chicanerous
April 2nd, 2008, 06:27 PM
[JOHN STONE EDIT]
Last night a few of us were down in the VIP forum engrossed in a riveting conversation about... oh, pretty much nothing (as usual), when the subject of my Daily News update from yesterday (link (http://www.johnstonefitness.com/news/apr_2008_news_archive.php#04022008)) wormed its way into the dialog.
Chicanerous chimed in with what I thought was a spot-on observation and some very helpful insight based on his own experience with this sort of pain.
I received a significant number of emails and PMs yesterday from others who have experienced the same sort of pain I described, so I am (with Adam's permission) reproducing his helpful post in this thread.
I should note that I performed the test pictured below, and my results were identical to Chico's results...
[/JOHN STONE EDIT]
--
A little, yeah.
I ask because I've gotten a piercing pain in that area a few times in the past. It's always deep in the musculature and at the bottom inside corner of the scapula. Though the pain is sharp, I can only pinpoint it once it starts to heal, as it becomes a specific dull pain on one vertex of the scapula before going away. The injury usually happens when I haven't warmed up the upper back enough before performing some kind of fast pull. I don't know if that describes you, but incidentally that side of my scapula is destabilized. That's just a fancy way of saying that some of the surrounding "small" musculature is weak or doesn't activate correctly (lower trapezius, serratus anterior, posterior delts, etc.), so the scapula doesn't track correctly on that side. I think this is probably the reason why I encounter that injury every once in a while.
When you're feeling a bit better, test your back and shoulder flexibility this way:
25525
I made that graphic a year or so ago while trying to diagnose what felt funny with that side of my back. I knew there wasn't something exactly right about the way the shoulder and shoulder blade tracked (my left shoulder blade always moves in what seems like a more "solid" manner), but I couldn't figure out what exactly it was. I tried that test and found out that I get a stitch-like pain in that circled spot, which prevents me from moving my hands closer. It feels kind of like bone pressing into tissue and is not too pleasant, which is pretty much because that vertex of my scapula literally floats upward instead of staying down in that position.
I wrote all about it to Eric Cressey in an open Q/A session he had and gave him the picture and he said that, while he would prefer to look at some dynamic tests for it, what I described sounded like a textbook example of a destabilized scapula. He said this is common in people that constantly reach with one arm (e.g. computer mouse, stick shift, etc.). It's usually also accompanied by slightly greater external rotation on that side (if I remember correctly). The basic way to correct it is to include a healthy dose of prone trap raises, scapular push-ups, scapular retraction work, and wall slides, while correcting any anterior/posterior shoulder imbalance.
Last night a few of us were down in the VIP forum engrossed in a riveting conversation about... oh, pretty much nothing (as usual), when the subject of my Daily News update from yesterday (link (http://www.johnstonefitness.com/news/apr_2008_news_archive.php#04022008)) wormed its way into the dialog.
Chicanerous chimed in with what I thought was a spot-on observation and some very helpful insight based on his own experience with this sort of pain.
I received a significant number of emails and PMs yesterday from others who have experienced the same sort of pain I described, so I am (with Adam's permission) reproducing his helpful post in this thread.
I should note that I performed the test pictured below, and my results were identical to Chico's results...
[/JOHN STONE EDIT]
--
A little, yeah.
I ask because I've gotten a piercing pain in that area a few times in the past. It's always deep in the musculature and at the bottom inside corner of the scapula. Though the pain is sharp, I can only pinpoint it once it starts to heal, as it becomes a specific dull pain on one vertex of the scapula before going away. The injury usually happens when I haven't warmed up the upper back enough before performing some kind of fast pull. I don't know if that describes you, but incidentally that side of my scapula is destabilized. That's just a fancy way of saying that some of the surrounding "small" musculature is weak or doesn't activate correctly (lower trapezius, serratus anterior, posterior delts, etc.), so the scapula doesn't track correctly on that side. I think this is probably the reason why I encounter that injury every once in a while.
When you're feeling a bit better, test your back and shoulder flexibility this way:
25525
I made that graphic a year or so ago while trying to diagnose what felt funny with that side of my back. I knew there wasn't something exactly right about the way the shoulder and shoulder blade tracked (my left shoulder blade always moves in what seems like a more "solid" manner), but I couldn't figure out what exactly it was. I tried that test and found out that I get a stitch-like pain in that circled spot, which prevents me from moving my hands closer. It feels kind of like bone pressing into tissue and is not too pleasant, which is pretty much because that vertex of my scapula literally floats upward instead of staying down in that position.
I wrote all about it to Eric Cressey in an open Q/A session he had and gave him the picture and he said that, while he would prefer to look at some dynamic tests for it, what I described sounded like a textbook example of a destabilized scapula. He said this is common in people that constantly reach with one arm (e.g. computer mouse, stick shift, etc.). It's usually also accompanied by slightly greater external rotation on that side (if I remember correctly). The basic way to correct it is to include a healthy dose of prone trap raises, scapular push-ups, scapular retraction work, and wall slides, while correcting any anterior/posterior shoulder imbalance.