2.) I am unsure of what you mean by “addressing”. 

3.) He said for me to work on myofasical release. Finding the knot, and putting pressure on it until it shrinks or at least dissipates. He also recommended I work my shoulders through all ranges of motion, even the ones that hurt. The second part of that advice concerns me, because I have spoke to him a lot, and his exercise science knowledge isn’t the best. 

4.) I have tried, but I cannot. I am far too uncomfortable not sleeping on my sides. This is probably a bad thing because my shoulders are inwardly rotated most of the night, and before the injury, I would have to slight stretch out a little because I’d be tight from waking up. It was nothing too serious though. This has concerned me before my injury as well, because I’d love to sleep flat on my back in a perfectly straight line for the sake of having less imbalances, tightness, and better postural health. 

5.) She recommended I sat in an ice bath when I got home because it’d be inflamed after so much deep tissue work (and it also caused incredible pain), which I did. Not sure if I should keep icing though because I was told by my chiropractor that ice is useless after 72 hours of the injury, and I found a few websites that said the same. She also said for me to do myofasical release stuff. Now my question might seem a bit obvious… if both my chiropractor and the deep tissue massage therapist said for me to do myofasical release and I am unable to do so effectively, why not just see a deep tissue massage therapist again? 

Well here is what I am worried about. I am very much in to powerlifting, and the massage therapist was a friend of mine’s mom, and her son is a powerlifter. Because her son is passionate about powerlifting and massages him all the time, her exercise science knowledge is better than a lot of health professionals I hear about. A lot of health professionals, are extremely ignorant and against lifting weights. Many doctors will give you the answer “let it rest and stop lifting heavy weights, it’s bad for x or y”, rather than finding a way to solve the problem so I can go back to lifting and jiu jitsu again. I’m unsure I could trust another deep tissue massage therapist, other than my friend’s mom and that they would waste my money… and what sucks is that they are in another state, so seeing her again isn’t an easy option. But at this point though, I am very tempted to bite the bullet and go see a local one to do it. 

Because of my concerns, do you know anything about gratson technique or ART instead of massage therapy? It’s just unfortunate because money is an issue, and some of these things can get pricey, especially if needed to do very frequently. Thanks Kaitlin!