Quote:
Originally Posted by sangoku
Hi Dontbeamelvin,
First of all, I want to give you a big thanks for the very interesting approaches you have raised both on this post and on your "depressed shoulder" one.
This said, could you please tell me if your symptoms/aches were looking like mine which are basically very tight and achy (not strong but very deep and displeasant) neck/cervical and upper traps with from time to time, ache in my 4th and 5th finger and also in my shoulder.
To be more accurate, these achy feeling tends to worsen if I try to weigthlift, even with very very light weights, and especially if my head and neck go forward. At rest, i have nearly zero pain appart my neck and traps that stay rock hard.
In a nutshell, as a guy who loves sport and lifting, i am stuck in an "impeachment" situation because, in spite my pain is not disabling and horrible, i am not able to resume things I like and it is quite depressing to be in this "dead end" feeling.
So, if have well understood what you wrote, you are basically following a regimen of shrug and neck isometrics in addition with lat and pec minor's stretches ?
So, do you feel a release in your neck/traps and less aches in you arm and fingers ?
In all cases, i sincerely hope your condition continues to improve.
I thank you in advance for your thoughts.
God bless you
P.S : excuse me for my mistakes but i'm a french guy
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Hi sangoku,
In my current situation what I have realized is that the lats are actually what is tight. So the muscles that depress the shoulder like the lats, pec minor, low traps are actually pulling the scapula down. This causes the upper traps and levator scapula to be extremely tight because they are being over powered by the downward rotators.
You can try and stretch this muscles and release them (the downward rotators) but this will provide temporary relief in my experience. Something that has helped me tremendously is to release these muscles and get the upward rotators to start firing again. One exercise that has helped me tremendously is called the wall slide. You stand facing a wall with your forearms on the wall and you get pretty close to the wall. Then you slide your forearms up the wall as high as you can. Try not to clench your jaw or use your neck muscles. This is just another way of compensating. If you do it correctly you will feel it the next day in your mid back, armpit area and upper back area. This retrains your upward rotators to work again allowing your scapula to sit higher and takes some of the tension off of your upper traps and levator.
I recommend looking up Eric cressley wall slide on YouTube. So as your scapula movement is retrained and it sits higher it takes tension off of some of the muscles in your upper back like the traps and levator, and also as it turns out, the scalenes relax a bit as well.
Hope this helps.
