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Lingering Upper Back Injury
Hi ladies,
I have an injury from early September that's just refusing to heal. The primary issue seems to be a knot or pulled muscle or something between my right shoulder blade and the spine. I think it's my rhomboid minor. When I first hurt myself, it felt like I had a giant knot centered there but extending way under my shoulder blade. Several months of physiotherapy appoints, chiropractic / Active Release Technique appointments, sports massage therapy appointments, and even acupuncture appointments have managed to reduce it to a small knot, but it just refuses to go away. There also seems to be a related issue in the right armpit area. It feels tight and sometimes inflammed.
I took an extended period of time off poling so I wouldn't aggravate the injury, but I can't seem to completely avoid that. Using computers also irritates it, which is super annoying because I spend a lot of time on computers. When the injury starts to flare up, the area affected by the shoulder blade knot gets larger again and the armpit centered inflammation starts to extend down the inside / bottom of my arm and also into the serratus anterior area.
I'm pretty sure the source of the injury was a class I took at a local studio, where we spent about half an hour working on slow controlled inverts over and over. I've hurt myself in that exact same spot several times in the past when I was learning the chopper invert. It's always healed though after taking it easy for a few weeks.
So frustrated. I was off the pole completely for a couple months. I finally got fed up and started poling lightly again… once a week, starting over from the beginning… again… Got up to advanced beginner spins and noticed the chair spin really irritates my shoulder. Then I somehow managed to pull everything again on Saturday doing a front hook spin. Set me back several weeks in healing. Argh! A freakin' front hook! So frustrated. ><
So, the medical field is failing me. The medical fields knows next to nothing about the demands pole dancers place on their bodies though, so I'm really hoping someone (or multiple someones) here may have some insight or suggestions for me. Please help. I want to pole again. =(
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18 Replies
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I had a similar injury to my rhomboid (mine is on the left) and a massage therapist noticed that the right side of my back was much, much tighter and stronger. His guess was that my right side was overly strong and pulling the spine, so the left side would knot up.
I do silks too, so what I did was work with the fabric evenly in each hand instead of off to one side. Once I was a bit stronger I moved to side stuff like pole, but I'm very, very careful to 1. work both sides, and 2. not to overdo it.
I can still feel it a little and I have to be conscious of making sure I change which hand is my dominant in climbs so I'm more balanced, but overall, it's a ton better.
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I have the same chronic injury (mine is also on the left) and coincidentally, it's also my weak side as jivete said. Mine is from inverted split grips – when my left hand is on the bottom in the bracket hold, it hurts. I also favor my right side (except in a standard split grip where I use left on top, I do elbow/twisted/true with the right on top).
I'm pretty sure the discrepancy in my back strength between the left and right is one of the causes. I've just started working on some resistance/weight training to condition my whole upper body better, especially the left side – I really didn't notice how much worse my shoulder and back strength were on the left, even though my left arm is really strong.
Again, I am no expert here LOL so maybe someone else can help us out, but I think with an injury like that you need to work on strengthening and conditioning the muscles around it as well so that rhomboid isn't taking so much strain when you pole. I hope so!
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Hm, that's an interesting thought. I'm actually right handed, so I would normally assume my right side is stronger than my left side… but… I partially separated my right shoulder way back when I started pole dancing, so I tend to be left dominant when I pole. That might explain why my injury is showing up on the right side when you ladies are getting the problem on the left.
Thank you so much for the input! I think I'll try modifying my conditioning exercises so I'm doing separate reps for each side (ie. left hand rows then right hand rows) rather than both sides at the same time.
If anyone else has any thoughts, please please post them. I will gladly take all the ideas I can get at this point.
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Massage and chiropractics. Pretty much every serious poler should get in for a sports massage at least once every 6 weeks. I had an issue that finally got to the point of uncontrollable pain and I went to a chiropractor who specializes in sports rehab about 3 months ago. I ended up with a pinched nerve due to improper alignment of my spine between my shoulder blades. After about a month of 2-3 sessions a week I finally have rid myself of the shoulder pain I have been living with for about 4 years.
If it is causing issues in you life outside of pole, get it taken care of professionally.
