Go see more people, i wouldn’t stop. See a neurologist and specialists at the hospital, find a DECENT physio/osteopath/sports therapist, one with a reputation. A good rep!
You are really asking for trouble with a problem as potentially complicated as yours and just throwing random programs at it…
y’know?
Joe
[quote]Joe Brook wrote:
Go see more people, i wouldn’t stop. See a neurologist and specialists at the hospital, find a DECENT physio/osteopath/sports therapist, one with a reputation. A good rep!
You are really asking for trouble with a problem as potentially complicated as yours and just throwing random programs at it…
y’know?
Joe[/quote]
i’ve spent over £300 so far, going to see another sports therapist in an hour or so. I am also going to see my GP on monday, i’ve avoided the GP because I know doctors and weight training don’t usually mix, but we’ll see.
Ok I saw the sports therapist today, I am very happy with how it went.
She said that the bag I was carrying had stretched my brachial plexus, which didn’t enable the nerves to innovate the muscles in the right side of my torso.
This is why my right arm grew an inch bigger than the other, and why my right deltoid became stronger than my left, because they were making up for the lack of action from the torso muscles.
The weight of the bag over a period of time had also stretched my shoulder out of place. She said I need to activate the muscles around my clavicle to help pull it back up into place, she will help me with this next time I see her.
My right shoulder is about half an inch lower than my left, it was worse. However, this isn’t soley due to the fact it was pulled down.
The left trapezius and the whole of my left torso is very tight, making up for the complete relaxed state of the right side. That pulls the left shoulder up more than the right, so that coupled with the fact my right shoulder has been stretched down, results in the half inch difference between shoulder levels.
That is also plays part in why I feel my left pec/back more than my right, because they are already very tight. So when I yawn/shiver etc. my left one is pulled on even more by the neck muscles, and my right one is hardly pulled at all because the neck muscles had been stretched by the back and the nerves were not as active.
She performed traction on the 6 vertebrae of my cervical spine to free them up, she said there will be 2 or 3 left to free up next time which she will do to help the nerves activate the muscles on my right side.
OKAY, so thats the problem, I’m really glad it’s been pointed out finally, now I just need to fix it. With her help and some knowledge i’ll try to pick up myself.
What do you guys think?
I’m not qualified enough to give you an answer but from my experience I would trust the sports/athletic therapist.
I’ve seen a chriopractor and an athletic therapist about a problem of my own. The chiropractor just seems to bend you into shape until you fall out of it again and then your revisit.
The ahtletic therapist seemed to go to the root of the problem, tested how my muscles were firing and provided me with a solution that is still working to this day.
[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
Ok I saw the sports therapist today, I am very happy with how it went.
She said that the bag I was carrying had stretched my brachial plexus, which didn’t enable the nerves to innovate the muscles in the right side of my torso.
This is why my right arm grew an inch bigger than the other, and why my right deltoid became stronger than my left, because they were making up for the lack of action from the torso muscles.
The weight of the bag over a period of time had also stretched my shoulder out of place. She said I need to activate the muscles around my clavicle to help pull it back up into place, she will help me with this next time I see her.
My right shoulder is about half an inch lower than my left, it was worse. However, this isn’t soley due to the fact it was pulled down.
The left trapezius and the whole of my left torso is very tight, making up for the complete relaxed state of the right side. That pulls the left shoulder up more than the right, so that coupled with the fact my right shoulder has been stretched down, results in the half inch difference between shoulder levels.
That is also plays part in why I feel my left pec/back more than my right, because they are already very tight. So when I yawn/shiver etc. my left one is pulled on even more by the neck muscles, and my right one is hardly pulled at all because the neck muscles had been stretched by the back and the nerves were not as active.
She performed traction on the 6 vertebrae of my cervical spine to free them up, she said there will be 2 or 3 left to free up next time which she will do to help the nerves activate the muscles on my right side.
OKAY, so thats the problem, I’m really glad it’s been pointed out finally, now I just need to fix it. With her help and some knowledge i’ll try to pick up myself.
