Gravity Fx Fitness

I recently injured my elbow due to my own ignorance (stupidity) and have learned a few valuable lessons.

Basically, I ignored my body’s own pain signals until it was too late and had no choice but to stop what I was doing and make some changes.  In my quest to be “lean and mean” at the age of 44, I tried pushing through pain, which is never a good thing!

Yes, you may definitely have to push your body past its comfort zone to achieve great physical feats, but the adage “no pain, no gain” is a bunch of crap that usually leaves you with loads of injuries down the road.

Specifically, two weeks ago, my right elbow was throbbing after I got done playing basketball for the first time in 10 or 12 years.  I don’t like taking anything if I don’t absolutely have to, but I ended up taking some Advil to reduce swelling and inflammation.

I’ve used icepacks and soaked it in a large pan of ice and water quite a bit, too.  I’ve had restricted movement at my shoulder and shoulderblade for a while, with some nasty triggerpoints in my levator scapula and rhomboids (upper and inner areas of shoulderblade).

My pecs and lats have also been tight and contained some triggerpoints (tight bands of muscle) that haven’t responded to self-massage with a massage ball or tennis ball.  These items plus a rolling massage tool like the Stick may be great for maintenance work, but don’t always replace the hands of a skilled massage therapist.

The result of the tightness and movement dysfunction (misalignment) in these areas puts unnecessary stress on my elbow and I also have some tight bands of muscle in my triceps.  Instead of taking the time to get some quality soft tissue work, I tried to work through it – BIG mistake!

I’ve been doing weighted pushups with a sandbag on my back and single arm kettlebell presses to try and increase my upper body size and strength.  My elbow didn’t want to fully straighten so I just ignored the discomfort and shortened the movement.

Playing basketball and all the overhead movements involved was the last straw.  Two weeks later, the elbow feels much better but is definitely not 100%.  Yesterday I did some upper body strength work and partial pushups with my bodyweight is all I can do for the pushing movements, except for static pushups on the Power Plate.

Its not quite ready for much eccentric work, but the vibration platform allows some static work without causing pain – keeping the stress to the elbow minimal but still providing some maintenance strengthening to occur.  The increased blood flow probably aids the healing process, also.

This minimal joint stress would probably benefit athletes during their competitive season – helping them maintain strength when combined with some resistance training.  So I talked to a massage therapist the other day who does some quality deep tissue work and we are going to exchange services.

The stretching I received at a recent continuing ed course helped quite a bit as well, but if I don’t get the proper massage work done, my problems will only get worse over time and keep me from achieving my goals of a lean, athletic physique.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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This old dog recently learned some new tricks at a continuing ed course on deep tissue massage therapy.  If you think that massage needs to be painful to be effective, think again.

One of the nice things about these CEU classes is getting worked on by another professional.  In general, I prefer firm to deep pressure when getting worked on.  In the last two courses I’ve attended, the therapists that I worked with, used decent pressure, but not as much as some of the work I’ve received.

Yet, the massage was fairly precise and skillfully applied – and the results were noticeable.  As I was driving back from Chicago last weekend I noticed that I was able to breathe easier and deeper than before.

A few days later I noticed that my shoulder was moving a little better, even though there really wasn’t much work done directly to the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint – which can tell you that where it hurts isn’t necessarily where the problem is.

The next night my mother asked for some assistance for some pain she got while doing yard work over the weekend.  She had lifted some things she probably shouldn’t have and had pain around her shoulderblade that was radiating down her arm.

Instead of having her lie face down on the table, I put her on her opposite side and worked around the upper and inner edge of her shoulderblade while I used gravity to let her scapula drop down a little.

Instead of using a lot of pressure, I massaged the area while using her arm to add movement to her shoulderblade, which helped relax the tense muscles.  Besides not causing any undue pain, I didn’t work any harder than necessary, which is also a good thing.

I talked with her today and she said that the pain had disappeared after the massage work, with no more radiating pain going down her arm, either.

Deep tissue massage doesn’t always need to use the most amount of pressure from the therapist.  There are different layers of connective tissue (fascia) that can develop adhesions and they need to be unstuck.  Light, relaxing massage usually works on the superficial layers only, often leaving the deeper layers stuck together after an injury or trauma.

Moist heat prior to the work can soften the connective tissue, making it easier to manipulate.  Warming the soft tissues with lighter massage first can prepare the tissues for the work to follow.

Clients sometimes tell the therapist they can go deeper, even though the therapist is still “prepping” the tissues for the deeper pressure to follow – just like how an athlete warms up prior to playing their sport.  Be patient!

