulder complaints. He couldn't recommend a suitable pillow to his patients, so he developed a measuring method himself.

How do you find your size?

1. Get measured: At a Pillowise retailer near you, you are measured with the Pillowise tape measure.
2. Work it out yourself: With PillowScan at scan.pillowise.com, on your mobile phone or via QR code.

So: do you need to change anything?

If you sleep well and wake up without shoulder pain, you don't need to change anything. If you have pain, first have the cause assessed. Only after that is it worth asking whether your pillow suits your body. A suitable pillow doesn't take room away from your shoulder while you sleep; it doesn't promise more than that.

Find your size or find a retailer

Thijs van der Hilst, physiotherapist (non-practising)
Inventor of Pillowise