What do you guys think?[/quote]
Excellent stuff - as a sports therapist i can tell she really really knows what she is doing, a diagnosis like that is extremely complicated. I did think nervous issues didn’t i?!!
If i were you, i would keep her as a contact, use her regularly, pay whatever she asks, and recommend her to any others.
Really, there are some ST’s out there that struggle with a pinched nerve, even struggle with a ligament (its true! i met a couple!)
Good stuff, and congrats. Hope you ditched the bag… jesus!
Joe
[quote]Joe Brook wrote:
Goodfellow wrote:
Ok I saw the sports therapist today, I am very happy with how it went.
She said that the bag I was carrying had stretched my brachial plexus, which didn’t enable the nerves to innovate the muscles in the right side of my torso.
This is why my right arm grew an inch bigger than the other, and why my right deltoid became stronger than my left, because they were making up for the lack of action from the torso muscles.
The weight of the bag over a period of time had also stretched my shoulder out of place. She said I need to activate the muscles around my clavicle to help pull it back up into place, she will help me with this next time I see her.
My right shoulder is about half an inch lower than my left, it was worse. However, this isn’t soley due to the fact it was pulled down.
The left trapezius and the whole of my left torso is very tight, making up for the complete relaxed state of the right side. That pulls the left shoulder up more than the right, so that coupled with the fact my right shoulder has been stretched down, results in the half inch difference between shoulder levels.
That is also plays part in why I feel my left pec/back more than my right, because they are already very tight. So when I yawn/shiver etc. my left one is pulled on even more by the neck muscles, and my right one is hardly pulled at all because the neck muscles had been stretched by the back and the nerves were not as active.
She performed traction on the 6 vertebrae of my cervical spine to free them up, she said there will be 2 or 3 left to free up next time which she will do to help the nerves activate the muscles on my right side.
OKAY, so thats the problem, I’m really glad it’s been pointed out finally, now I just need to fix it. With her help and some knowledge i’ll try to pick up myself.
What do you guys think?
Excellent stuff - as a sports therapist i can tell she really really knows what she is doing, a diagnosis like that is extremely complicated. I did think nervous issues didn’t i?!!
If i were you, i would keep her as a contact, use her regularly, pay whatever she asks, and recommend her to any others.
Really, there are some ST’s out there that struggle with a pinched nerve, even struggle with a ligament (its true! i met a couple!)
Good stuff, and congrats. Hope you ditched the bag… jesus!
Joe[/quote]
I’m going back on tuesday before college, I’m glad I just know the problem now, and yea I ditched the bags when I first noticed something was wrong lol.
The problem has lasted with me longer than a broken arm would of, mainly because it caused no pain and I had no idea what to do. Now I just hope it doesn’t take that much longer to get fixed.
I’m just itching to train now, I have been reading Serge Nubret’s thread on bodybuilding.com and i’m going to do his routine. I can’t even do pullovers right now though because it feels like my right shoulder is going to snap out of its socket.
Hey guys, have to re-bump this again to find some more help.
Today I went to the therapist again, and after some more prodding around and her examining me on some exercises she has said that the trapezius muscle on my right side is too dominant compared to my rhomboids etc. (The bag caused this)
On almost all scapula retracting exercises she found out that I am using my trapezius muscle on my right side to pull back, instead of my rhomboids.
She said I have to retrain the rhomboids on the right side of my back and try to stop doing anything that involves the traps.
One exercise she gave me to do was to lie down on my front, put my hands up beside my head (imagine holding your hands out to say ‘don’t shoot’). Once I was in this position I had to visualise squeezing my scapula together using my rhomboids.
Right now I’m having a problem doing that exercise because of my over-dominant trap, though I am sure I will master it eventually.
Do you guys have any other good exercises that will help me focus purely on my rhomboids and NOT my traps?
Well as far as i was taught… the rhomboids are not capable of firing without the lower traps working too…
The only exercises i know for that area, is petraction stuff… so maybe lying face down on a flat DB bench, and doing a DB Shrug with 2 DB’s, just concentrating on the “retraction” part, as that is where the rhomboids are most active. I doubt you will find an exercise hat focuses on he rhomboids without using the lower traps… It will be a case of visualising the weaker side working, or doing 1 arm at a time.
