Foam Rolling for Injuries

kbaby2020 wrote: »

Speakeasy76 wrote: »

So, I actually looked this up because I have muscle tightness and a constant trigger point just under my left scapula. That shoulder/area also always "pops" when I rotate that arm. So, there's something on there.

Anyway, to your point, I often find the trigger points and use my foam roller or (even better) my small bumpy ball to get at it. I do that before workouts and do some ROM stuff, too--for not only that but my neck. I've also been incorporating more activation exercises (esp. before pull ups) to activate my lats (like pulling the shoulders down and together). I also *try* to do that throughout the day. I typically have elevated, rounded shoulders (thanks, anxiety), so I know that probably has set off a series of compensations/overuse to create this issue.

I, too, have been to PT for chronic lower back pain and ironically that is much more manageable now than this. I, too, don't really want to go back to PT yet again, so am really trying to find some ways to alleviate this at home.

Yeah I feel like I struggle sometimes with activating my lats because the weird tightness in my subscapular takes over.
What kind of exercises do you do to activate your lats?

I put a really light resistance band around a pole/beam, and with palms facing up I pull back just a little on the band, focusing on pulling my shoulders down and back, just squeezing my scapula together. The movement is very subtle. I also do pull downs with the band, again focusing on squeezing the shoulder blades down and together. I also might do some scapular push ups. There's not a lot of movement in any of these, mostly just different ways to pull the shoulder blades down/together.

kbaby2020 wrote: »

Speakeasy76 wrote: »

So, I actually looked this up because I have muscle tightness and a constant trigger point just under my left scapula. That shoulder/area also always "pops" when I rotate that arm. So, there's something on there.

Anyway, to your point, I often find the trigger points and use my foam roller or (even better) my small bumpy ball to get at it. I do that before workouts and do some ROM stuff, too--for not only that but my neck. I've also been incorporating more activation exercises (esp. before pull ups) to activate my lats (like pulling the shoulders down and together). I also *try* to do that throughout the day. I typically have elevated, rounded shoulders (thanks, anxiety), so I know that probably has set off a series of compensations/overuse to create this issue.

I, too, have been to PT for chronic lower back pain and ironically that is much more manageable now than this. I, too, don't really want to go back to PT yet again, so am really trying to find some ways to alleviate this at home.

Yeah I feel like I struggle sometimes with activating my lats because the weird tightness in my subscapular takes over.
What kind of exercises do you do to activate your lats?

Not a "lat activating exercise", but a "lat finding" drill that one of my rowing coaches gave us (lats engagement is central to rowing): You do it in your car, when you get to a stoplight and are waiting for green. Good driver that you are, you have both hands on the steering wheel, one on either side. Without intentionally moving your body, or letting your arm configuration change, contract your shoulders down and your shoulder blades toward your spine. This should cause your back to come slightly away from the seat-back, and your torso to come a bit closer to the steering wheel. Hold a few seconds, release, repeat.

If it scares you to do in a car, you can do it pretty much anytime you can hold a fixed object (that can tolerate a bit of pull) with both hands, like holding a door knob (crash bar door is particularly good), *sturdy* towel bar, etc.

As an aside, I'm one who's had shoulder trouble because of tightness in my upper chest (scar tissue from surgery, radiation). I didn't look at all the videos, so maybe this is in there, but one that's helped me is lying on a long foam roller (it needs to support all the way from head to bottom of pelvis, along its length), relaxing arms back to the floor, then doing repeats of "snow angel" slow swoops of arms from hip level to overhead and back to hips, backs of hands on the floor the whole time.

Same PT had me with both arms toward ceiling above shoulders, still lying on foam roller, reaching further toward ceiling via stretch upward initiated from between shoulder blades, hold a couple second, release, repeat.