Thanks guys. I have an appointment and I will mention this nerv root thing.
I’ve been to several PT:s in the past for various issues and basically they always describe the same thing: Ice, stretch, rest, don’t lift so heavy…

One thing I just thought of that I wonder if it means something:
Whenever I get this burning trigger point sensation on the upper corner of my scapula, raising my arm above my head actually alleviates it. So it feels like the scapula is in a better position when I raise the arm above my head than when it hangs down on my side. To get relief I usually raise my elbow to the ceiling and put my hand on my neck. Any conclusion to draw from that? I always though OH position was ‘worse’ for the shoulders.

The PT did a very thourough examination. But found nothing wrong. She complimented on everything. Everything was moving so great. I told her everything I wrote here. I even showed her the picture. She agreed upon the picture that it looked bad (winged scapula). But when she herself examined me she said she couldn’t find what she saw in the picture. I told her it seems the scapula moves OK when I’m moving my arms relaxed, but if I flex my back as hard as I can things go bad.

But in the end, unfortunately, she found absolutely nothing wrong and she couldn’t offer me any solution.

kaitlin, thanks for your suggestions.
I have already smashed my scapula free, but as you say I think I have stuff in the front thats tight.
It seems im extremely tight above and below the clavicle on the problem side compared to my normal side so I’m going to free it up and see what happens.

Well, finally. I think I am now on the road to becoming better.
I saw another person today, and I got a really really good impression.
He did a lot of weird tests and at the same time jammed his fingers right into my pec minor, neck, posteriour shoulder and other stuff. I got a good impression because the areas that he looked at and what he said resonates well with what I’ve learned here on mwod.

Key points:

* My platysma muscle appearantly is insanely tight
* So is my pec minor
* And my posterior shoulder

He said that I am evenly strong on both sides, HOWEVER, on the right side the muscles are not working as they are supposed to do, meaning some muscles have been compensating for the lack of function of others.

So he jammed his fingers and knuckles right into my business, punched me a little here and there and mobilized my neck and ribs and other stuff. I’m due for another appointment next week and he said he believes I will notice improvement in my symptoms within a month.

Edit: Now, one curious thing is he asked me if I had ever been involved in gymnastics. I haven’t, and I didn’t ask why he wondered, but now I’m curious.

cmucker0

This time I went to a chiro. I did this because private care can often see you same day.
Public health care has a waiting list 1-2 weeks most of the time.
But the chiro didn’t help me so I’m due to see another PT next week.

To be honest, there are some great PTs out there but unfortunately there are also many who are of absolutely no help. It’s all about finding one of those good ones… I had a nigthmare experience with one who didn’t even perform any test, he didn’t ask any questions either. He just slapped on a TENS stimulator and left me in the room alone for 20 min. He repeated this all three times I saw him, even though I said it didn’t help. So I didn’t go back. How the heck do guys like that even have a license?

Went to a phenomenal PT today. Now I have stuff to work with.

I have scoliosis. And my upper trapz are hyperactive while lower and middle are completely off. I have trained my lower trapz for a long time but she, if I understood her correctly, says that it’s a motor-fault. I have to work really hard on relaxing upper trapz and activating lower trapz in all exercises.

Also, she thinks my trigger points and especially that point that goes painful by itself is a result of the scoliosis. I still wonder if maybe it could be the other way around, that trigger points cause the scoliosis.

Atleast now I have concrete stuff to work with. Feels great!

Hey guys it seems I solved the problem.
Difficult to say for sure exactly what did the magic because i’ve been busy working everything from ankles up to neck.
However, one day I started working a lot on my scalenes, upper trapz and first rib, and since that day I have not had any pain. I’m fairly convinced a certain variation of the scalene stretch was what did the magic, so for anyone with similar problems I recommend looking into that area.

I’m sorry to say I was wrong, the problem is not better at all, altough the scalene stretch helps to alleviate the worst pain.

My PT is out of ideas as well. 🙁

I’ve started to look into something called depressed scapula syndrome, remains to see if it helps.

Allright I have finally found something that seems to work. I can’t tell if the underlying problem is solved but I have been pain free for over a week now. I started doing two things at the same time so I’m not sure if it’s only one or the other or both together.

1. One PT I saw said that my shoulders were too low. Contrary to what I was told to believe before, a long distance from your ear to your shoulder is not a good thing. The clavicle is supposed to be at a fairly steep angle where the outer portion is significantly higher than the inner one. If you’r clavicle is horizontal or only has a small upward angle, you are not in a good position.

So he told me to do this: stop all exercises that lower the shoulder girdle. That includes pulldowns, bench press etc. Alsto stop stretching the upper trapz. And do lots of shrugs, with the arms straight overhead.

2. I’ve begun to incorporate a neck/thoracic spine mobilization as part of my normal posture. it’s basically this: pull your chin/head back, and imagine pushing your torso forward in the opposite direction. I really like this one as it feels like my neck is better anchored to my thoracic spine.

While I don’t want to be too optimistic, this seems to be a solution. I can’t remember when I last was pain free over a week in a row.