The ribcage/thoracic spine is an area that is very responsive to consistent input. The best recommendation is to utilize the Virtual Mobility Coach we offer on the website and select the upper back area and get access to a lot of pin point information about mobilizing the thoracic spine and rib cage and breathing drills to support the work. You can also look at videos about PRI and there may be some beneficial collaborative work that can be done.

Travis Jewett
TRS Coaching Staff

As in she is dropping the barbell onto her back? C7 or C8 nerve root could be getting compromised by the forces or tension. Look upstream at some neck, upper back, trap mobilizations as well.

Some mobility work directly before a comp/workout isn’t contraindicated. As Kaitlyn mentioned, new range can be a little messy, so end range isometric work (contract relax stuff) paired with some warm-up exercises specific to the range you are working on and specific to the workout/comp you are doing would be fine. Just don’t spend more than 5-10 minutes messing around and save deep tissue stuff for post.

And if you have trouble getting anywhere, you can always look into setting up a virtual consultation with one of our staff members.

Spasms can be dealt with with pressure, deep breathing, and contract relax work with a little ball in the area. A lacrosse ball my be too aggressive if the spasm is pretty tender so plan accordingly. You will probably come across more of this as you move through the course. The bigger question is why does this person develop spasms in the first place? What type of training is occurring when the area spasms. What exercises flare it up? You will have to sort that out and see if there are technical/efficiency issues that can be addressed through coaching.

As far as your foot, that is a tricky one, but joint capsules for the toes are no different than any other joint capsule. Distraction and motion are the best places to start.

These issues will have a lot to do with the environmental load of your job as well. You may have some issues in the neck and the nervous system that are the root of the problems as you describe pain and weakness that sounds like a nerve tension/irritation related problem. Look into the website on the things you can do for people in water sports, there is a category specific to that on the new website, thereadystate.com.

Travis
TRS Staff

This is an enormous task as you have had a lot of injuries and surgeries that are interfering with how your nervous system can gather appropriate information from the area and allow you to get back to moving well. I would get on the site and start with the “I’m in pain” tab and get to work on anything it discusses for the lower back, particularly with breathing tied in. Getting into the Art of Breath course by Brian McKenzie can also be very helpful as it can help you shift the state of your body through tapping into your physiology through focused breathing work. With so much trauma to the area, the road back is long and it is multifaceted. You have to look at sleep, hydration, lifestyle factors and environmental load that could be causing compounding issues. Look at training and any way you can start to add load to the area. I like to have people with severe back trauma and multiple surgeries do sled work, pushing and pulling and so on. You can typically start loading the system without a lot of negative consequences.

Travis
TRS Staff

Many times in runners we see a lot of stiffness in the quads and lack of extension at the hip. Running is great exercise, but it isn’t a complete training practice. On top of that, if your work or day to day has you doing a fair amount of sitting, the battle is a bit uphill. You don’t have to go all out into a full couch stretch to start, find a position you can manage and start. Look at smashing the quads a little before you start the stretch and make sure you add some split stance/lunge work to your training.

Travis
TRS Staff