Shoulder pain is almost always a shoulder blade and upper back problem. Something is overworking because something else stopped doing its job. Garrett finds where your pattern shifted and teaches you how to correct it yourself.
Book your first sessionYour shoulder joint is absorbing stress that should be shared across your shoulder blade and upper back. When one part stops doing its work, another part takes over, and it isn't built for that job.
Your shoulder joint is carrying stress that should be shared across your shoulder blade and upper back. When the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blade go quiet, other muscles overwork to cover for them, and that overwork becomes the tightness and impingement you feel. Most treatment goes straight at the joint without asking why it's under so much load.
If your shoulder blade is still out of position, strengthening the rotator cuff can lock the pattern in place. You end up building strength on top of a foundation that hasn't changed, and the pain returns because the foundation never moved.
Injections, massage, and manual therapy can bring real relief. But if the positioning problem loading your shoulder hasn't changed, the relief fades on its own schedule. Garrett works both ends of the problem at once. What's overworking releases. What went quiet wakes back up.
The body wants balance, not pain relief. Once your shoulder blade and upper back are carrying their share again, your shoulder stops absorbing all the force.
Full assessment, guided protocols, and a take-home practice. About 60 minutes, in San Francisco or over video.
Garrett assesses how your shoulder blade, upper back, and rotator cuff are sharing the load, not just where it hurts. That's usually the pattern behind chronic shoulder pain.
Using a yoga block or gymnastic rings, Garrett guides you through positions matched to your specific pattern. You're moving, not lying on a table.
Most clients feel the tightness across their chest ease and their shoulder blade settle into a different position before the session ends.
You leave with a short practice for what you worked on, about five minutes on your living room floor, to keep the change going between sessions.
Virtual sessions work well for shoulder pain. Garrett watches your posture and movement over video and guides you through the same protocols in real time.
My shoulder was just the weakest link in a much bigger picture.Paul · Weightlifter
If something isn't here, ask on a free discovery call. Garrett answers everything before you book a paid session.
In most cases, yes. Impingement is a positioning problem. Your shoulder blade isn't sitting correctly, so the rotator cuff tendons get pinched with every arm movement. When you restore correct shoulder blade mechanics and open up the upper back, the impingement resolves without needing to operate on the joint itself. Many of Garrett's clients who were told they needed surgery have avoided it.
Pain with overhead movement usually means your shoulder blade isn't rotating upward the way it should to create space for the rotator cuff. The cause is typically a tight chest pulling the shoulder blade down and forward while the muscles that should be rotating it upward have stopped engaging. Correcting this pattern restores overhead movement without pain.
Frozen shoulder involves stiffness and pain from restriction in the shoulder joint capsule. Garrett works on the patterns that led to and maintain that restriction, upper back mobility, shoulder blade positioning, and the overactive muscles that keep the capsule compressed. This can meaningfully speed up recovery compared to waiting it out.
The injection reduced inflammation, but it didn't change the mechanical problem causing it. Your shoulder blade was still out of position, your chest was still tight, and your upper back was still stiff. Once the anti-inflammatory effect wore off, the same mechanical stress recreated the same inflammation. The pattern needs to change, not just the chemical environment.
Almost certainly contributing to it. Prolonged sitting changes the balance between the front and back of your upper body, which changes the forces on your shoulder. The issue isn't sitting itself, it's what sitting does to your body's balance over time. The protocols in the Amari Method are designed to counteract the effects of desk work and restore what sitting disrupts.
Book a session with Garrett. If you don't experience noticeable relief, he keeps working with you until you do, at no additional charge.
$225 · First session · San Francisco + virtual