An inflamed shoulder muscle, as the old joke goes, is nature’s way of telling you to slow down. Fluids rush to the site of inflammation to act as a natural splint, restricting movement. You can apply gentle massage to a fitness buddy’s deltoids, the muscles that surround the front, back and top of the shoulder joint, to bring some soothing TLC to a sports or other injury. Check with your health-care provider before giving or receiving a massage if you suspect a severe injury to the shoulder muscles or joint.

Step 1

Ask your buddy with the injury to pinpoint where the shoulder is inflamed. Compare the pinpointed area of the inflamed shoulder, which is likely to have swelling, lump or area that feels hard and unyielding, to the opposite shoulder for potential differences. Allow for the fact that the shoulder is likely to be more muscularly developed, and feel slightly larger, on the dominant side, typically the right.

Step 2

Ask your partner to sit or lie face down on a workout bench, in a massage chair or on a massage table. Place your palms and finger pads gently on the inflamed shoulder muscle. Avoid digging in strongly with your thumbs or fingertips on the area. “The body reacts with a protective withdrawal if you use too much force,” notes certified massage therapist Jennie Natale of Baltimore, Maryland, “and the muscles tighten up further.”

Step 3

Move your hands gently over the entire area of the shoulder. Spend a few minutes pressing lightly in a circular motion. Avoid long strokes or chopping at the area with the edge of your palms or cupped fingers, as may be found in relaxing massage for normal tissue. “Your goal is to loosen up the fascia, all the layers of connective tissue -- the layers around each muscle fiber,” Natale notes. This loosening encourages blood flow and healing nutrients to reach the inflammation site, she adds.

Step 4

Seek feedback from your workout buddy on how the massage feels. If you don’t mind a bit of New Age visualization, imagine your fingers are sending healing energy from one human to another. Natale notes that as she treats an inflammation, her goal is to “touch it, love it, gently, as if the area is an entity to itself. Acknowledge that the shoulder is hurt and thank it for doing its healing job.”