Hey guys new to the forum. Sadly I am asking about an injury that I suffered almost a month ago. I had been working out focusing more on upper chest and deltoids. One morning I woke up and my left side trapezius felt very tight including left side of my neck. It hurt and could barely move. I iced it and went to the doctor couple days later. Doctor said I was having muscle spasm on the trapezius, stemodeidomastoid, and possibly the scalene muscles. Took muscle relaxers but they did not work.
I applied much heat and have been taking hot baths. It has improved and I donâ??t really have as much pain as when it first started. I mostly feel pain when I wake up, but it remains throughout the day. I feel pain whenever I lift my arm over my head as well. The weird thing is that when I press on my upper sternum/collar bone I feel sharp pain on the upper trapezius.
I am currently going to chiropractor and getting weekly massage but it hasnâ??t helped much. I honestly donâ??t know what to do, I take hot baths, self-massage, and do stretches, but it still hurts. I want to get back to working out, but I donâ??t want to risk it. I also notice this small lump on what I think is my omohyoid muscle on my neck and I am not sure if thatâ??s part of the problem. So if anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
could be a nerve issue, the nerves run down the neck and through the ribs/shoulders so the focus on all the upper chest/delt work, you might want an MRI, or an EMG on the area, think thats what its called anyways, it can locate pinched nerves, but yeah start putting abaseball on their and rolling it out. Use ice man, lots of ice! hope some of that helps
I wouldn’t go straight to thinking you’ve pinched a nerve like the user above suggested. Injury to the accessory nerve doesn’t just happen. There are various other subcutaneous nerves as well, but issues with them would cause only sensory functions at skin level.
By the description it sounds like the sternoclavicular ligament, but that is just a complete guess and pelase take it as such. The sternocleidomastoideus attaches onto the anterior sc ligament. Overuse is usually what causes ligaments to become sprained, which in turn can refer pain into muscles due to injury at the enthesis which is where ligaments attach to bone, being rich in A Delta and C Pain fibers that have unmyeliniated terminals.
One month is not a long time if the injury is infact a connective tissue injury. The three stages of healing, inflammation, granulation, and maturation, can take upto 400 days to fully complete. Although 12 weeks is a general average time to expect recovery. Just let it heal. Mobilise the area. Keep it warm, exercise within limits is good, it speeds up the metabolic rate and improves recovery which is good for healing.
Don’t use ice, don’t use anti-inflammatories, stop wasting money on massages, do some reading on your anatomy. If you can actually put your finger on a spot and go, this is where the pain is originating from, chances are you can figure out what it is, and what you should not be doing to injure it further.
I wouldn’t go straight to thinking you’ve pinched a nerve like the user above suggested. Injury to the accessory nerve doesn’t just happen. There are various other subcutaneous nerves as well, but issues with them would cause only sensory functions at skin level.
By the description it sounds like the sternoclavicular ligament, but that is just a complete guess and pelase take it as such. The sternocleidomastoideus attaches onto the anterior sc ligament. Overuse is usually what causes ligaments to become sprained, which in turn can refer pain into muscles due to injury at the enthesis which is where ligaments attach to bone, being rich in A Delta and C Pain fibers that have unmyeliniated terminals.
One month is not a long time if the injury is infact a connective tissue injury. The three stages of healing, inflammation, granulation, and maturation, can take upto 400 days to fully complete. Although 12 weeks is a general average time to expect recovery. Just let it heal. Mobilise the area. Keep it warm, exercise within limits is good, it speeds up the metabolic rate and improves recovery which is good for healing.
Don’t use ice, don’t use anti-inflammatories, stop wasting money on massages, do some reading on your anatomy. If you can actually put your finger on a spot and go, this is where the pain is originating from, chances are you can figure out what it is, and what you should not be doing to injure it further.
At this stage I’d agree that heat would likely be more beneficial to relax the muscles, also because you’re out of the inflammation stage and don’t necessarily need to ice for it’s damage control effects any more, but if you find ice is more effective then do that. Not sure why you wouldn’t want to do self massage though, breaking up the adhesions in the tissue and releasing some of the tension is pretty much exactly what needs to happen. Care to elaborate on that, vexeN?
Out of the acute damage stages you generally don’t want to ice it all the time. You actually want to increase blood flow to the region to speed the healing process, which is why you apply heat to an old injury. That said, you might benefit from icing after activity.
As for the massage statement, I believe he was talking about spending money on a professional massage, maybe he feels the cost/benefit ration isn’t good enough. You generally don’t want to massage and aggravate soft tissues too much during recovery, but I believe you can benefit by massaging the nearby muscles to relax them.
I probably shouldn’t be answering for vexeN, just hazarding some guesses.
By the time I’m writing this your injury has probably dissappeared completely. Anyway, pulled muscles in the trapezius and neck are one of the most common injury in weight training. I’ve had neck and trap spasms innumerable times and they usually resolve by themselves within a week or two. they’re usually caused by using bad form in over-head lifting excersizes such as presses. There’s not much you can do to treat them other than giving them time to heal.
If it has not healed after a month then you need to see a doctor and possibly have some imagery taken of the area. There are numerous possible issues that can arise.
I have suffered from strains in this area and it is often resolved between one to three weeks with the worst time requiring about a one to two weeks off of any lifting.
