Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today
I'm going to show you some ways to
release neck and shoulder adhesions that
cause pain. Let's get started.
So there's several ways
to release or break up adhesions, which
is basically scar tissue in different
areas of your body, but for the neck and
shoulder there's some really cool ways
to do it besides just stretching. There's this thing called instrument
assisted soft tissue mobilization, and
the way to do that you use instruments
and tools to help get deep in there to
break up those adhesions and scar tissue,
and so the folks at Sidekick sent me
some of their tools which is really
awesome. You might have seen these in the
clinic, if you're in the clinic. This is
their professional version where you can
use on a whole lot of people called the
echo, and it's made out of stainless
steel, and that's really cool. But
a version a home version is the curve, and
it's made out of stone, so you probably
don't want to share it because it's
porous, so if you're using it on your own
body you probably don't want to share it
on other people, but what's really cool
about this, I like it is it has a
nice little box carrying case here, and
you have your tool here, and then on the
other side you have some heating balm
that when you're using these tools, you
want to put some lotion, some cream, some
free up, or some balm to help make it run
a little bit smoother, so you don't get
so much friction on it. And what I like
to do when I'm in the clinic working
with people, is I like to do the
technique first, and then do some
stretching afterwards to make sure you
get those muscles moving back how you're
supposed to, so that's what I'm going to
show you today. And what's really really
cool about these is you can see some
immediate results pretty quickly using
about three minutes or so, and
something to know is you're gonna have
redness that's going to be really red
almost like a burn, when you when you get
a rug burn, or something like that and
that's okay, but you don't want any
bruising. So you when you're doing this
yourself, you want to be firm, but you
don't want to be so firm where you end
up having
bruising afterwards. That's way too much.
And then sometimes little red dots come
up called petechiae, and that's just
those little vessels popping and coming
up, and they're almost the size of a
little pin point, and that's okay too, but
you don't really want a whole bunch of
those. When it gets nice and red that
means that's the area you want to work
because that's bringing all that
circulation and that blood to the
surface, so it's really cool to see so
what I'm going to do starting off is
just get some of the balm on there and
then do some of the shoulder area and
then a little bit on the neck too
because once you start working with the
shoulder, all these muscles are connected
so it's really nice to work all of those.
So you just want to put kind of you know a
nice amount on the area because you
don't want that tool kind of going you
know jumping, you want to be nice and
smooth when you do it, so make sure you
put a nice a nice amount on there, and
let it kind of soak in for just a couple
seconds before you start working on it.
Now when you have these adhesions,
especially in the shoulder a lot of
times it's in that rotator cuff area the
supraspinatus area, you know kind of in
that posterior capsule side a little bit,
and then even the front. A couple years
ago I had a labral repair, so you can see
some of the scars. Luckily I worked on
those very quickly and all that scar
tissue is gone, but in a case like that
you definitely want your therapist to do
some of this to help get rid of that scar
tissue. Make sure if you have any
incisions or openings they're completely
healed before you do this, so no scabbing
even. You want it to be completely healed
when you start. So I'm going to do the
curve first, and as you can see here is,
there a little bit different the echo's
a little bit longer, gives you a little
more surface area to do things, but this
one is nice too because it fits nicely
in your hand. I like to use this curved
side right here just to start smoothing
everything up. Now you want to stay in
each section about 10 to 15 seconds and
again you want it to be firm, but not so
painful. It's not the most
comfortable thing, but it shouldn't
really be painful either, and and you
want to go in one motion so you're
coming up and then doing like this, so
you can come back down but you're not
pushing
back down too, you're just pushing up in
that surface. And go at a little bit of
an angle if you can. I know sometimes if
you're doing it on your own, it's a
little bit harder. I'm gonna move here.
See how there's getting some red in
there, that's good that that means it is
bringing that circulation to the area,
and it's going to help that healing
process. So I'm going to come back to the
front here because over that bicep
tendon area I can feel that a little bit
more. I probably need to work on it a
little bit and you can see how it's
getting that redness but not so much
where is bloody red but just where it's
like if you've rubbed on it for a while,
And you can see I mean it's not very
painful, it's you know not so comfortable
that you could fall asleep, but it feels
pretty good because I can feel that it's
doing something you probably only want
to do this for three to five minutes at
the most. You don't really want to do
anything more than that at a time
because then you're just going to start
irritating the skin. Okay now I'm going
to move up to the neck area a little bit.
And they also have a spray, and so I'm
going to put some of that heat spray
just on the neck area there, and then i'm
going to use the echo tool. And so same
kind of motion where you put it a little
bit of an angle and just bring it up
that neck area where those muscles
connect to the shoulder in the neck. So
staying on one spot about 10 to 15
seconds, pushing firmly but not so firmly
where you're going to end up bruising
later, and then just slowly moving your
way around that neck area. So as you can
see I had a lot of that petechiae in the
back, and I do know that that levator
scap and upper trap area are really
tight, so once you get that all worked
out and nice and loosened up then you
can stretch out those muscles. So just to
start off with some shoulder stuff and
then I'll end with the neck. So getting
that posterior capsule in the shoulder,
bring your arm across your body and just
gently pull towards you to stretch that
back area. And if you're in the clinic,
your therapist might ask you to stretch
while they're doing the technique with
the tools on you. And so with this
stretch, you just want to hold it for
about three
seconds, and then relax, and do that three
times. So just getting that nice stretch
in there, if you want to kind of do a
whole stretch together, clasp your hands
in front of you and then you can just
kind of alternate to each side. So then
you're stretching both sides back and
forth, getting a nice stretch in there
and then coming back and you can also do
a little bit of a trap stretch, and then
come back behind your head, and then just
push that way. So same thing you're
pushing your elbow back behind you, and
then holding that for about 30 seconds,
and then relaxing that down, and do that
three times. So for the neck area where I
had a little bit more going on, where I
probably really need to stretch it, we're
going to do the upper trap. So for the
upper trap, you want to put the hand of
that side that you want to stretch
underneath your bottom, and then take the
opposite hand keeping your head in a
forward position. So not turning
downwards but keeping it here, and just
do a side bend towards the other side. So
just go to you feel a little pull and
hold that for about 30 seconds. And I
always recommend doing both sides, so
then switch sides 30 seconds on that
side, and then do three on each side to
get that all nice and loosened up. And
then the last one which, is my trouble
area, that levator scap, you're going to
take the hand of the side you want to
stretch, and put it up on your shoulder
where your elbows either kind of coming
up at an angle, or some people can go all
the way up. If you're tight you can
probably only go to about here and
that's fine, you're just pushing that
shoulder blade or that scapula down to
stabilize it while you stretch that
levator scap, and to do that then you're
going to take the other hand and put it
behind you and pull it at about a 45
degree angle towards the opposite knee.
So not straight down in front of you, not
to the side like the trap, but just at an
angle going down that way, and then
holding that stretch for 30 seconds, and
then coming back up, and
again alternating sides so you're
stretching both sides, and do 30 seconds
three on each side. So there you have it,
those were some ways to release or break
up those adhesions in the shoulder and
neck area. If have any questions, leave them in
the comments section. If you'd like to
purchase one of the tools, you can go to
our website by clicking the box here. So
remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you
feel better soon.