Joe
joe, when you was carrying your bag over one shoulder and it caused a muscle imbalance, did you find it harder to contract your pec on that side (bigger trap) too? I noticed this from your other post.
It sounds like your new therapist is helpful. But I would be very surprised if following the advice mentioned by Horatio didn’t help tremendously also.
Trigger point work from your neck down to the bottom of your hips can do wonders for ALL the postural issues you mentioned. And thoracic foam rolling can be all but magical too. In fact, I personally got nowhere with stretching or exercises to correct posture until I did the trigger point and foam rolling soft tissue work.
Unless your therapist says otherwise, I think you should train. You don’t mention having real pain and therefore no tissue injury. The problem seems to be innervation, and how are you going to improve that without training? You should obviously stick to all unilateral movements for now. Study the correct form, then do it!
[quote]andersons wrote:
It sounds like your new therapist is helpful. But I would be very surprised if following the advice mentioned by Horatio didn’t help tremendously also.
Trigger point work from your neck down to the bottom of your hips can do wonders for ALL the postural issues you mentioned. And thoracic foam rolling can be all but magical too. In fact, I personally got nowhere with stretching or exercises to correct posture until I did the trigger point and foam rolling soft tissue work.
Unless your therapist says otherwise, I think you should train. You don’t mention having real pain and therefore no tissue injury. The problem seems to be innervation, and how are you going to improve that without training? You should obviously stick to all unilateral movements for now. Study the correct form, then do it![/quote]
She has said don’t train.
I can improve it without training by just contracting the back muscles (properly). If I was to do a set of one arm rowing right now i’d be pulling with my upper trap on my right side and the rhomboids, lower trap on my left.
Right now I am just looking in the mirror and carefully squeezing my scapula together by using the rhomboids/lower trap which is quite hard on my right side.
Once I have got that down she said I can increase the intensity.
Hey Dan, I read your post about your shoulder issue that was preventing your pec from contracting. I literally have the exact same issue caused by the exact same carrying of a bag over my right shoulder execessively. I’ve been searching everywhere for help. Did you end up fixing the problem? If so how did you do it?
Michael
As a heads up, this thread is over a decade old and the guy hasn’t posted on the site at all in over three years.
It’d be cool if you get a reply, but you’d probably be better off posting a new thread in the Injuries and Rehab forum (which didn’t exist at the time this thread was created).
stare all this … over discomfort.
#Facepalm
You need a sports massage/deep tissue person that has worked on necks get a 3-4 treatments - or - get a lacross ball
Hell just youtube - MobilityMastery or search - Relieve Neck Pain, Thoracic Outlet/Brachial Plexus Issues
Do that thoracic work stop complaining, do it everyday.
Get a good foamroller, and foam roll the shit out of yourself.
Posture.
Look at your rounded forward shoulders, stop it.
You need to be training the muscles you can’t see. (stuff in the backside and that isn’t just “the back”)
Research pec activation drills, focus on mind-muscle connection, even between sets.
5-10 minutes at the beginning of every chest oriented day of just activation, mind-muscle work will go a long long way.
Learn to keep your shoulders back.
and damnit dont carry a load on one side of your body and not be aware of your body or muscles while doing it.
always always be mindful of your posture, your body, and learn how to control it without overly stressing it.
ps chill the fuck out - stressing it helps tighten up all those muscles
My red flags
Now go get to work and you’ll be fine. ;p
I’ve had something like what you described but on a much worse scale.
Oh and if you can, I’d have some very very experienced folks review how you perform your pressing movements because how you lift, and what exercises or methods you are using for press days may be contributing to this.
*tiger balm ultra.
As I pointed out in my previous post, this thread was created when No Country for Old Men was brand new in movie theaters.
It’s been over 4,000 days, actually. Thanks for trying to help with the OP’s situation, but you’re a little late.