Deal with Reoccurring Injuries At The ROOT of the Problem
When you have an injured shoulder, you’d think to address the shoulder. So you get a massage, roll it, stretch it etc… and it starts to feel better. But it just keeps coming back. We’ve all been there, having to deal with nagging shoulder pain, back pain, or knee pain. We work them out, it feels good, we push it, and then boom, there it is again!
The problem is that you’re more than likely not addressing the root of the injury. You may feel the pain in a specific spot and deal with it directly, but that’s a bandaid approach. If you want to make an impact, look beyond the pain and go to the source. Sounds really confusing but trust me, it’s simpler than you think.
“Where You Think It Is, It Aint’!”
In the above model’s case, this person will more than likely have some sort knee pain or shoulder pain. If you look closely, the root of the issues stems from the hip. I know this sound weird but it makes sense if you understand the concept of tensegrity.
Watch this video of Tom Myers explaining how tensegrity is relatable to the human skeleton and how this will help you understand more about your nagging injury.
Tensegrity put simply = everything effects each other. In this case the human body is held up by the soft tissue that guides the bodies alignment. If the left hip is weak and the right his is tight and strong, then you’ll pull one away and it’ll have a trickle down effect (like the image above).
Example:
Athlete X has one trap higher than the other. When doing overhead movements (overhead press, snatch, overhead squat, etc…) athlete X may start to develop shoulder and wrist pain on one side due to being out of position, thanks to…you guessed it the left trap. This mis-alignment causes wear and tear on the body = inflammation = pain.
As typical, the athlete will more than likely treat the acute problem, the wrist and shoulder. However, as we now know they need to address why the left trap is hiked up, maybe due to lower trap weakness and scapula stability issues.
Professional Perspective
…if you’re having nagging pains, don’t just treat the pain but assess it. Then you will be able to develop a pin point plan to treat the CHRONIC issue and not the acute. This is why it’s so important to have a qualified personal trainer, strength coach, and physical therapist in your network.
Believe it or not even NYC trainers and strength coaches have their own coaches too. While many qualified personal trainers and strength coaches have a wealth of knowledge, it’s important to have an outside perspective from another trainer, coach, and/or therapist that you can trust.
My own weightlifting coach and physical therapist have shown me new ways to think, apply, and cue lifts so that it would click in my head. They taught me new ways to hips stabilize my hip that I never thought of, small little tinkering to the movement, and boom it felt so much better.
Long story short, make sure to have a great personal trainer, strength coach, or therapist and if you’re dealing with a little nagging pain look beyond the area of pain but for the source of it.
Train smart,