Pinched nerve after S/H

[NinjaMom]

Hi Cathe,
I know you are very busy so if you can't answer I understand. I just came off a 3 week rotation of S&H lifting the heaviest I could handle. The day after I finished with chest/back plus I add shoulders, I had intense sorness between my right shoulder blade and spine(mid trapezius?) that led to pain radiating down from my neck to back & arms. I couldn't turn my head to the right and I assumed it was a pinched nerve. My doctor confirmed this and put me on Prednisolone to get the inflamation down. It's slowly getting better but I can't even do cardio because any jarring gets that area aching. I was very aware of my form and holding a scapular retraction so I don't think poor form was the issue.

I consistently experience sorness mainly in this back area after strength & sometimes endurance training and it usually goes away within a day or two. I often get sore knots in that area which diminish if placed with pressure & massaged. Is that from lactic acid buildup? I've been doing some yoga but I'm going crazy not being able to workout any further. Do you have any suggestions on how I can prevent this or are there extra stretches I can do to really hit that area deeply?

Thank you!
JJ

ps. Also, thank you for offering free shipping of other dvd's when pre-ordering the Blast series. It gave me the chance to pick up a few more :7

 

[Gibbee]

While I am definitely not Cathe, I have suffered similarly since January of 2000 with flare ups of pain radiating between the shoulder blade and the spine on the right side (including up into the neck with pain and/or numbness extending into the arm).

Initially I was diagnosed as an overuse injury (I spent an hour deeply scrubbing the shower and walls in our bathroom with my right hand and leaning over the tub). It wasn't from weight training - I was only using Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight at the time. The only other thing I was doing was Taekwondo and I couldn't identify a specific 'event' that occurred that would've caused it and I had not been sparring, so I couldn't give them an answer there. Perhaps I had increased the weights on Kathy when she does the back exercises or something??? Anyway...

I, too, took prednisolone, and tried multiple pain killers, anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers (can't think of one I didn't try, including vicodan)... plus ice packs (I looked like a total dork at work constantly switching bright blue ice packs). At its worst, the muscles (the upper part of the trap and its connection point to the neck muscle and rhomboids) would spasm so bad my head would jerk toward my shoulder. I ended up having some trigger point therapy of injections plus myofascial release at the trigger points after the shots by a nerve pain specialist I was referred to by my family care doctor. It helped quite a bit - especially if he put some numbing gel in the shot... within 12-24 hours I was 10x better.

Eventually it let up but continues to recur if I am extremely stressed (my primary care and the nerve doctor told me this might happen.... and it does), if I do not keep my shoulders from hunching up during dumbbell pullovers (I can't use the position Cathe uses in Pyramid Upper Body... it triggers the muscle tightness and ache for 2-3 days... but holding the dumbbell by the end and not allowing the shoulders to move toward the ears doesn't bother me... and keeping the abs tight and not allowing any spinal arching along the back at all), if I do something 'wrong' when lifting (and it doesn't feel 'wrong' at the time...), or, like yesterday, I do something like Taebo or Cardio Kicks after a long absence. Again, the pain and stiffness is sometimes lower on the traps/rhomboids between the shoulder blade and spine, other times it runs along the upper edge of the trapezius into the neck... sometimes it is the whole area.

My husband spends HOURS massaging my right upper back, trap area and always finds knots. The massage seems to help the most... along with stress avoidance. The nerve pain doctor who does the trigger point injections told me that once a muscle has been 'injured' or a nerve bundle has been 'upset', the muscles surrounding the area spasm and swell to protect the area, resulting in the other muscles in the nearby area to be pulled out of position, resulting in pain, swelling and spasms... an ugly and viscious cycle. The injections hurt at the time but within 12-24 hours the pain radiating out of the site and into the neck and arm would let up significantly. I've only done the shots 3 or 4 times when it was so unbearable that massage and anti-inflammatories didn't work.

My primary care says it's a overuse injury from a strain and it may/may not get better. He has sent me to a physical therapist (as well as the nerve dr.) and I was given some exercises to do (which I haven't done in a while but have decided to start doing again since I've been stiff lately and the exercises also help with posture - a definite bonus). Earlier this year I finally tried a chiropractor and he did show me on my x-rays that I have a bit of scoliosis (affecting 3-4 vertebrae) along the mid-upper back (under the rhomboids and the edge of the traps) that could cause some of the discomfort. I had a couple of manipulations but haven't gone regularly in the past few months.

SO, my point is, get a few opinions on your upper back. Any or all of them may be right or wrong. All 4 (physician, nerve dr., chiropractor and physial therapist) of the people I talked to agree that it can and will continue to flare up from any irritation since the area has been traumatized at some point... and I may be unable to identify the exact cause.

Since mine continues to recur (especially with stress), I'm wondering if it isn't a combination of the mild scoliosis and the fact that I've injured a nerve bundle or muscle bundle at some point and it continues to recur. I wish you the best. I hope Cathe can answer you and offer some more specific suggestions.

 

[NinjaMom]

Hi Gibbee,

Thanks for the reply. What you described is exactly what I am experiencing. Funny thing is I am also in Taekwondo and have a tournament today. Luckily I am only doing a team form. I am just so frustrated because I have worked hard to get to where I am strengthwise and laying off weights and karate is not an option I'm happy about. I have taken off about a week and will try some light cardio to see how my back reacts. I really appreciate all the info you provided and I will keep your suggestions in mind if it doesn't appear to heal completely.

JJ

 

[Sandi S]

Hi!

I'm not Cathe either but I know exactly how you feel. I went to a doctor for medication to reduce the inflamation (Clinoril), went to a chiropractor and had physical therapy. The meds worked wonders for the inflamation, the chiropractic adjustments got everything into alignment and the physical therapy helped restore most of the function in my arm & hand.

You should ask your doctor about having physical therapy or chiropractic adjustments to get your spine back into alignment because when the inflamation is gone and you feel better the underlying problem is not fixed and will come back to haunt you. I learned this the hard way.

The physical therapist helped me with exercises to strenghten and stretch the area. Strong and limber muscles are your best defense to prevent another injury. My PT raved about the benefits of pilates so I've added pilates to my workout routine. I haven't been doing pilates long enough to see if it'll help though. Miora Stott gives the most detailed instructions on form that is similar to what the PT taught me.

I hope you feel better soon. Life is miserable when you're suffering from a pinched nerve but it will get better.

Sandi

 

[Gibbee]

Hang in there and take your time. My physical therapist had me do neck stretches and rhomboid pinches and a couple of other exercises to improve alignment, strength and posture. The chiropractor always feels good especially if they follow up with some ultrasound to the surrounding muscles.

Hopefully yours will not recur, but if you're like me, missing a workout or skipping the dojo is not an option (self-imposed, of course). I always take it easy on back elbow strikes, knifehands and backfists, no board breaks with the arms or fists of any kind, I go light on pushups and extra light on weights on the back/shoulder area for at least a week if it fires back up. When it does occasionally flare up, it reminds me to be more consistent on my physical therapy exercises. If I am consistent, it doesn't flare up but once in a long while.

Let me know how it goes!