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I also have the same lingering rhomboid strain. I know for a fact it's my rhomboid because I've seen a doctor and physical therapist/massuease about it. However, I was always curious why it was the left side when my right is my dominant/inversion side. I have also started aerial training (various apparatus: trap, lyra, hammock, silks) and notice that my shoulder has been feeling slightly better. Most likely from the even distribution of upper body work. I never thought that too much muscle on one side could cause issues with your spine, but reading all of this, that makes absolute sense!
I am going to start working both sides every pole practice now!
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Hey ladies, check out this forum I just posted on the Spoonk accupressure mat. I received it last night as a Christmas gift and after one use I already felt relief in my shoulder!
https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/50d737e8-4cd4-474f-9010-32cf0ac37250
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I think it's interesting and says a lot that we all have the exact same injury on our weak side in the same place! I'm glad you made this post kasanya and thanks for the recommendation Ari!
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The most common cause that I’ve seen for rhomboid injury is improper engagement in a chopper and especially doing slow controlled chopper dismounts all the way to the ground with straight arms- if you are working dismounts all the way down bend your arms and pull your chest to the pole to prevent that injury! I’ve hypothesized it occurs in the weaker side because when you invert, your non-Dom hand is on the outside and slightly higher, meaning that side of your upper body is more rounded (with imoroper form) and therefore more likely to strain at the rhomboids.
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Hello to all rhomboid injured. I was researching this discussion because I am having the same problem and wondering how everyone is doing with this? I agree with Amy’s post. I have noticed that when I very consciously abduct my left scapula and take out the rounding forward my injured muscle doesn’t hurt as much. But, now that it is a chronic problem, I am definitely limited in my progress. I just started working with a physiotherapist/chiropractor who is helping me identify and target weaknesses/imbalances. Hope all are recovering!
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Very interested in this thread as well – I’ve been having the exact same issue but it is on my right and dominant side. In either case strength training on the non dominant side to support the spine and being mindful of arm positioning in inverting are great starter tips! I’m curious to hear others experiences and ideas because I can’t seem to eliminate this pain after I pole no matter what stretching/foam & ball rolling/strength training exercises I do and I teeter on the question of is this a muscle issue or injury? The fact that it’s chronically recurring is leading me to believe injury in my case.
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Hello girls!
I’m very surprised to see so many of us having the same problem. I’m also right handed and I do all my inverts on my right arm (I know…bad me!). But this rhomboid pain on ALWAYS on my left side, and it hurts when I use my RIGHT arm. This is a recurring pain, it uses to disappear for weeks, but it always comes back from a bad, I assume, invert, and I have to stop poling for weeks 🙁Now I’m wondering whether I should invert on my left side as well to make it stronger…I wish I knew what to do to stop this, because it’s slowing my progress down, and I’m so puzzled and desperate now knowing who to ask 🙁
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I dealt with this throughout the first year of poling. Nothing really fixed it until I started getting used to inverting. One thing that helps is to alternate inverting on both sides.
A great temporary fix is to go to a good massage therapist. My massage therapist was the one who told me I was noticeably tighter on one side and suggested I train both sides. When I first started poling there wasn’t as strong of a focus on training both sides to keep things even and that wreaked havoc with my body.Another thing is to make sure to stretch out really good after a pole session. And consider some self myofascial release with a ball.
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Super helpful! Thank you for your tips!
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I”m part of this club. Mine is on my right side, which is my dominant side, but the first time I injured it, it was rollerblading, and not poling at all. Since then, I’ve reinjured (resprained) a few times. My chiropractor said it was a sprained back (I’ve done it on my left side once as well). He did ART and adjustments, but it keeps coming back. I took it to a TCM doctor who said that I had a lot of scar tissue there, and the only way to fix it for real, was deep deep tissue tuina. He did it (without warning me first) and it was one of the most painful experiences. He said that I would feel better for a few months but that I needed more to break up the scare tissue. A few months have passed and my back feels like a mess again. If anyone has a different answer for this, let me know, but as far as my research has gone…the painful tuina guy was right.
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When I last posted here I was in the process of working with a sports physical therapist for my upper back pain. In my case this help immensely! As long as I keep up with the targeted exercises prescribed I stay out of pain. They were able to access my imbalances and get me more balanced with a ton of weight bearing exercises. I also get deep tissue massage once or twice a month to help with scar tissue and rhomboid knots. Good-luck to al!.
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