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Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted (Read 2529 times)

ClimbingSheep

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Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 13, 2018, 09:21:56 pm
A few weeks ago I was trying Mecca and I pulled something/ partially tore some bit of muscle in my back, just underneath my shoulder blade. A few days later it was reasonably swollen and became very knotted. I went and had two sports massages that week to try and break up the knot and it made a little bit of a difference.

At the end of that week, I was on my way to Sicily for a 2 week climbing holiday. It started off ok but after 4 days of climbing, it was actively painful when resting and my left side was notably weaker. I spent a whole day roller balling it and trying to get it to improve. I dropped my climbing volume to tieing on twice a day (still trying hard) and roller balled twice a day for about 30 mins. The second week of climbing felt a lot better and I continued rolling it.

When I came back, I had one indoor routes session and it was back to being as bad as it had been on holiday. I've basically stopped climbing for 2 weeks, have a weekly sports massage and have 30 minutes of rolling each day. It seems to be slowly improving but I'm already getting frustrated with the lack of climbing.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, what did you do? Or anyone else got any advice for getting better but still getting to do some climbing. I'm going stir crazy!

webbo

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#1 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 13, 2018, 09:35:13 pm
If it’s torn, I can’t imagine massaging it will repair it. What was the masseuse opinion or thoughts.

Ged

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#2 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 13, 2018, 10:43:25 pm
I had something very similar sounding. Just below my shoulder blade, really bloody painful. Rested for two weeks and it went away.

A second for being sceptical about what rolling it or massaging it will do. You get an endorphin effect which might make feel a bit nicer, but it's not going to fix it. Just take a break.

bigironhorse

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#3 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 14, 2018, 06:12:13 am
Take a rest. I don't think endless rolling is going to help if it's torn. I have found pec stretches to relieve some tension in back muscles around shoulder blades.

ClimbingSheep

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#4 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 14, 2018, 09:10:33 am
I was afraid that you guys were going to say that.

The masseuse said that it looks like there was some damage in one of the muscles which has healed but resulted in a large amount of scar tissue and knotting. Unfortunately, it was in the perfect place to knot into all of the other muscles in that area.

Thanks bigironhorse, I'll have a go at some more pec stretching. I know it is something I've been neglecting. Have you any recommendations for good stretches, I always struggle to find ones that work well.

reeve

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spidermonkey09

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#6 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 14, 2018, 10:27:06 am
There is literally no point in hammering away when you're injured. Buy a good book and rest! Use the time off stretching everything you've never stretched before and doing core work if you need a stimulus.

Rolling and massaging is going to be no use on an actual tear I'd have thought. This from someone who does it religiously a few times a week.

I'd also go and see a physio rather than having an aggressive sports massage unless they're the same person.

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#7 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 14, 2018, 11:50:42 am
I once saw somebody who had avulsed an attachment or their trapezius from the thoracic spine. Big lumpy swelling by the scapula

Ged

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#8 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 20, 2018, 09:15:17 am
No disrespect to your masseuse, but what do they mean by knotted exactly? It sounds like a slightly spurious diagnosis, that might not be that helpful when considering the best rehab/resting strategy.

Listen to the resting advice. You sound a bit like me in that it's a wasted day unless you have fatigued some of your muscles to complete exhaustion, so it's hard to do the whole resting thing properly. But take a step back. If you are as mad about training/climbing as you sound, a couple of weeks of proper rest (no fingerboard, no pull ups, no nothing) will DEFINITELY be good for you in the long run. Even ondra does it once a year! Go and see all the family members and mates that are normally neglected, go for.some nice walks and gentle runs, read good books. It really does work.

ClimbingSheep

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#9 Re: Muscular Tear/ Seriously Knotted
December 23, 2018, 11:56:39 am
I never asked exactly what they meant by knotted. I've been continuing to have the massages and I've cut down to 1/2 really easy sessions a week (it's so hard not to jump on the hard problems!) and I've not done any finger boarding or pull ups since coming back from the trip. I'm planning to carry on resting until the new year at least and see if I need to wait longer before getting back into training.

reeve that video is really useful. I've definitely been neglecting my pecs


 

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