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 a physiotherapist should determine that, so you won't find an exercise list here. Instead, we explain how your pillow should fit your shoulder.

Why is there no exercise list here?

Shoulder pain can come from muscles, tendons, the joint or the neck. The same exercise can 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 radiate into your arm, have them assessed by a doctor. This also applies if you have already tried exercises you found online.

What does the pillow have to do with the 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 up and your shoulder has little room.

The right height brings your head and cervical spine into one line and leaves room for your shoulder. That is not a remedy. A pillow replaces neither an examination nor exercises. You can read more in Pillows for side sleepers and 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 bottom of your ear to the tip of your shoulder.

Your sleeping position (back, side, stomach) and your mattress (soft, medium, firm) are added to this. From these details, 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 specialized 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 determine your size?

1. Get measured: At a Pillowise retailer near you, they measure you with the Pillowise tape measure.
2. Determine it yourself: With PillowScan at scan.pillowise.com, by cell phone or 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 are in 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.

Determine your size or find a retailer

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