In wrapping up, I’ve had deep tissue work that didn’t get the desired results because it wasn’t as skillfully applied as it could have been.  Pressure is great, but skill is more desireable than just being heavy handed.

By the way, my Mom still needs some strengthening and posture training to prevent future problems.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Skilled deep tissue massage can be very effective at relieving or reducing chronic pain.  It can also help you reduce the risk of overuse injuries.

In the previous article, I talked about my first massage and how effective it was for removing excess tension.  Excess tension in the muscles and restrictions in the fascia (connective tissue) can create pain.

You can have too much tension from overuse and you can have a buildup of scar tissue from an injury.  This is where deep tissue massage can be very effective.

In my opinion, using some form of moist heat first will make the tissues more pliable and easier to work on.  This may save the client from greater pain/discomfort and it definitely is easier on the hands of the therapist.

In one instance, I worked on a 77 year old woman who had torn her rotator cuff two years prior.  She had to take care of her husband and couldn’t take time off to have surgery.

So she had almost no movement in that shoulder and basically, almost no function with that arm.  In order to drive, she had to take her other arm and lift her bad arm to grab the steering wheel.

She would joke to the technicians that I was beating her up, but she knew it was helping and I didn’t create any more discomfort than necessary.

After ten 30 minute sessions of massage and stretching, she had about double the range of motion and could now swing a golf club again, for which she was very happy.

She could have used some strengthening exercises too, but she was coming in to the clinic from quite a distance and was satisfied with her progress.  I believe strongly in corrective exercise, but have seen times where people got better results with skilled soft tissue therapy and chiropractic, than they did in physical therapy.

My massage mentor worked with college teams for a while and then “graduated” to the pro ranks when one of his athletes turned pro.  One of his football clients set the NFL record for most carries in a season, while receiving massage twice a week, a record that has since been broken.

Active Release Technique (ART) has been touted as very beneficial for releasing scar tissue in a number of athletes and weight lifters.  It can be very painful to receive, but is reported to get fast results.

As one prominent lecturer has said, “not all practitioners are equally skilled,” which is probably true of all manual therapists.  I think it takes quite a bit of work to become proficient with ART.

Check out my article about self massage that you can do before your workouts.

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Is pain a necessary evil or can deep tissue massage be unnecessarily painful?  As a massage therapist and former instructor of massage therapy, I’ve had some interesting discussions on this matter.

Recently I was talking with a fellow therapist who uses deep pressure with her massages and usually people tell her that the results are much different than light, relaxing massage.  Sometimes, the clients are amazed at how it can make them feel.

The pressure that I use and that I enjoy, is firm to deep pressure.  Sometimes this can be uncomfortable to receive and often, a little painful for a brief moment.  I’ve had some pretty good results, though, and don’t have much problem putting up with some momentary discomfort in exchange for lasting results.

I’ve also had some students tell me that they have come across people that have had bad results with deep tissue work and endured too much pain.

So this made me think about this little dilemma and I think I have some answers.  One, the therapist may have used very deep pressure without adequate skill.  I’ve had a few therapists use lots of pressure, but it wasn’t applied skillfully and the results weren’t what they could have been.

I have a very high pain threshhold and generally need plenty of pressure to make a change in my muscles.  I also push my body to its limits when I exercise, so my muscles are fairly dense and used to a lot of stress, so I can handle deep pressure very well.

My first massage was about 13 years ago.  At the time, I was doing concrete construction, which included plenty of digging and pushing a wheelbarrow full of dirt or wet concrete – a pretty demanding job.  I didn’t experience any pain, but my muscles got stiff after a while.

So I decided to try massage therapy and had a half hour session with a chiropractic student.  He used deep pressure work, along with triggerpoint and stretching.  The session left me with some bruising on my backside and some spot tenderness – lots of pressure!

But it wasn’t really painful and really loosened my hips and I felt much better – I played softball a few hours later and hit a homerun my first time up – mission accomplished.  There again, I had spent lots of time lifting weights and doing manual labor, so my body was used to being stressed.

Maybe those that don’t do anything physically demanding can’t tolerate a lot of pressure in their massage.  Those with high stress levels – your issues end up in your soft tissues – often seem to need and want more pressure.

The deep tissue massage is designed to release tension in overworked muscles or reduce or realign scar tissue, which may be restricting the muscles’ ability to stretch.  This can include cross fiber friction massage, which is frequently painful or at least, uncomfortable.

This technique is often used by physical therapists in dealing with an injury and can be used by massage therapists, as well.  I’ll finish for now and discuss this more in a second article next week.

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